He is the author of the books Among the Thugs and Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany.

Heat (2006) is Buford's account of working for free in the kitchen of Babbo, a New York City restaurant owned by chef Mario Batali.

Buford's premise is that he considered himself a capable home cook and wondered whether he had the skills to work in a busy restaurant kitchen.

[7] In an interview posted on The New Yorker's website to accompany the article, he discussed his time living in France and what he had learned about French cooking.

It details stints working with "Bob", baker at the boulangerie Philippe Richard, attending classes at the Institut Paul Bocuse, and, at greatest length, as a stagiaire at La Mère Brazier.