MARIO BATALI, CHEF EXTRAORDINAIRE

Here is an excerpt from my blog of 10 January this year:

I am currently reading, and greatly enjoying, Bill Buford’s HEAT, given to me for Christmas by my thoughtful sister.
HEAT (Vintage $14.95) is the fascinating, eye-opening story of Buford giving up his day job as a writer and journalist for 12 months in order to work in various roles in the kitchen at Babbo, a revolutionary Italian restaurant created and ruled by superstar chef Mario Batali.
I recommend HEAT to everyone who enjoys fine food at excellent restaurants. It is a real insight into the effort made by top restauraters and their chefs and of the dramas that take place in the kitchen.

Today I am reminded of Mario Batali and HEAT because I have been reading the following:

SPAIN – A CULINARY ROAD TRIP
Mario Batali with Gwyneth Paltrow
Harper Collins – NZ$49.99

This is Batali, one of the great showman TV chefs, in his introduction:

I was born in Seattle, and my family is Italian-American with some French-Canadian thown in, but I got my true wine and food PhD while living in Spain during my high school years. My Dad worked for Boeing and had the opportunity and vision to move the whole family to post-Franco Spain in 1975. So, effectively, I spent much of my formative gastronomic years travelling around the Iberian peninsular visiting every single church, winery, and parador (a national chain of hotels often located in ancient buildings), with my brother, sister, mom and dad. That’s how we spent our weekends, and it’s how we came to love Spain.
And his love for Spanish food abides and shines right through this quite glorious book. A handsome, beautifully bound hardcover book crammed with colour pics of the food and the people and the places.

It is the perfect book for the armchair traveller, someone like me, who fantasises about travelling through this great food country, ( I rate France, Italy & Spain as having the world’s greatest cuisines), with the enormous advantage of introductions all along the way to the famous and less famous restaurants and cafes and bars, vineyards and wineries, with the beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow as a companion, (she also spent her high school years in Spain and still speaks perfect Castilian), and of course many a celeb along the way, both local and international, (think architect Frank Gehry and rock star Michael Stype), along with a host of chefs.
I have only ever spent a couple of weeks in Spain but this book makes me desperately keen to return.
Just for the record, the irrepressible and rather unstylishly dressed Batoli, complete with orange Crocs, owns eight restaurants in New York – six Italian and two Spanish.
He may be less than sartorial but his book is stylish and sumptuous, and he knows about food, and Spain.

Hundreds of gorgeous, mainly candid photographs, fascinating anecdotes, and more than 70 recipes, this is my 2008 travel book for foodies, and lovers of all things Spanish.