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.
The discovery of a good wine is increasingly better for mankind than the discovery of a new star.
In the 1960s, you could eat anything you wanted, and of course, people were smoking cigarettes and all kinds of things, and there was no talk about fat and anything like that, and butter and cream were rife. Those were lovely days for gastronomy, I must say.
Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic.
One day, the people who work in my kitchen stir-fried chopped Napa cabbage to serve with some meat or fish for their own dinner. I got to thinking: 'What if the cabbage was the most important thing on the plate?'
Bread is for us a kind of successor to the motherly breast, and it has been over the centuries responsible for billions of sighs of satisfaction.
Food is not just fuel. Food is about family, food is about community, food is about identity. And we nourish all those things when we eat well.
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