Culinary Quotes

“All worries are less with wine.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“in the abstract art of cooking,
ingredients trump appliances,
passion supersedes expertise,
creativity triumphs over technique,
spontaneity inspires invention,
and wine makes even the worst culinary disaster taste delicious.”
― Bob Blumer

“Hunger gives flavour to the food.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“Food is everything we are. It's an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It's inseparable from those from the get-go.”
― Anthony Bourdain

“Some people when they see cheese, chocolate or cake they don't think of calories.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“For less than the cost of a Big Mac, fries and a Coke, you can buy a loaf of fresh bread and some good cheese or roast beef, which you will enjoy much more.”
― Steve Albini

“Without love, life is nothing but work and sleep.”
― Amanda Usen, Seducing the Playboy

“Almost every family has their own Christmas traditions (if, indeed, they celebrate Christmas) and we certainly had several. First, the house was thoroughly cleaned and decorated with wreaths and paper chains and, of course, the Christmas tree with all its sparkling lights and ornaments. The cardboard nativity scene had to be carefully assembled and placed on the mantle. And there was the advent wreath with its little windows to be opened each morning. And then there were the Christmas cookies. About a week before the holiday, Mom would bake several batches of the cookies and I invited all my friends to come and help decorate them. It was an “all-afternoon” event. We gathered around our big round dining table with bowls of colored icing and assorted additions—red hot candies, coconut flakes, sugar “glitter,” chocolate chips, and any other little bits we could think of. Then, the decorating began!”
― Mallory M. O'Connor, The Kitchen and the Studio: A Memoir of Food and Art

“I asked Bill what career path he thought I should take, and he replied, “Live the artist’s life.” For years I pondered over his advice. What did it mean to “live the artist’s life?” I finally came to realize that there were no written codes, no hard and fast rules. You didn’t have to starve in a garret or drink yourself to death or cut off your ear. You didn’t even have to literally “make art” physically. The art was your life—your values, your outlook, your passions, your point of view. It was the things you cherished, whether they were people or places or ideas.”
― Mallory M. O'Connor, The Kitchen and the Studio: A Memoir of Food and Art

“Nothing mitigates the throes of depression like a steaming plate of spaghetti and meatballs with marinara sauce and grated parmasan cheese, with a good fresh bread to wipe up.”
― Paul Clayton

“If there’s an eighth wonder of the world, I would suggest lavender. Not only is it beautiful to the eye and heavenly to the nose, it also is said to have antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties and research suggests it may be useful in treating anxiety, insomnia, and depression. And it’s a wonderful addition to—ta-da—COOKIES! Mom always kept a large wooden wine barrel filled with lavender next to the back porch so she could grab a handful of lavender flowers whenever the mood struck her. She made lavender sachets to hang in the closets and added lavender to her rose potpourri. We regularly had lavender lemonade or lavender muffins and often some lavender flowers were identifiable in a lamb stew or as a garnish for steaks. All part of our Mediterranean lifestyle.”
― Mallory M. O'Connor

“The less we cement ourselves to our certainties, the fuller our lives can be.”
― Kim Fay, Love & Saffron

“One of the greatest pleasures of my life has been that I have never stopped learning about Good Cooking and Good Food.”
― Edna Lewis

“My mother died when I was 18. Up until then, I never saw a tin can in my house. (Washington Post interview, 1990)”
― Edna Lewis

“Sensuality is the real soul food.”
― Lebo Grand

“Crushes weren’t made of quick and dirty; they were made of romance and fantasies. What would she do if he called her bluff?”
― Amanda Usen, Seducing the Playboy

“Food stall owners reach out with menus, calling out their dinner selections like midway prizes”
― Vicki Alayne Bradley, Finding Home: A Creative Journey on a Trip Around the World

“I haven't waited to be summoned for my big moment by a tap on the shoulder from a mysterious, benevolent stranger. It doesn't work that way where I'm from. You make your own opportunities where I'm from.”
― Kwame Onwuachi

“Mastership of great culinary skills enriches the wholeness of a fine dining experience.”
― Wayne Chirisa

“Sensuality is the real food for the soul.”
― Lebo Grand

“Sensuality is food for the soul.”
― Lebo Grand

“Torture Cuisine by Stewart Stafford

Kitchen death growls,
Whipping that cream,
Beating those eggs,
Burning all the toast.

Knifing diced cheese,
Drawn, quartered ham,
Straining tomato sauce,
Crushed-down walnuts.

Peeling potatoes naked,
Then smashing them up,
You say purée, I say mash,
Turkey and chicken skewers.

© Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Building and supporting these local economies is critical to our bottom line. As repeatedly proven by Building Alliances for Local Living Economies (BALLE), spending at a locally owned business on average keeps 68 out of every 100 dollars circulating within the community. When spending on things from outside our communities, however, only 43 dollars stay local.”
― Richard W. Jelier Ph.D.

“She thought about all the baking therapy she and Char had done together during that time. Usually in the wee, wee hours. Those sessions never had anything to do with their respective jobs.
And everything to do with salvation.
Their worlds might be uncontrolled chaos, but baking always made sense. Flour, butter, and sugar were as integral a part of her as breathing.
Lani had long since lost count of the number of nights she and Charlotte had crammed themselves into her tiny kitchen, or Charlotte's even tinier one, whipping up this creation or that, all the while hashing and rehashing whatever the problems du jour happened to be. It was the one thing she truly missed about being in New York.
No one on Sugarberry understood how baking helped take the edge off. Some folks liked a dry martini. Lani and Char, on the other hand, had routinely talked themselves down from the emotional ledge with rich vanilla queen cake and some black velvet frosting. It might take a little longer to assemble than the perfect adult beverage... but it was the very solace found in the dependable process of measuring and leavening that had made it their own personal martini. Not to mention the payoff was way, way better.
Those nights hadn't been about culinary experience, either. The more basic, the more elemental the recipe, the better. Maybe Lani should have seen it all along. Her destiny wasn't to be found in New York, or even Paris, or Prague, making the richest, most intricate cakes, or the most delicate French pastries. No, culinary fulfillment- for her, the same as life fulfillment- was going to be experienced on a tiny spit of land off the coast of Georgia, where she could happily populate the world with gloriously unpretentious, rustic, and rudimentary little cupcakes.”
― Donna Kauffman, Sugar Rush

“You think in terms of educated palates, and you'd be right to assume most folks here wouldn't know a panna cotta from a semifreddo. But what I've discovered is that food is just another form of art. The people on Sugarberry might not know why they like it, but they know when they do. I'm discovering that I don't need to educate people, I just want to feed them and make them happy. And if in doing so, I get to play with new flavor profiles and complex combinations, even in something as rudimentary as a cupcake? That makes me happy. In fact, trying to maximize new flavors in a tiny cup of cake motivates me, challenges me. Seeing my customers lick their lips when they taste my creations is all the validation I'll ever need.”
― Donna Kauffman, Sugar Rush

“It seemed that the Law of the Fridge was universal across cultures and continents: things went there to die and be forgotten.”
― Neel Mukherjee, A State of Freedom

“A chef of your caliber, princess, is practically guaranteed to be invited."
"Yes. What of it? The BLUE is a brilliant stage where the best of the best shine.
Not a place where certain lawless criminals would ever be found."
"Easy now, princess. Retract your claws and listen.
See, this year's BLUE is gonna be a little different. The Top Organizer who has run the event for years... is on record of having said..."
"The purpose of the BLUE...
... is to gather promising young talent from around the world in order to determine who the greatest chefs to shoulder the upcoming generations will be."
"Accordingly, inviting chefs from only the usual culinary world is insufficient! If Noir are not allowed to participate, the BLUE will not be fulfilling its mission statement!
"Which means?"
"Exactly what you're thinking.
This year's BLUE will be a true and equal free-for-all...
... between the Culinary World and the Underworld...
... to determine who the First Seat of the next generation will be.
I'm going to be there, of course.
And...
Right on that glorious stage, you and I shall pledge our vows to each other!
The crowd of guests watching us will be greater than any wedding ceremony ever held!
The next BLUE is being held this summer.
I can already tell this'll be the best summer vacation yet.”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 32 [Shokugeki no Souma 32]

“Within all of these species, of course, there still exist tremendous variations in taste, color and texture. Each season produces new tastes, much like a wine from, say, Burgundy does. For most of their natural history, salmon have been wild foods, so their taste, texture and color resist the homogeneity demanded by industrial food production. Every single wild salmon is different. This is part of the gastronomic beauty of the fish, even though it frustrates consumers with palates trained by corporate food to expect conformity. This fact, too, has been written by evolution and the currents of deep time, processes that privilege diversity over uniformity, chaos over control.”
― Nicholaas Mink

“She took a slice of bread and put it on her plate. She piled a small mountain of potato chips on it and placed another slice of bread on top. Then she flattened the sandwich with her hand, the chips shattering with a satisfying crunch. In response to Charlotte's curious look, she explained, "Potato chip sandwiches remind me of my mom."
Ah. That, Charlotte understood. Food memory was one of the few profoundly good things she brought with her from her own childhood. Sometimes Charlotte would still have chocolate milk over hot rice, something Charlotte and Pepper had eaten when they'd crept hungrily into the camp kitchen after dark during one of Minister McCauley's forced fasts. She could still remember how good it had tasted, like sweet soup.”
― Sarah Addison Allen, Other Birds: A Novel

“Standing there…it was as if Victorine was looking right through time, staring straight at me. I could almost hear her voice. She’s been erased from history and it just seems so wrong. I felt she was daring me to do something about it.”
“…she put the napkin over her head and the tiny creature [ortolan] into her mouth. Then every other thought was driven from her head by the sheer physical effect of the hot bird burning her overstuffed mouth…Her teeth came down and a spurt of juice shot across her tongue. She almost jumped out of her seat; the flavor was so strong, so primal. She chewed again and the sound of bones crunching clanged in her ears….It was all hazelnuts, sweet-edged with bitter…figs, Armagnac, blood shot through her body. Another shatter of bone and she was tasting dark meat—the thigh perhaps—with its gamey flavor.”
― Ruth Reichl