...the waiters carried themselves with a quiet joy, as if their entire mission in life was to make their customers feel comfortable and well tended.

Cooking is one failure after another, and that's how you finally learn.

The shellfish thing is very scary. You have to know the people you buy from and exactly where their wholesalers are getting the fish from.

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.

You are the butter to my bread,and the breath to my life

Many of the delicious soups you eat in French homes and little restaurants are made just this way, with a leek-and-potato base to which leftover vegetables or sauces and a few fresh items are added.

People who love to eat are always the best people.