Plain fresh bread, its crust shatteringly crisp. Sweet cold butter. There is magic in the way they come together in your mouth to make a single perfect bite.

When a person has lived generously and fought fiercely, she deserves more than sadness at the end.

It is not 'only' food, I said heatedly. There's meaning hidden underneath each dish.

...it was so rich and exotic I was seduced into taking one bite and then another as I tried to chase the flavors back to their source.

The strands of spaghetti were vital, almost alive in my mouth, and the olive oil was singing with flavor. It was hard to imagine that four simple ingredients [olive oil, pasta, garlic and cheese] could marry so perfectly.

Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.

She was a great cook, but she cooked more for herself than for other people, not because she was hungry but because she was comforted by the rituals of the kitchen.