In the 1970s we got nouvelle cuisine, in which a lot of the old rules were kicked over. And then we had cuisine minceur, which people mixed up with nouvelle cuisine but was actually fancy diet cooking.

I think anyone who is a carnivore needs to understand that meat does not originally come in these neat little packages.

Because I've done a lot of television, I'm sort of a generalist. I'm not a pastry cook, but I've had to learn a certain amount about it. I'm not a baker, though I've had to learn how to do it. I'm sort of a general cook.

It's a shame to be caught up in something that doesn't absolutely make you tremble with joy.

How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?

One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed.

Everything can have drama if it's done right. Even a pancake.