You learn to cook so that you don't have to be a slave to recipes. You get what's in season and you know what to do with it.

I don't believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make.... Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile...then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile.

We hit it off immediately, especially Helene, who was a 'swallow-life-in-big-gulps' kind of person.

Cooking is one failure after another, and that's how you finally learn.

Fake food -- I mean those patented substances chemically flavored and mechanically bulked out to kill the appetite and deceive the gut -- is unnatural, almost immoral, a bane to good eating and good cooking.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking... doesn't mean it has to be fancy cooking, although it can be as elaborate as you wish.

Sooner or later the public will forget you; the memory of you will fade. What's important are the individuals you've influenced along the way.