Mireille Guiliano Quotes

You owe it to your loved ones as well as yourself to know and pursue your pleasures.

One does not laugh because one is happy; one is happy because one laughs.

Making choices that are meaningful to you is the essence of the French woman's secret.

French women typically think about good things to eat. American women typically worry about bad things to eat.

Expensive clothes with inappropriate or inexpensive shoes may send an unflattering message.

We only have one body, and you have to show respect for it.

We can't imagine anything more boring than to live with someone who doesn't care about food or eating or sharing meals.

Since the pleasure of most foods is in the first few bites, eat one thing on your plate at a time, at least at the start of the meal when you can concentrate and enjoy the full flavors.

Scientifically, it has been proven that after three bites, your palate has been satisfied. It doesn't matter what you eat. So if you eat one boule of ice cream, that's all you need. You don't have to eat pint after pint after pint.

French women love to shop and prepare food. They love to talk about what they have bought and made. It's a deeply natural love, but one that is erased in many other cultures. Most French women learn it from their mothers, some from their fathers. But if your parents aren't French, you can still learn it yourself.

Once a day, take some 'Beach Time.'

I would advocate that chocolate be covered by health insurance, but that is admittedly a very French public policy perspective.

Ever since that day in Chicago, whenever I see such scenes, I think of a quote by Billat-Savarin, the eighteenth-century 'modern' gastronome, well known for his writings and meditations on the physiology of taste and for his famous dictum 'We are what we eat.' But he also wrote even more revealingly: 'The destiny of a nation depends on how it feeds itself.

I find it so unattractive when women wear sneakers with their business suits. I wear a nice pair of loafers or low-heeled pumps, and that's that.

My friends say everything I touch turns to gold. I'll say, 'I've been very lucky.'

French women love bread and would never consider a life without carbs.

Learn to say no, with an eye to saying yes to something else.

I can never leave a bookstore without buying a book. I read four or five at a time.

Wine is a living, breathing thing during its time in the bottle and in the glass. It is always changing, especially in the glass. A little oxygen can really open up and release the flavors in a complex wine, as well as mellow the rougher edge of immaturity.

For this reason, three months is the usual time to find your way. But you must enjoy the ride.

Women are smarter by basic instinct and by what we have to do to multitask at home and at work. My mother did that 50 years ago, but it wasn't called multitasking or stress back then. She had a job, two kids and the meals to make with no cook or maid. My father would come home every day and expect lunch. He was a nice guy, but he was clueless!

~Garbage in, garbage out~

French women know one can go far with a great haircut, a bottle of champagne, and a divine perfume.

You and I don't have the same genetics, we don't live in the same places, but we can have the same basic attitude - being comfortable in our skin.

Just as established products and brands need updating to stay alive and vibrant, you periodically need to refresh or reinvent yourself.

~There are no recipes, only ingredients~

Intelligence, knowledge or experience are important and might get you a job, but strong communication skills are what will get you promoted.

The real reason French women don't get fat is not genetic, but cultural, and if the French subjected themselves to the American extremes of eating and dieting, the obesity problem in France would be much worse than what has struck America.

If you believe you can shed pounds quickly by force of will and deprivation, you will in all likelihood not only regain the ones you lost, but add a few more besides.

Make treating yourself a priority and always remember your life is happening now. Don't put off all your dreams and pleasures to another day. In any balanced personal definition of success there has to be a powerful element of living life in the present.

~....value simplicity in all things, never serve any aperitif but Champagne. Hard liguor requires a bar, special paraphernalia, and a variety of glasses, as well as messy shaking or stirring. More important, it numbs more than it tickles the taste buds. When you've spent time and money preparing delicious food for your guests, the last thing you want is to render them unable to taste it. That will eliminate one of the most important topics of conversation!~

When I grew up in France, I was a normal size. And then I came to the United States and I gained 20 pounds.

A meal that can be packed and frozen and thawed is nothing you should desire
much less teach your kids to want.

We women are so judged by the way we dress, and men are not. So style is part of developing your own brand.

In the U.S., too many yogurts are filled with corn syrup, preservatives, artificial this and that. To me, this is poison.

The memory of some bottles can stay with your for life. While the wine doesn't have to be old and rare, a great old bottle can be like a time capsule, capturing in its flavors and aromas the time and place of its creation.

Nothing but beauty and douceur

Expose them {your kids} to the widest variety of vegetables and fruits, showing them how good things can be in season. Tasteless fruits and vegetables won't win them over for life.

Dressing well was also a sign of respect, for yourself and for others.

French women eat and serve what's in season, for maximum flavor and value, and know availability does not equal quality.

Quality of life is very important in France. I have many friends who turned down promotions and more money because it would affect their quality of life as a couple or a mother.