It's simply a very romantic place. Just one look at any of those streets, and you couldn't be anywhere else - it's so beautiful, and there's that location, and the sense of the free spirit. Who couldn't become ravenous in such a place?

The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It's doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile.

I'm afraid that surprise, shock, and regret is the fate of authors when they finally see themselves on the page.

Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music.

Wine is one of the agreeable and essential ingredients of life

People who are not interested in food always seem rather dry and unloving and don't have a real gusto for life.

The problem for cookery-bookery writers like me is to understand the extent of our readers' experience. I hope have solved that riddle in my books by simply telling everything. The experienced cook will know to skip through the verbiage, but the explanations will be there for those who still need them.