I don't think you could have a 7 with a manual. But I can't see having a BMW sports sedan without a manual.

Cooking is not about convenience and it's not about shortcuts. Our hunger for the twenty-minute gourmet meal, for one-pot ease and prewashed, precut ingredients has severed our lifeline to the satisfactions of cooking. Take your time. Take a long time. Move slowly and deliberately and with great attention.

I can make dough in a machine faster than I can make it by hand, but I want to make it by hand, because I want to remember the way it feels. It's so important for me to make it by hand - whether it's a pasta dough or a pâte brisée. You become involved in it. You become personal with it. For me it's such a wonderful way to get satisfaction and gratification when I'm cooking.

My childhood wasn't full of wonderful culinary memories.

For me, thats one of the important things about cooking. What was good enough yesterday may not be good enough today.

I drank more wine when I wasn't working as much, to be honest.

The law of diminishing returns is something I really believe in.