Quotes from Gail Simmons

If you don't use good ingredients, the outcome is never going to be excellent. But if you buy the freshest ingredients that are in season, at their peak, and you cook with them, you can't really go wrong.

I cannot go to Montreal without going to Beauty's, my favorite place for breakfast, where I have the Mish-Mash omelet with hot dogs, salami, eggs, green peppers, and onions, and the best banana bread in the world. It's legendary!

Eating a lot is an occupational hazard but it's a pretty great problem to have. I spend a lot of time eating sweets on TV - cake, cupcakes, donuts, and pudding. It's a dream job, but at the same time there will be days where I wake up knowing I will eat 15 desserts!

I was very, very little - it was the first time I ever cooked on my own, with my mother's supervision - and I made scrambled eggs. I felt so accomplished, like magic!

You know, I lose patience really easily; I'd rather shop in the grocery store than in the department store. I can pick an apple like nobody's business.

There's not a single chef I know of that does not think about the politics of the food they're serving.

Patience is the secret to good food.

I have a mantra in my head that there will always be another meal. I can put my fork down, knowing there will be good things in my future!

There are days when I literally have to eat 17 plates of food - it's intense. It's about moderation. You just need a few bites to get the gist of a dish.

I'm tempted by everything. My husband makes fun of me because every day it's a new food that I love. I have a weakness for butterscotch pudding, ice cream in any flavor and dark chocolate, although that's one thing I do keep in my house - 70% dark chocolate.

Always wear sunscreen and wash your makeup off at night.

I sit at this really weird crossroads. My job requires me to take in calories. I take care of myself. I eat healthy. I exercise a lot. But then I have to go to events in cocktail dresses and look fancy, and people want to interview me about what I'm wearing, and then I'm compared to people who are wearing size 2 all the time.

I had decided I wanted to write about food, and I knew the only way to do that is to speak with authority, which meant learning the language and knowing what that experience is like.

I'm a healthy weight for my height, and I like how I look on most days.

You can't fake being able to cook well.

I reveled in the most basic rules and techniques that are the foundation of professional cooking. For example, it is essential to use a sharp knife: the sharper the knife, the more fluid and precise your work and the less likely you are to get hurt. Dull knives are a danger - they slip far more often.

I never really drank coffee in college, but now I'm on my feet all day and out all night and can't believe it hasn't always been in my life. When morning comes I crave it.

First and foremost, you have to remember that restaurants are businesses and they have to stay in business. And though everyone thinks they want grass fed beef, most people actually prefer the taste of corn fed - it is less dry, more marbled, and less gamey, not to mention much less expensive than grass fed.

I cook mostly vegetarian vegetable and bean stews. Quinoa salads. I make my mother-in-law's recipe for chicken and barley stew all the time.

Canada is a big part of my life.

I wish I could say I was one of those people who loves working out, but I don't; it's just not that fun. But I make an effort to work out aggressively three times a week.

I am a glutton for a beautiful hotel. I am so easily smitten by high thread counts.

A big thing that gets people in trouble in the kitchen is not reading the recipe from start to finish before you cook it. Before you start anything, read through the entire recipe once.

There are few women in America that don't want to lose 5 pounds, but I refuse to let that thought dominate my life. And there are too many other real problems in the world - real obesity problems and real hunger problems - to worry that much about a few pounds that I'd like to lose.