It is hard to imagine a civilization without onions.

I think careful cooking is love, don't you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a valentine as you can give.

You have to do it and do it, until you get it right.

Some children like to make castles out of their rice pudding, or faces with raisins for eyes. It is forbidden -- so sternly that, when they grow up, they take a horrid revenge by dying meringues pale blue or baking birthday cakes in the form of horseshoes or lyres or whatnot.

Just like becoming an expert in wine, you learn by drinking it, the best you can afford.

You have to eat to cook. You can't be a good cook and be a noneater. I think eating is the secret to good cooking.

I always give my bird a generous butter massage before I put it in the oven. Why? Because I think the chicken likes it -- and, more important, I like to give it.