Julia Child Quotes

If you don't pick your audience, you're lost because you're not really talking to anybody.

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.

I don't believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make.... Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile...then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile.

In department stores, so much kitchen equipment is bought indiscriminately by people who just come in for men's underwear.

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

The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they're right if you love to be with them all the time.

I don't use the word gourmet. The word doesn't mean anything anymore. 'Gourmet' makes it sound like someone is putting sherry wine in the corn-flake casserole.

The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It's doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile.

Always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need.

If you're in a good profession, it's hard to get bored, because you're never finished - there will always be work you haven't done.

I think careful cooking is love, don't you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a valentine as you can give.

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

Was it a sign of Creeping Decrepitude?

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.

Dining with one's friends and beloved family is certainly one of life's primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal.

This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!

...operational proof...it's all theory until you see for yourself whether or not something works.

I always try to buy just what I need. You get ideas as to what's in season and what's best. I think if you have a preconceived idea before shopping, that makes it difficult. You have to have an open mind.

Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper. Everything can have drama if it's done right. Even a pancake.

Good french cooking cannot be produced by a zombie cook.

My mother was independent. She had grown up in Dalton and Pittsfield, in western Massachusetts, and she was one of the first women drivers in that area.

Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you'll have a marvelous time!

Too much trouble,' 'Too expensive,' or 'Who will know the difference' are death knells for good food. ... Cooking is not a particularly difficult art, and the more you cook and learn about cooking, the more sense it makes.

Noodles are not only amusing but delicious.

I enjoy cooking with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food I'm cooking.

I never feel lonely in the kitchen. Food is very friendly.

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.

I fell in love with the public, the public fell in love with me, and I tried to keep it that way.

I would far prefer to have things happen as they naturally do, such as the mousse refusing to leave the mold, the potatoes sticking to the skillet, the apple charlotte slowly collapsing. One of the secrets of cooking is to learn to correct something if you can, and bear with it if you cannot.

I think one of the terrible things today is that people have this deathly fear of food: fear of eggs, say, or fear of butter. Most doctors feel that you can have a little bit of everything.

Be a fearless cook! Try out new ideas and new recipes, but always buy the freshest and finest ingredients, whatever they may be. Furnish your kitchen with the most solid and workmanlike equipment you can find. Keep your knives ever sharp and - toujours bon appetit!

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.

People who love to eat are always the best people.

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

People who are not interested in food always seem rather dry and unloving and don't have a real gusto for life.

Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music.

The American poultry industry had made it possible to grow a fine-looking fryer in record time and sell it at a reasonable price, but no one mentioned that the result usually tasted like the stuffing inside of a teddy bear.

I love root vegetables: carrots, parsnips, and turnips.

We hit it off immediately, especially Helene, who was a 'swallow-life-in-big-gulps' kind of person.

In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.