Reddit reviews Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany

This book, which was written with the full knowledge and cooperation of Batali, contains several scenes of borderline or actual sexual harassment by Batali. And it’s always explained away as, that’s just how celebrity chefs are.

Reading that book when it first came out gave me a new respect for what a talented chef he is, while leaving me disgusted by what a shitty human he is.

Crazy to think that book was published just a decade ago.

I guess I get to be the turd in the punch bowl.

Mario Batali is being really nice to a famous celebrity, in said celebrity's moment of need. Which, good for you Mario; that's great.

But you still stole tons of money from your workers. And there are stories about your conduct elsewhere.

So, I mean, well done here but maybe apply the same attitude to everybody.

The best book to read, the thing that rings the truest I've ever read about working as a cook / chef is this book Sous Chef it reads as if I was speaking out loud to my friend about what my day was like.

Bill Bufords Heat is also a really good read. These books may make you want to start cooking for a living. I implore you don't. Your bank account will shrink, your knees and back will go out and your social life will become destroyed.

/r/KitchenConfidential and Anthony Bourdains books are pretty good as well. Nearly any chefs Bio is good. Although Bourdains trends to tell white and sometimes black lies for dramas sake in his books.

I am a professional chef and while watching people prepare food is entertaining and sometimes also educating I actually recommend you to buy books and learn the basics first.

You can then use youtube pretty well in order to watch how to do specific things, like i.e. deboning a whole chicken for a gallantine, or how to trim certain pieces of meat.

Start with french cuisine. Once you have understood how things are connected you'll actually understand everything else.

If you want something simple and entertaining for the start I'd choose Anthony Bourdaine's Les Halles Cookbook. It's amusingly written and the recipes are fairly easy and they are all legit.

Then there is Paul Bocus. Living legend with three long-term girlfriends.

And of course you want to have Escoffier at your home. Doesn't get much more classic than that.

If you want to get a sense of what drives a top notch chef, watch In Search of Perfection by Heston Blumethal. Very very good stuff.

And finally, if you want to learn something about culinary history I highly highly recommend Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany and to learn about our lifes as a chef you need to read the (admittedly exaggerated) autobiographicly Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain.

All this provided, you won't learn cooking without actually doing it.

Edit: Depending on your budget, I also heavily recommend Alain Ducasse's Grand Livre de Cuisine.

Bill Buford, in his book "Heat" writes about the beginning of french cuisine when Catherine de'Medici left Italy for France and it's subsequent evolution.

Another super entertaining book that isn't a cookbook is Heat. It definitely changed the way I look at cooking and ingredients, especially eggs, pasta and meat. Great read.

The University School classes are probably the best in town, but they don't release the catalog until around thanksgiving, and the classes usually occur in the first few months of the new year.

Chef Jamie Watson is a local chef who does mostly French cuisine, which is perfect for learning techniques, and he does some intensive workshops from time to time. The Salud school at Whole Foods is probably the next best option, but I haven't heard great things. You also may want to consider a book; I'd recommend this one.

Read "Heat" by Bill Buford, he has some interesting perspective. http://www.amazon.com/Heat-Adventures-Pasta-Maker-Apprentice-Dante-Quoting/dp/1400034477/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1293387244&sr=8-5

There's also an article out there written by Bourdain entitled "So you want to be a chef" or something similar that would give you some perspective if you're thinking of becoming a professional.

Heat. Written by a previously untrained guy who goes to Italy to learn to cook Italian food and ends up as a chef in the kitchen of one of Mario Batali's restaurants. A great read, really engrossing. A perspective on cooking and professional chefs that I never would have seen otherwise.