Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore.

Respect for food is respect for life, for who we are and what we do.

This is the great challenge: to maintain passion for the everyday routine and the endlessly repeated act, to derive deep gratification from the mundane.

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

We rely on our purveyors to tell us what's available and what's good.

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.

A cookbook must have recipes, but it shouldn't be a blueprint. It should be more inspirational; it should be a guide.