"Bill Buford: ‘Las fronteras de salsas y aceites son más relevantes que las fronteras políticas’" | Cultura | EL PAÍS English

El currículum de Bill Buford incluye su labor como editor en Granta y The New Yorker. Este nativo de Baton Rouge, Louisiana, de 70 años, también formó parte temporalmente de la facción más violenta de los aficionados del Manchester United, así como de aprendiz de cocina en el legendario restaurante italiano Babbo, ubicado en la ciudad de Nueva York.

Buford has lived in the Big Apple almost all his life, except for the periods when he traveled around Europe to write Among the Thugs (1990), a fascinating account of how he infiltrated English soccer hooligan culture. The book ends with him being severely beaten in the streets of an Italian city during the 1990 World Cup. Later on in life, he also spent five years in Lyon, France, writing the book Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking (2020). In it, the gonzo journalist — who despises the narcissism of the genre — recounts his experience as an apprentice in high-end kitchens in the French gastronomic capital. What was supposed to be a brief family adventure (Buford moved to France with his wife and two-year-old twins) turned into a five-year-long learning process that goes far beyond gastronomy, intertwining family crises with pig slaughters. He also delves into the aggressive bullying that can be inflicted on the lower-level employees who work in the kitchens of celebrated chefs.

Via Zoom, EL PAÍS spoke with Buford on three occasions, interviewing him about French gastronomy, his time in Spain in the late 1970s, why soccer hooliganism never took hold in the United States, the dangers of moving with children to the countryside, author Ryszard Kapuściński (1932-2007), his true hero, and his creative rhythm. Buford explained his unique method of managing time, space, and resources (which nobody understands, but it works for him).