the cautionary tale of bill buford.lion with a perfectly good job as fiction editor at the prestigious "new yorker" magazine. at the undignified age of 53 he pretty much pulled up stakes, put his whole past life on hold, and defected to france, to learn how to cook. what happened to you anyway, buford? you used to have a good job, you hung out a couple nights with batali and next thing you know you're living in france. >> it's true. >> and cooking. >> i discovered a whole world that the rest of the world didn't seem to know about, just a very compressed and tense lifelong learned expertise and knowledge of food. it's not the food network and it's not glossy magazines and it's not something you get from reading a recipe book. it's something you get by just going deep. i was afraid of france because i knew if i went -- took on the subject of french food i would have to go really deep. so we went and we thought we'd stay for six months, and we stayed for five years. >> we meet at bouchon contrel. a bouchon is a uniquely ly