“Everything can have drama if it’s done right. Even a pancake.”

“Of course, an old wine is like an old lady, and traveling can disturb her.”

“If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.”

“I was 32 when I started cooking. Up until then, I just ate.”

“It’s so beautifully arranged on the plate – you know someone’s fingers have been all over it.”

“Upon reflection, I decided I had three main weaknesses: I was confused (evidenced by a lack of facts, an inability to coordinate my thoughts, and an inability to verbalize my ideas); I had a lack of confidence, which cause me to back down from forcefully stated positions; and I was overly emotional at the expense of careful, ‘scientific’ though. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.”

“Until I discovered cooking, I was never really interested in anything.”

“Fat gives things flavor.”

“One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed.”

I eat only vegetables and fruit, and to me it's the most aspirational diet because it's so easy. It's quite simple, the cooking I do.

“Every sane man recognises that unlimited liberty is anarchy, or rather is nonentity. The civic idea of liberty is to give the citizen a province of liberty; a limitation within which a citizen is a king.”