A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.

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

The sharing of food is the basis of social life.

The old days were slower. People buttered their bread without guilt and sat down to dinner en famille.

It is always wise to make too much potato salad. Even if you are cooking for two, make enough for five. Potato salad improves with age - that is, if you are lucky enough to have any left over.

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.

Unlike some people, who love to go out, I love to stay home.