Linguini: [attempting to make an inspirational speech to the other cooks] Tonight is a big night. Appetite is coming, and he's gonna have a big ego. I mean, Ego! He's coming. The, the critic? And he's gonna order... something. Something from our menu...
Emile: But we're supposed to return to the colony before sundown or, you know, Dad's gonna... Remy: Emile! There are possibilities unexplored here. We got to cook this. Now, exactly how we cook this is the real question... [looking up at the smoking ...
I have been sworn against by perjured and wicked people.
Jules: [talking about Mia, Marsellus Wallace's wife] I think her biggest deal was she starred in a pilot. Vincent: Pilot? What's a pilot? Jules: Well, you know the shows on TV? Vincent: I don't watch TV. Jules: Yeah, but, you are aware that there's a...
Well, in a world where so few of us are obliged to cook at all anymore, to choose to do so is to lodge a protest against specialization—against the total rationalization of life. Against the infiltration of commercial interests into every last cran...
The fact is, I love to feed other people. I love their pleasure, their comfort, their delight in being cared for. Cooking gives me the means to make other people feel better, which in a very simple equation makes me feel better. I believe that food c...
I’m a big believer in cooking your own meals. It makes it much easier not only to ensure that you eat fresh foods but also to follow the second rule of eating (see previous chapter), which advises incorporating as many colors, tastes, textures, and...
Cooking is not about convenience and it's not about shortcuts. Our hunger for the twenty-minute gourmet meal, for one-pot ease and prewashed, precut ingredients has severed our lifeline to the satisfactions of cooking. Take your time. Take a long tim...
A goal without real consequences is wishful thinking. Good follow-through doesn't depend on the right intentions. It depends on the right incentives.
Never be daunted in public' was an early Hemingway phrase that had more than once bolstered me in my timid twenties. I changed it resolutely to 'Never be daunted in private'. - M.F.K. Fisher "A Is for Dining Alone
In normal life, "simplicity" is synonymous with "easy to do," but when a chef uses the word, it means "takes a lifetime to learn.
Hanging laundry on a line is a very ordinary task. It is as ordinary as scraped knees and lost keys, as fixing the same simple dish for supper again, and again. Ordinary is most days, and Lord helps is if we overlook them.
A (wo)men travels the world over in search of wht (s)he needs and returns home to find it
Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed. Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile, and...
On Sundays Mom invariably ran out of money, which is when she cracked eggs into the skillet over cubes of fried black sourdough bread. It was, I think, the most delicious and eloquent expression of pauperism.
[T]he whole point is the wishing and remembering--not if what you want happens, not if remembering hurts. Because when you wish for something, you're askin. And when you ask, you're trying. And all anyone can do really is try, right?
Hopefully by next week the classes will have paid off and I'll be cooking gourmet." "Gourmet? From your cooking?" He pushed aside his computer, grabbed a paper plate, and started scoop0ing rice. "You shouldn't be able say those things in the same sen...
I understood that if ever one wanted to live with someone you cooked for them and they came running. But then it is my idea of hell these days, living with someone. The idea of sharing your life with someone is just utterly ghastly. I know why people...
There is a stereotype that vegans talk about being vegan all the time. The irony is, once people find out I’m vegan, I quickly become their confessor, counselor, and sounding board.
I am usually cooking at least four times a week if I am home. The easiest thing that I do a lot is gazpacho. It's simple and it tastes best if you let it sit over night in the refrigerator... I don't want anybody near me when I am cooking. If I am go...
I'm a really emotional cook. Not violent, but I don't like someone coming in while I'm cooking. I'm notorious for themed dinner parties. The colour green, 'The Sopranos' last episode... any excuse. But if anyone arrives before I'm ready and walks thr...