Quotes from Samin Nosrat

When I left restaurants, I had to learn to be a home cook.

The beach has always been a constant in my life.

I really love the beach.

I grew up eating and loving Persian food, going to school, and everyone making fun of me.

No Persian meal is complete without an abundance of herbs.

When I was young, one Sunday every month or so, my mom would load my brothers and me into our station wagon and drive 80 miles north to Orange County, where we'd meet our extended family at a Persian restaurant for lunch.

I always turn to Wendell Berry for inspiration on food, community, agriculture, and, well, just being a human.

One pillar of my cooking is that salad dressing is sacred and that you always make it with the most delicious oil you can find. Usually, that means extra-virgin olive oil.

Friends have warned me that I can be a bully in the kitchen. With every fledgling relationship, I'm anxiously aware that the simple act of cooking alongside my new paramour can unleash havoc.

I think the goal of 'Chef's Table' is that you are so moved by the story that you want to go and eat that person's food at their restaurant. But I wanted the takeaway from my show to be that you go and cook the thing.

People never used to look at me twice. That was my superpower: When I met someone, I could decide whether to care about them based on whether they cared about me.

I take, like, 9,000 supplements every morning. I don't know if it's completely placebo or not, but I'm super committed to these supplements: like, I can't face the day without them.

I'm surprisingly squeamish.

The only good things I've seen emerge from a steamer are tamales, couscous, and dumplings - maybe the occasional artichoke or delicate fish fillet. But baby turnips with their tender greens still attached should be boiled in water as salty as the sea until their flesh is silky and soft.

Browning butter affects more than just the color and the flavor of its milk solids; the water that butter contains also simmers away.

As a student of Alice Waters, the patron saint of salad, I'm no stranger to the art of lettuce washing.

I have a lot of plants - my living room is like a jungle. I like the idea of bringing the outside in.

By definition, comfort foods are rich and creamy or evocative of childhood pleasures.

There's nothing historically in my life very flashy. I'm not exceptionally beautiful. I'm not exceptionally wealthy.

The cornerstone of every Persian meal is rice, or polo.

I love the look of delight on my guests' faces when I serve them a bowl of olive-oil aioli alongside roasted potatoes or a grand Nicoise salad.

For me, I am very much a champion of home cooking and home cooks.

There are so many food shows, really beautiful ones, that exist to elevate professional cooking and professional chefs. But there aren't that many that really celebrate home cooking or are for home cooks especially.

After coating pasta with tomato-rich meat sauce, my mom would drizzle the bottom of a nonstick pot with oil and put it all back in to form a dark crust of tangled noodles. Once she unmolded it at the table like a cake, my brothers and I would excitedly cut into it, verbally laying claim to our preferred pieces.