Culinary Quotes

Michael Pollan on Eating Food

2007-02-09T18:19:00.000-08:00

"Eat food. Though in our current state of confusion, this is much easier said than done. So try this: Don't eat anything your great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. ...There are a great many foodlike items in the supermarket your ancestors wouldn't recognize as food (Go-Gurt? Breakfast-cereal bars? Nondairy creamer?); stay away from these."

— Michael Pollan, Unhappy Meals, New York Times Magazine, 1/28/07

Thomas Schnetz & Dona Savitsky (Dona Tomas) on Toasting Fresh Chiles

2007-01-23T18:17:00.000-08:00

"The ideal way to toast fresh chiles to get the best flavor and the most even blistering would be over a wood fire, but this isn't always practical for home cooks. Toasting fresh chiles over a gas burner can impart the flavor of the heat source, which isn't exactly desirable, and deep-frying can infuse the flesh with too much fat, leaving the pepper greasy. After elimiating these options, we recommend simple panfrying as the best way to toast fresh chiles.

At our restaurants, we will sometimes toast 20 to 30 fresh chiles at a time, so we use a large grill. Your best bet at home is a comal, small griddle, or cast iron skillet. Heat your pan over high heat and grease the surface with a light coating of nonstick spay or brush it with a little oil. Decrease the heat to medium and place the chiles on the hot surface. They should crack or pop a few times, and the ridges of the chiles will begin to blacken.... After the skins have been blackened, place the chiles in a paper or plastic bag for about 20 minutes."

— Thomas Schnetz & Dona Savitsky, from Dona Tomas

Jamie Oliver on Kitchens that Work

2006-11-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

"If you can, it's always nice to have your sink near or in front of a window for good light and a bit of a view whilst doing the washing-up."

— Jamie Oliver, Jamie's Dinners: The Essential Family Cookbook

Chris Reeve on Basil Folklore

2006-08-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

Basil Folklore: It was believed in Greek and Roman times that to have a good basil crop, you'd have to yell loudly and swear when you were planting the seeds. Today, in French, there is an idiom for ranting which translated literally means "to sow the basil".

from Chris Reeve on Henriette's Herbal Homepage

George Orwell describes the kitchen at the Hotel X.

2006-07-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

"The kitchen was like nothng I had ever seen or imagined — a stifling, low-ceilinged inferno of a cellar, red-lit from the fires, and defeaning with oaths and the clanging of pots and pans. It was so hot that all the metal-work except the stoves had to be covered with cloth. In the middle were the furnaces, where twelve cooks skipped to and fro, their faces dripping sweat in spite of their white hats. Round that were counters where a mob of waiters and plongeurs clamoured with trays. Scullions, naked to the waist, were stoking the fires and scouring huge copper saucepans with sand. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry or a rage."

— George Orwell, from Down and Out in Paris and London

Michelle Bernstein on the creation of Chocolate-Painted Fois Gras

2006-07-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

"I didn't have a very firm grip on the terrine mold, so instead of lifting it, I only succeeded in pulling it off the shelf. It eluded my slippery fingers and tumbled down past my widening eyes, right into the bowl of chocolate sauce, where it bobbed for a moment, like a ship with a hull breach taking on water, and then proceeded to sink into the murky depths.

As I reached in after it, my colleagues rushed over to help me try to save it — a difficult task. Had the terrine come straight from the fridge, it would have been hard and cold, and easy to wipe off. But softened as it was, and warming even more thanks to the chocolate, it was beginning to leach out into the sauce. Tan globules were bubbling up to the surface, turning the chocolate into a mocha-colored nightmare.

I gingerly retrieved the unmolded terrine from the sauce and laid it out on my station. The other cooks and I stood over it in our chocolate-spattered whites, trying to decide how to save our patient. The first step was to halt the melting and preserve its shape, and we worked on it furiously, smoothing it over with spatulas and our fingers.

I was panicked beyond words. "

— Michelle Bernstein, from "Two Great Tastes" in Don't Try this at Home: Culinary Catastrophes from the World's Greatest Chefs

Linda Carucci on Basil Pesto

2006-06-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

"To help preserve the bright green in the fresh basil, chill the olive oil before adding it to the food processor. (The cold oil mitigates some of the heat from the processor.) Some cooks add a crushed vitamin C tablet or a little ascorbic acid to preserve the color. Others pour a thin layer of oil on top of the pesto before storing."
— Linda Carucci, Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks

Nigel Slater on Toast

2006-06-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

"It is impossible not to love someone who makes toast for you....Once the warm, salty butter has hit your tongue, you are smitten. Putty in their hands."
— Nigel Slater, toast: the story of a boy's hunger

Marion Nestle on The Great Irony of Modern Nutrition

2006-06-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

"Here we have the great irony of modern nutrition: at a time when hundreds of millions of people do not have enough to eat, hundreds of millions more are eating too much and are overweight or obese. "
— Marion Nestle, from the foreword to Hungry Planet :What The World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluiso

Paul Bertolli on Ripeness

2006-05-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

"Ripeness embodies all something has ever been, and the most it ever will be. Yet in its brief and glowing completeness, the moment of ripeness seems timeless. No wonder harvest is an ecstatic season tinged with melancholy. "
— Paul Bertolli, from Cooking by Hand.

Paul Bertolli on the challenge of cooking

2006-05-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

"The task of keeping food vibrant and interesting, particularly food that belongs to a long tradition, is the challenge of any cook, professional or amateur. For those who have a repertoire of their own, the repetitive aspect of cooking and the demands of our relentless need to eat can easily turn cooking into a dull task. Relying upon recipes, no matter how well advised, can turn cooking into drudgery. Food that is both delicious and interesting is always a reflection of an active response to the raw ingredients — one that often turns on its head information found in recipes. "
— Paul Bertolli, from Cooking by Hand.

Marilyn Monroe on Matzo

2006-04-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

"Isn't there any other part of the matzo you can eat?"
— Marilyn Monroe, on being served matzo-ball soup three days in a row.

Marion Cunningham on Home Cooking

2006-04-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

"Home cooking is a catalyst that brings people together. We are losing the daily ritual of sitting down around the table (without the intrusion of television), of having the opportunity to interact, to share our experiences and concerns, to listen to others. Home kitchens, despite the increase in designer appliances and cabinetry, are mostly quiet and empty today. Strangers are preparing much of our food. And our supermarkets, which once considered restaurants and fast-food places the enemy, have joined the trend by enlarging their delis and offering ready-to-eat food they call "home-replacement meals." But bringing ready-cooked meals home is not the same as cooking in your own kitchen, where you are in control of the ingredients you use, where you fill the house with good cooking smells, and where you all share in a single dish, taking a helping and passing the platter on to your neighbor. Nothing can replace that." — Marion Cunningham, from the introduction to Lost Recipes.

Edward Espe Brown on Zen Cooking

2006-04-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

Zen cooking means:

cooking as a personal spiritual act

personally selecting foods

recycling leftovers and waste

respect for and hospitality toward guests

an absolutely clean kitchen

use of the freshest seasonal ingredients

the ability to cook anywhere in the world with whatever is on hand

being equally capable of cooking frugally and extravagantly

using food to enhance health

— Edward Espe Brown, Preface to Zen and the Art of Modern Eastern Cooking by Deng Ming-Dao

Jennifer Steinhauer on Birthday Cakes

2006-03-25T20:49:00.000-08:00

"While there is an argument to be made for the aesthetic pleasures of a bakery cake — all those gorgeous piped roses and fondant images of Hello Kitty so perfect that they are probably copyright infringement — there is really nothing better than a homemade cake. Even if the layers are lopsided, the frosting a bit gritty or thickly plastered to camouflage baking sins, homemade cakes are generally moister, denser and dreamier than their bakery brethren." — Jennifer Steinhauer, NY Times Magazine 3/19/06

Walter Page on English Vegetables

2006-03-24T17:47:00.000-08:00

"The English have only three vegetables — and two of them are cabbage." — Walter Page

James Beard on Vegetables

2006-03-23T14:00:00.000-08:00

"No vegetable exists which is not better slightly undercooked." — James Beard

Love & Eggs

2006-03-22T19:55:00.000-08:00

"Love and eggs are best when they are fresh." — Russian Proverb

Anonymous on Lemons

2006-03-21T11:17:00.000-08:00

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." — Anonymous

Reyniere on the kitchen

2006-03-20T15:00:00.000-08:00

"The kitchen is a country in which there are always new discoveries to be made." — Grimod de la Reyniere, Almanach des Gourmands

Brillat-Savarin on Potatoes

2006-03-19T08:41:00.000-08:00

"I appreciate the potato only as a protection against famine, except for that I know of nothing more eminently tasteless." — Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, La Physiologie du Gout

Andre Simon on Cookery

2006-03-18T15:55:00.000-08:00

"Cookery is a wholly unselfish art: as 'art for art's sake' it is unthinkable. A man may sing in his bath every morning without the least encouragement, but no cook can cook just for his or her own sake in a like manner. All good cooks, like all great artists, must have an audience worth cooking for." — Andre Simon, A Wine and Food Bedside Book

Clare Connery on Irish Food

2006-03-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

"Although Ireland has never been noted for having a sophisticated eating tradition at any stage of its history, it nonetheless has an enviable reputation for good wholesome dishes made from a wide range of unadulterated, indigenous products, most of which still off the finest quality to be found in Europe." — Clare Connery, In An Irish Country Kitchen

Lewis Carroll on Soup

2006-03-16T08:47:00.000-08:00

"Beautiful soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!"
— Lewis Carroll

Shakespeare on Potatoes

2006-03-15T13:24:00.000-08:00

"Let the sky rain potatoes." — Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor