What makes him especially relevant to me is his unorthodox, in-your-face, self-deprecating sense of humour...mostly.
On his first (wintry) trip to Russia, his fixer Zamir brings him to a traditional Russian banya (or sauna), the place Russians of all ages have gone for relaxation with family and/or friends on weekends for time immemorial.
Having been well and truly cooked in the sauna and gone through a harrowing in-sauna massage of sorts (a thorough flogging with the foliage ends of birch tree branches apparently being the "in" thing), he then proceeds to change into his trunks, runs out into the cold and flops into the freezing cold lake beside the banya...
In his words (extracted from A Cook's Tour)...
"To say that the experience was shocking, that it knocked the wind out of me, that it was cold would all be grievious understatements. It was like getting hit by a phantom freight train - every cell, every atom of my body went into mad panic. My balls scrambled north, headed somewhere around my collarbone, my brain screamed, my eyeballs did the best they could to pop out of my skull, and every pore, wide open only a few seconds earlier, slammed closed like a plugged steam pipe. It was a punch to the chest from God's fist. I sank to the bottom, bent my knees deeply, and pushed up, breaking the surface with an involuntary high-pitched shriek that must have sounded to residents across the lake like someone had just hooked their cat up to a car battery. I struggled for purchase on a guide rope completely glazed over with an inch of ice, my hands unable to grab hold, and floudered, slipped and finally managed to clamber up a few steps and flop onto the snow-covered ice."That's just hilarious to the extreme...I adore his writing...and highly recommend the following:-
1. Kitchen Confidential
2. A Cook's Tour
3. The Nasty Bits
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