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

• Rated 3 stars

“He's definitely a cheerleader for Battali.”

• Rated 5 stars

“A true food lover's book. An inspiring and jealousy inducing novel.”

• Rated 2 stars

“Uneven account of life in Batali's kitchen, learning to cook in Italy and the history of Italian food. Some quite good vignettes, other long (uninteresting) digressions.”

• Rated 4 stars

“A humorous and enlightening take on a chef's escapades learning the culinary arts. I felt like I was being educated and entertained at the same time--the perfect combination.”

• Rated 2 stars

“This book was a lot different than what I was expecting and I ended up just skimming most of the book. There was a lot of writing about how his "famous" boss got to where he is and a lot of talk about the upscale dishes they made and what went into them ~ all VERY boring topics for me. There were humorous parts regarding what goes on in the back of a kitchen but not enough to keep it interesting.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Have you ever wondered what it would be like to order a whole pig, pick it up at the farmer's market and transport it to your home on the back of your motorcycle, then eat off of it - cooked 16 different ways - for the next two weeks? Then this is the book for you.”

• Rated 4 stars

“The only thing able to make me like Mario Batali for the over-weight jerk that he is. All I want in the world is a reservation at Babbo.”