Our full humanity is contingent on our hospitality; we can be complete only when we are giving something away; when we sit at the table and pass the peas to the person next to us we see that person in a whole new way.

Change the food in the schools and we can influence how children think. Change the curriculum and teach them how to garden and how to cook and we can show that growing food and cooking and eating together give lasting richness, meaning, and beauty to our lives.

Because only slow food can teach us the things that really matter - care, beauty, concentration, discernment, sensuality, all the best that humans are capable of, but only if we take the time to think about what we're eating.

Good food is a right, not a privilege. It brings children into a positive relationship with their health, community and environment.

It's about children cooking themselves, growing themselves. When kids grow it and cook it they eat it.

The dinner table is a rite of civilization and we need to participate in that to keep our families together, to keep our communities together.

When you have the best and tastiest ingredients, you can cook very simply and the food will be extraordinary because it tastes like what it is.