Who is Bill Buford from Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-quoting Butcher in T and what is their importance?

Bill Buford is a writer who works for the New Yorker. Bill also is the founding editor of Granta magazine and publisher of Granta Books. Several years ago, Bill met Mario Batali, a famous New York chef, and convinced him to let Bill work in his kitchen at Babbo. Bill had always been a weekend chef but wanted to learn how the professionals do it. At Babbo, Bill discovered he had to start at he beginning again, learning how to use a knife and how to cut vegetables. Bill moved quickly through the ranks of the kitchen, however, learning the grill and the pasta station before leaving to learn how to make pasta in the kitchen of a true Italian matriarch.