For most of his adult life, Bill Buford had secretly wanted to find himself in France, in a French kitchen, having mastered the art of French haute cuisine. And where better than Lyon, the most Frenchly authentic of cities and the historic gastronomic capital of the world? There were a few obstacles: he didn't speak a word of French, he had no formal training, he didn't know a soul in Lyon, and his wife and two twin toddlers currently lived in New York City. So begins Bill Buford's vivid, hilarious, intimate account of his five-year odyssey in French cuisine.