I found that the recipes in most - in all - the books I had were really not adequate. They didn't tell you enough... I won't do anything unless I'm told why I'm doing it. So I felt that we needed fuller explanations so that if you followed one of those recipes, it should turn out exactly right.

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.

People were hysterical about Communism the way people today are hysterical about flag burning. I'm really against these people who try to show that they're great patriots, because they're not thinking, they're just being hysterical.

As we say in the American Institute of Wine and Food, small helpings, no seconds. A little bit of everything. No snacking. And have a good time.

The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken.

To be a good cook you have to have a love of the good, a love of hard work, and a love of creating.

Sometimes ... it takes me an entire day to write a recipe, to communicate it correctly. It's really like writing a little short story.