Ye gods! But you're not standing around holding it by the hand all this time. No. [...] [T]he dough takes care of itself. [...] While you cannot speed up the process, you can slow it down at any point by setting the dough in a cooler place [...] then continue where you left off, when you are ready to do so. In other words, you are the boss of that dough.

If you're in a good profession, it's hard to get bored, because you're never finished - there will always be work you haven't done.

Cooking was taken with such seriousness in France that even ordinary chefs were proud of their profession. That's what appealed to me.

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.

I was kind of an innocent hayseed from a middle-class, utterly nonintellectual background.

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 should enjoy food and have fun. It is one of the simplest and nicest pleasures in life.