Almost every profession has an outstanding training ground. The military has West Point, music has Juilliard, and the culinary arts has The Institute.

I am simply of the opinion that you cannot be taught to write. You have to spend a lifetime in love with words.

For some obscure reason, some authorities seem bent on making the drinking of wine a ritual more complicated than chess. They have succeeded in inhibiting a large section of the public and depriving them of one of the greatest pleasures known to man.

When she goes about her kitchen duties, chopping, carving, mixing, whisking, she moves with the grace and precision of a ballet dancer, her fingers plying the food with the dexterity of a croupier.

Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.

Physically he was the connoisseur's connoisseur. He was a giant panda, Santa Claus and the Jolly Green Giant rolled into one. On him, a lean and slender physique would have looked like very bad casting.

He was an innovator, an experimenter, a missionary in bringing the gospel of good cooking to the home table.