The secret of good cooking is, first, having a love of it… If you’re convinced that cooking is drudgery, you’re never going to be good at it, and you might as well warm up something frozen.
James BeardRead
Food is our common ground, a universal experience.
Interpretation
Food unites us all and is a shared experience across cultures and backgrounds.
This quote by James Beard emphasizes the idea that food transcends cultural and social barriers, serving as a fundamental aspect of human experience. It suggests that no matter where we come from or what our differences may be, we can all find commonality and connection through the act of sharing and enjoying food together.
In practice
During a community gathering, this quote can highlight the role of food in bringing diverse people together.
The secret of good cooking is, first, having a love of it… If you’re convinced that cooking is drudgery, you’re never going to be good at it, and you might as well warm up something frozen.
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.
A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.
I'm engaged in food on so many levels, and I love that. So my work, my craft, is around food, and writing is one aspect of it; communicating a narrative, cooking online is one aspect of it; solving the food chasm that we have in Harlem and finding a farmers market is another one, and all of them are equally exciting for me.
I'm a firm believer that the world should be your oyster when you're cooking. People should open themselves to other cuisines - there are a lot of hidden secrets all over the world.
Food is not rational. Food is culture, habit, craving and identity.
When you acknowledge, as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear: to make people happy, that is what cooking is all about.
Our food chain is in crisis. Big agribusiness has made profits more important than your health—more important than the environment—more important than your right to know how your food is produced. But beneath the surface, a revolution is growing.
Because of media hype and woefully inadequate information, too many people nowadays are deathly afraid of their food, and what does fear of food do to the digestive system? ... I, for one, would much rather swoon over a few thin slices of prime beefsteak, or one small serving of chocolate mousse, or a sliver of foie gras than indulge to the full on such nonentities as fat-free gelatin puddings.
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