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.

There is nothing nicer than a kitchen really made for a cook. Things that are designed to be used always have an innate beauty.

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

Remember, you are all alone in the kitchen and no one can see you.

I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.

I would far prefer to have things happen as they naturally do, such as the mousse refusing to leave the mold, the potatoes sticking to the skillet, the apple charlotte slowly collapsing. One of the secrets of cooking is to learn to correct something if you can, and bear with it if you cannot.

We ought to enjoy our food, we ought to take time and care and prepare it correctly, and we ought to have fun doing it and make it a communal event.