No matter what happens in the kitchen, never apologize.

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.

In France cooking is a serious art form and a national sport. I think the French enjoy the complication of the art form and the cooking for cooking's sake. You can talk with a concierge or police officer about food in France as a general rule. It is not the general rule here. Classical cuisine, which I hope we are going back to, means certain ways of doing things and certain ways of not doing things. If you know classical French cooking you can do anything. If you don't know the basics, you turn out slop.

You learn to cook so that you don't have to be a slave to recipes. You get what's in season and you know what to do with it.

In spite of food fads, fitness programs, and health concerns, we must never lose sight of a beautifully conceived meal.

Noodles are not only amusing but delicious.

I still feel that French cooking is the most important in the world, one of the few that has rules. If you follow the rules, you can do pretty well.