Asian Heat

Bill Buford's Heat describes his triumphs and trial as an apprentice in Mario Batali's restaurant Babbo from fine dicing carrots into perfect cubes to deboning dozens upon dozens of ducks. Then he takes us to his travels to Italy where he learns to make tortellini by hand and to meticulously butcher a whole pig. The book received rave reviews on Amazon.

Like these reviewers, I also found the life of an apprentice chef facinating and went on a search to find more stories in the same vein. I was recommended The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain, Roasting in Hell's Kitchen by Gordon Ramsey, and The Kitchen Diaries by Nate Slater. Most of these authors trained in Western European culinary arts where form is treated as equally important as taste.

Then it dawned on me that I couldn't find any books about an apprentice that aspired to be the next Martin Yan of Asian cooking. How could this be? Is it because there is no form in Asian cooking - who cares if carrots are perfectly diced? Is it that there are too many different types of cuisine that could be considered Asian - Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese - never mind that within Chinese, there are four main food regions: Peking, Shanghai, Szchwan, and Canton. Is it that Asian people don't know how to write or it would be considered too much of a risk to quit your day job to work as a "kitchen slave?"

How great would it be if someone would take up this challenge and give us some behind the scenes insight into some of the greatest Asian restaurants in the world (or even just in the US is fine too). I even have some potential one/two word titles picked out - Wok!, Gan Bei, 5-Spice, or MSG.