Quotes
What cooks, writers, and eaters have said about food, the table, and the act of feeding people.
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“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.”James Beard
“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.”James Beard
“Eating is an agricultural act.”Wendell Berry
What Are People For?
“Good food, good eating, is all about blood and organs, cruelty and decay.”Anthony Bourdain
Kitchen Confidential
“Skills can be taught. Character you either have or you don't have.”Anthony Bourdain
Kitchen Confidential
“Cooking is one of the oldest arts and one that has rendered us the most important service in civic life.”Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
The Physiology of Taste
“Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you what you are.”Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
The Physiology of Taste
“Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”Julia Child
“No one is born a great cook -- one learns by doing.”Julia Child
“People who love to eat are always the best people.”Julia Child
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking, you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”Julia Child
“First we eat, then we do everything else.”M.F.K. Fisher
The Gastronomical Me
“Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.”M.F.K. Fisher
An Alphabet for Gourmets
“As a people, we owe so much to the seeds and recipes that have been handed down to us.”Edna Lewis
In Pursuit of Flavor
“Real Southern cooking is real American cooking.”Edna Lewis
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”Anonymous proverb
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”Michael Pollan
In Defense of Food
“The shared meal is no small thing. It is a foundation of family life, the place where our children learn the art of conversation and acquire the habits of civilization.”Michael Pollan
In Defense of Food
“Food is everything we are. It is an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma.”Ruth Reichl
“What about second breakfast?”J.R.R. Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring
“The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”Calvin Trillin
“Let things taste of what they are.”Alice Waters
“The decision of what to eat is a political and economic decision.”Alice Waters