Culinary Quotes

I want order and taste. A well displayed meal is enhanced one hundred per cent in my eyes. ~ Marie-Antoine Careme

On 'Chopped,' the time goes down a bit and there are several ingredients, usually one that makes no sense whatsoever with the rest of the ingredients. So it gets you out of your culinary comfort zone a little bit. Like we had octopus and cheese paired up with each other. ~ Michael Symon

I'm fond of anything that comes from the sea, and that includes sailors. ~ Janet Flanner

Why, you might just as well say that, I see what I eat, is the same as, I eat what I see. ~ Lewis Carroll

Nothing mitigates the throes of depression like a steaming plate of spaghetti and meatballs with marinara sauce and grated parmasan cheese, with a good fresh bread to wipe up. ~ Paul Clayton

My presence in California will bring a new, inspiring culinary environment to life, and I'm delighted to share my creative techniques and evolving fresh ideas with the Beverly Hills community. ~ Jean-Georges Vongerichten

I like a Blackpool breakfast, me - 20 ciggies and a pot of tea. ~ Paul O'Grady

Give a man food, and he can eat for a day. Give a man a job, and he can only eat for 30 minutes on break. ~ Lev L. Spiro

But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh! sweet friends, hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuits and salted pork cut up into little flakes! the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt ... we dispatched it with great expedition. ~ Herman Melville

You have no spirit of culinary adventure. You need to be more like that snarky guy on the Travel Channel. He goes all over the world eating kangaroo a**holes and snail throw-up. He'd eat anything. He don't care how sick he gets. He's another one of my role models, except he needs ironing. ~ Janet Evanovich

The spirit cannot endure the body when overfed, but, if underfed, the body cannot endure the spirit. ~ Saint Francis De Sales

Even French pilferage has not relegated Italian culinary genius to the darker corners of gastronomy. Marie de' Medici brought Italian cookery to France, where Gallic duplicity quickly undermined the integrity of good ingredients with unctuous sauces. The French will always confuse egregious decorative effects with creative integrity. They have a genius for appearances. Trompe l'oeil will do for a Frenchman, but not for an Italian. ~ Roland Delicio

Truffles must come to the table in their own stock and as you break open this jewel sprung from a poverty-stricken soil, imagine - if you have never visited it - the desolate kingdom where it rules. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

The pressure, the heat, the almost impossibly fast pace at which you need work - this is the reality of working in the culinary industry. This is what professional chefs do night after night. ~ Joe Bastianich

As the days grow short, some faces grow long. But not mine. Every autumn, when the wind turns cold and darkness comes early, I am suddenly happy. It's time to start making soup again. ~ Leslie Newman

And now, dear Lord, I cannot wait Because I have a luncheon date. ~ John Betjeman

In case my life should end with the cannibals, I hope they will write on my tombstone, 'We have eaten Dr. Schweitzer. He was good to the end.' ~ Albert Schweitzer

Despite everything I've achieved in my life, the culinary awards, the military commendations, the honorary degrees, I have never, ever lost sight of what's truly important. The thing that gives meaning to these triumphs. Someone to share them with. A companion. A help mate. A wife. ~ Andrew Schneider

I love fruit, when it is expensive. ~ Arthur Wing Pinero

Wine refreshes the stomach, sharpens the appetite, blunts care and sadness, and conduces to slumber. ~ Pliny The Elder

The savor of the water mint rejoiceth the heart of men. ~ John Gerard

I placed my hands on the edge of the table and leaned into her, extremely annoyed. "I've been cooking since I was a kid. I've been cooking this dish for three years straight through culinary school. I could make this food in my goddamn sleep and it would taste like something I'd feed to the president. My food isn't bland. My food is flavorful, and delicious. And you are just nuts!" I hollered. "Why are you yelling?" she whispered. "I don't know!" She laughed, making me want to kiss her. ~ Brittainy C. Cherry

Food is an implement of magic, and only the most coldhearted rationalist could squeeze the juices of life out of it and make it bland. In a true sense, a cookbook is the best source of psychological advice and the kitchen the first choice of room for a therapy of the world. ~ Thomas More

If only it was as easy to banish hunger by rubbing the belly as it is to masturbate. ~ Diogenes

Wine enlivens the human soul. ~ Euripides

I needed a break, and going to culinary school turned a lightbulb on that I didn't have to make music. The people in the music business forget that not only is there an entire world of people out there who do not care what we do, we are not creating the wheel. ~ Kelis

While some people may think being a chef only entails making enticing dishes and pushing the culinary boundaries, being a part of the food industry involves much more. ~ Marcus Samuelsson

Curiously, among the few survivors from this culinary onslaught is one that is most difficult to understand: the fish knife. Though it remains the standard instrument for dealing with fish of all kinds, no one has ever identified a single advantage conferred by its odd scalloped shape or worked out the original thinking behind it. There isn't a single kind of fish that it cuts better or bones more delicately than a conventional knife does. ~ Bill Bryson

Home base is the support system where we have a culinary team, my own writers because of the shows and the books and stuff, we have a culinary team of about six people. Marketing, public relations, accounting and all that sort of stuff. ~ Emeril Lagasse

Breakfast cereals that come in the same colors as polyester leisure suits make oversleeping a virtue. ~ Fran Lebowitz

Condensed milk is wonderful. I don't see how they can get a cow to sit down on those little cans. ~ Fred Allen

That's something I've noticed about food: whenever there's a crisis if you can get people to eating normally things get better. ~ Madeleine L'Engle

One of the many advantages of having a boyfriend who is half French is that his culinary repertoire extends beyond mac and cheese. Plus, there's the kissing. ~ Meg Cabot

But for years questions persisted about whether most cannibalism was religiously motivated and selective or culinary and routine. DNA suggests routine. Every known ethnic group worldwide has one of two genetic signatures that help our bodies fight off certain diseases that cannibals catch, especially mad-cow-like diseases that come from eating each other's brains. This defensive DNA almost certainly wouldn't have become fixed worldwide if it hadn't once been all too necessary. ~ Sam Kean

Japan has somehow managed to achieve the ideal attitude to eating: an obsession with culinary pleasure that is actually conductive to health. ~ Bee Wilson

What does cookery mean? It means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe,
and of Calypso, and Sheba. It means knowledge of all herbs, and fruits, and
balms and spices ... It means the economy of your great-grandmother and the
science of modern chemistry, and French art, and Arabian hospitality. It
means, in fine, that you are to see imperatively that everyone has something
nice to eat. ~ John Ruskin

What my mother believed about cooking is that if you worked hard and prospered, someone else would do it for you. ~ Nora Ephron

It was for bringing the cook tulip-roots instead of onions. ~ Lewis Carroll

The hippopotamus is a vegetarian and looks like a wall. Lions who eat only red meat are sleek and slim. Are nutritionists on the wrong track? ~ Erma Bombeck

The English have only three sauces - a white one, a brown one and a yellow one, and none of them have any flavor whatever. ~ Guy De Maupassant

My favorite sandwich is peanut butter, baloney, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and mayonnaise on toasted bread with catsup on the side. ~ Hubert H. Humphrey

I simply cannot imagine why anyone would eat something slimy served in an ashtray. ~ Henry Beard

Cooking is not a mystery. ~ Edward Espe Brown

Needless to say, food is used to constrain as well as to unify the members of many faiths. Most religions meddle in the day-to-day culinary habits of their adherents. ~ Michael Krondl

This might baffle you, but despite not being a physician, I do have some pride. Although most certainly not enough to withstand the kind of beating you're capable of dealing it. The kind of beating you've repeatedly dealt it from the first time we've met. You're right, I value honesty, so I'll tell you that I make it a practice not to find women who insult me at every opportunity attractive."
Color flooded her cheeks and traveled down her neck. Finally, she stepped away from him, too, and found the back of a chair to clutch. She looked entirely devastated. Had no one ever denied her anything? He hated the hurt in her eyes. But it was done now.
"How is telling you I'm attracted to you an insult?"
He pressed the back of his hand into his forehead. It made him feel like a drama queen in some sort of musical farce. Which this had to be. "Telling me how unworthy I am of your attraction, that's the insulting part. And, no, that's not all it is. Even if you hadn't told me at every opportunity how inferior to you I am... all I do is cook... every assumption you've made about me is insulting. Culinary school is definitely college. And Le Cordon Bleu is one of the most competitive institutions in the world. The fact that that's so wholly incomprehensible to you... that's the insulting part. And it wasn't thrown in my overly privileged lap either. I had to work my bottom off to make it in."
Ammaji had sold her dowry jewels to pay for his application, something her fa ~ Sonali Dev

The natural term of an apple-pie is but twelve hours. It reaches its highest state about one hour after it comes from the oven, and just before its natural heat has quite departed. But every hour afterward is a declension. And after it is one day old, it is thence-forward but the ghastly corpse of apple-pie. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

The whole of nature, as has been said, is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in the active and in the passive. ~ William Ralph Inge

In fine, the truffle is the very diamond of gastronomy. ~ Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

No dish changes quite so much from season to season as soup. Summer's soups come chilled, in pastel colors strewn with herbs. If hot they are sheer insubstantial broths afloat with seafood. In winter they turn steaming and thick to serve with slabs of rustic, crusty bread. ~ Florence Fabricant

If you take a shortcut now, you'll be taking them for the rest of your career. ~ Jonathan Dixon

If cupcakes were art; Kate's would be Van Gogh's ~ C.T. Mitchell

It is a very poor consolation to be told that the man who has given one a bad dinner, or poor wine, is irreproachable in private life. Even the cardinal virtues cannot atone for half-cold entrees. ~ Oscar Wilde

Although the frankfurter originated in Frankfurt, Germany, we have long since made it our own, a twin pillar of democracy along with Mom's apple pie. In fact, now that Mom's apple pie comes frozen and baked by somebody who isn't Mom, the hot dog stands alone. What it symbolizes remains pure, even if what it contains does not. ~ William Zinsser

Never eat in a place called 'Mom's'. ~ Nelson Algren

Chutney is marvelous. I'm mad about it. To me, it's very imperial. ~ Diana Vreeland

NECTAR, n. A drink served at banquets of the Olympian deities. The secret of its preparation is lost, but the modern Kentuckians believe that they come pretty near to a knowledge of its chief ingredient. ~ Ambrose Bierce

It gives men courage and ambition and the nerve for anything. It has the colour of gold, is clear as a glass and shines after dark as if the sunshine were still in it. ~ O. Henry

First, he though, I need shoes with rubber on the bottom. I need gelato. ~ Michael Ondaatje

We did our best to conjure up the culinary staples of our culture, but since we were dependent on Chinese markets our food had an unacceptably Chinese tinge, another blow in the gauntlet of our humiliation that left us with the sweet-and-sour taste of unreliable memories, just correct enough to evoke the past, just wrong enough to remind us that the past was forever gone, missing along with the proper variety, subtlety, and complexity of our universal solvent, fish sauce. ~ Viet Thanh Nguyen

Beasts feed. Man eats. Only the man of intellect knows how to eat. ~ Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Oh, I adore to cook. It makes me feel so mindless in a worthwhile way. ~ Truman Capote

A dressing is not a compote A dressing is not a custard It consists of pepper and salt, Vinegar, oil and mustard. ~ Ogden Nash

Somehow the idyllic existence I envisioned never quite came to pass, but aside from the occasional culinary disaster, my marriage wasn't bad. ~ Alexandra Bogdanovic

Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture. ~ Mark Kurlansky

The Infusion of a China plant sweetened with the pith of an Indian Cane. ~ Joseph Addison

I'm not a purist. Coffee drinking minus cream and sugar is an acquired taste. I'm still not sure it isn't like telling chefs to dispense with spices in cooking. ~ Kevin Sinnott

Nothing is more useful than wine for strengthening the body and also more detrimental to our pleasure if moderation be lacking. ~ Pliny The Elder

I'm a passionate Welshman. I have a culinary relationship with language: I taste what I say because I have two languages, and each informs the other. ~ Rhys Ifans

Cassoulet, that best of bean feasts, is everyday fare for a peasant but ambrosia for a gastronome, though its ideal consumer is a 300-pound blocking back who has been splitting firewood nonstop for the last twelve hours on a subzero day in Manitoba. ~ Julia Child

The way I feel about it is: Beat me or feed me, but don't tease me. It's toy food; who needs it? Serve it to toy people. ~ Jeff Smith

A culinary triumph: the ingenious use of food as an offensive weapon. ~ James Hamilton-Paterson

Wine, one of the noblest cordials in nature. ~ John Wesley

Culinary science? You elected culinary science? That's the most brainless class ever. -Rose to Christian ~ Richelle Mead

The chef that grew up with the grandma who cooks tends to always beat the chef that went to the culinary institute. It's in the blood. ~ Gary Vaynerchuk

We wanted to make a show that not only highlights the adventure of hunting, but also the fantastic culinary opportunities that a successful hunt can bring. It's great to have those efforts validated with a Beard nomination, and it speaks to the dedication of everyone on the MeatEater team. This honor makes us even more motivated to keep hammering out a solid, authentic hunting show that speaks to a variety of audiences. ~ Steven Rinella

Contemporary societies have lost the sense of the feast but have kept the obscure drive for it. ~ Umberto Eco

How come when you mix water and flour together you get glue ... and then you add eggs and sugar and you get cake? Where does the glue go? ~ Rita Rudner

When a man's stomach is full it makes no difference whether he is rich or poor. ~ Euripides

Everybody loves to have things which please the palate put in their way, without trouble or preparation. ~ Samuel Johnson

It is critical to have a sound understanding of traditional culinary principles before attempting to push boundaries in cuisine. Larousse Gastronomique helps me execute the progressive cooking we do at Alinea. ~ Grant Achatz

Food: Part of the spiritual expression of the French, and I do not believe that they have ever heard of calories. ~ Beverley Baxter

To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomat - the problem is entirely the same in both cases. To know how much oil to mix in with one's vinegar. ~ Oscar Wilde

But I always felt that I'd rather be provincial hot-tamale than soup without seasoning. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald

The guardian and arbiter of superlative eating, with every meal an unforgettable experience in pleasure, starting with the soup, which he said, 'must be the agent provocateur of a good dinner.' ~ Marie-Antoine Careme

Braising eggs in a flavoursome, aromatic sauce is all the rage. It is warming and comforting, ideal for the morning when you are not normally up for a great culinary challenge. ~ Yotam Ottolenghi

We're beings toward death, we're ... two-legged, linguistically-conscious creatures born between urine and feces whose body will one day be the culinary delight of terrestrial worms. ~ Cornel West

I have no formal culinary training, right. ~ Thomas Keller

When I turned 15, I left school having failed to make the minimum grade. With little direction I enlisted at the local culinary school. Here the academic demands were less rigorous. ~ Rene Redzepi

'MasterChef' is the search for America's culinary amateur talent, so this is a search for the best home cook in America, and it's our job to figure out who that is. ~ Joe Bastianich

For 'Around the World in 80 Plates' we got to travel all over, having what was like a cross between a culinary competition and races. And in each country we had a chef Ambassador. We went to London, Barcelona, Bologna, Hong Kong, Thailand, Morocco ... It was amazing. ~ Curtis Stone

Beans are highly nutritious and satisfying, they can also be delicious if and when properly prepared, and they posses over all vegetables the great advantage of being just as good, if not better, when kept waiting, an advantage in the case of people whose disposition or occupation makes it difficult for them to be punctual at mealtime. ~ Andre Simon

It helps immerse yourself in what you potentially want to do. Being involved, learning firsthand and observing the craft and absorbing all you can, makes it easier to define what you want. It will also ultimately make you a better Chef. Culinary school, or even a single class, is a great bet too. ~ Giada De Laurentiis

Woe to the cook whose sauce has no sting. ~ Geoffrey Chaucer

The chief requisite for the making of a good chicken pie is chicken; no amount of culinary legerdemain can make up for the lack of chicken. In the same way, the chief requisite for the history of science is intimate scientific knowledge; no amount of philosophic legerdemain can make up for its absence. ~ George Sarton

Food doesn't exist, but can only be invented. And reinvented. ~ Joyce Carol Oates

I launched The Emeril Lagasse Foundation to provide culinary training, and developmental and educational programs to children in the cities where my restaurants operate. I think everyone has a responsibility to give back to the community if they can, and to help future generations learn new skills. ~ Emeril Lagasse

Food that's served at the table in a paper parcel always creates a remarkable culinary moment when opened, because the package is full of aromatic steam from the lightly cooked ingredients inside. ~ Yotam Ottolenghi

Playwrights are like men who have been dining for a month in an Indian restaurant. After eating curry night after night, they deny the existence of asparagus. ~ Peter Ustinov

Omit and substitute! That's how recipes should be written. Please don't ever get so hung up on published recipes that you forget that you can omit and substitute. ~ Jeff Smith

With cult foods, there is an underlying assumption that the best cooking ideas came generations ago. Yet culinary innovation is nothing to be ashamed of. When a chef tells me he is cooking with his grandmother's recipe, I always wonder why. Did talent skip the past two generations? ~ Nathan Myhrvold