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
Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.
Interpretation
Good bread is a simple yet profound source of satisfaction and joy in food.
In this quote, James Beard emphasizes the fundamental comfort and pleasure that comes from quality bread, suggesting that it is not only a basic necessity but also a source of immense satisfaction when paired with something as simple as fresh butter. This highlights the idea that sometimes the most basic pleasures in life can provide the greatest joy, elevating everyday eating to the level of a feast.
In practice
During a family gathering where everyone shares their favorite dishes.
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.
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.
Food is our common ground, a universal experience.
A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.
In the hands of an able cook, fish can become an inexhaustible source of perpetual delight.
There is a deliberate effort to undermine food culture to sell us processed food. The family meal is a challenge if you're General Mills or Kellogg or one of these companies, or McDonald's, because the family meal is usually one thing shared.
It has been shown as proof positive that carefully prepared chocolate is as healthful a food as it is pleasant; that it is nourishing and easily digested... that it is above all helpful to people who must do a great deal of mental work.
A complete lack of caution is perhaps one of the true signs of a real gourmet: he has no need for it, being filled as he is with a God-given and intelligently self-cultivated sense of gastronomical freedom.
Since visiting the abatoirs of S. France I have stopped eating meat.
I don't believe you can ever really cook unless you love eating.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.