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

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

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.

I think that's the important thing - being aware of that inspiration and being able to interpret it into something that's meaningful for you.

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 wanted to write about what we were doing at the French Laundry, the recipes and the stories.

You don't know when inspiration is going to come. But you have to be aware of what's going on around you, so that at any moment, when inspiration happens, you're ready for it and you interpret it.