In my generation, except for a few people who'd gone into banking or nursing or something like that, middle-class women didn't have careers. You were to marry and have children and be a nice mother. You didn't go out and do anything. I found that I got restless.

I'm not wild about those twenty-four hour marinades

It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it.

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.

Once you have mastered a technique, you barely have to look at a recipe again

You have to eat to cook. You can't be a good cook and be a noneater. I think eating is the secret to good cooking.

But I was a pure romantic, and only operating with half my burners turned on.