Buford comes to love the French, the Lyonnais in particular, and the feeling seems mutual. He is, to borrow his description of some of his culinary heroes, a ‘charismatic fanatic’. His devotion to making food, and to learning about food, is contagious. Early on in Among the Thugs he explained his motivation with engaging modesty: ‘I wanted to find out what I didn’t know.’ That openness to experience, to adventure, has remained with him. He’s the better for it, and so are we.