No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.

When I was alone, I lived on eggplant, the stove top cook's strongest ally.

The best way to eat crabs, as everyone knows, is off newspaper at a large table with a large number of people.

And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends.

When I was alone, I lived on eggplant, the stove top cook's strongest ally. I fried it and stewed it, and ate it crisp and sludgy, hot and cold. It was cheap and filling and was delicious in all manner of strange combinations. If any was left over, I ate it cold the next day on bread.

I do not believe that you have to spend a lot of money to eat well: it is hard to beat a plain old baked potato.

No one who cooks cooks alone.