James Beard

Food is our common ground, a universal experience.

If I had to narrow my choice of meats down to one for the rest of my life, I am quite certain that meat would be pork.

Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.

There is absolutely no substitute for the best. Good food cannot be made of inferior ingredients masked with high flavor. It is true thrift to use the best ingredients available and to waste nothing.

I__ going to break one of the rules of the trade here. I__ going to tell you some of the secrets of improvisation. Just remember__t__ always a good idea to follow the directions exactly the first time you try a recipe. But from then on, you__e on your own.

The secret of good cooking is, first, having a love of it_ If you__e convinced that cooking is drudgery, you__e never going to be good at it, and you might as well warm up something frozen.

A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.