Although I don't take myself very seriously, I do take my work extraordinarily seriously.

Recipe writers hate to write about heat. They despise it. Because there aren't proper words for communicating what should be done with it.

I'm prickly. I fuss over every single detail.

My first book is really about heat. That book, for me, was an exploration of heat as ingredient. Why we don't talk about heat as an ingredient, I don't quite understand, because it is the common ingredient to all cooking processes.

Lumps are caused by one thing and one thing alone - the improper addition of a starch.

Wine is like women. It tempts you; it comforts you; it confuses you and can even turn on you when you least expect it. It can be your friend one day and your enemy the next.

You know most of the food that Americans hold so dear - things like hamburgers and hot dogs - were road food, but even before they were road food, they were peasant food.