You know we fixate on the food so much itself: “Oh, the ultimate brownie or the ultimate this or that” -- well, let me tell you something: It’s all poop in about 12 hours, okay? The real power that food has is its ability to connect human beings to each other -- that’s the stuff right there and, to me, everything else is secondary to that.
Interpretation
Food is not just nourishment; it serves as a means to bring people together.
Alton Brown emphasizes that while we often focus on the culinary aspects and the perfection of food, the true value lies in its power to unite people. The enjoyment of food becomes secondary to the connections it fosters among individuals, highlighting the importance of shared experiences over the mere act of eating.
In practice
During a family gathering, you might quote this to emphasize the importance of togetherness over the meal itself.
The kitchen's a laboratory, and everything that happens there has to do with science. It's biology, chemistry, physics. Yes, there's history. Yes, there's artistry. Yes, to all of that. But what happened there, what actually happens to the food is all science.
Although I don't take myself very seriously, I do take my work extraordinarily seriously.
A home cook who relies too much on a recipe is sort of like a pilot who reads the plane's instruction manual while flying.
Cooking is an observation-based process that you can't do if you're so completely focused on a recipe.
Everything in food is science. The only subjective part is when you eat it.
We're [parents]) always bluffing, pretending we know best, when most of the time we're just praying we won't screw up too badly.
The emotional magnets beneath home and workplace are in the process of being reversed. Work has become a form of 'home' and home has become 'work.'
The girl was grateful to the young man for every bit of flattery; she wanted to linger for a moment in its warmth and so she said, 'You're very good at lying.' 'Do I look like a liar?' 'You look like you enjoy lying to women,' said the girl, and into her words there crept unawares a touch of the old anxiety, because she really did believe that her young man enjoyed lying to women.
I really don't care about what anyone says unless they are also gender-nonconforming. Then I really listen. I love the solidarity felt between us gender failures.
As long as women are isolated one from the other, not allowed to offer other women the most personal accounts of their lives, they will not be part of any narratives of their own…women will be staving off destiny and not inviting or inventing or controlling it.
Clients don't expect perfection from the service providers they hire, but they do expect honesty and transparency. There is no better way to demonstrate this than by acknowledging when a mistake has been made and humbly apologizing for it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.