Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper. Everything can have drama if it's done right. Even a pancake.

Food, like the people who eat it, can be stimulated by wine or spirits. And, as with people, it can also be spoiled.

But I was a pure romantic, and only operating with half my burners turned on.

My mother was independent. She had grown up in Dalton and Pittsfield, in western Massachusetts, and she was one of the first women drivers in that area.

Remember, 'No one's more important than people'! In other words, friendship is the most important thing--not career or housework, or one's fatigue--and it needs to be tended and nurtured.

Food like love is a deeply emotional matter.

If you are going to flip something, you must have the courage of your convictions.