Quotes from JAMES BEARD

The Spanish, contrary to a widespread misconception, do not eat hot, heavily seasoned food. They use very little pepper and very few herbs. I believe this conception of the Spanish diet must have originated in Texas, where they do Mexican and Spanish dishes in the hottest manner I know.

Nothing is quite as intoxicating as the smell of bacon frying in the morning, save perhaps the smell of coffee brewing.

I don't like gourmet cooking or 'this' cooking or 'that' cooking. I like good cooking.

Too many simple green salads suffer from a lack of imagination.

When you cook, you never stop learning. That's the fascination of it all.

It's foolish to go through life bemoaning the fact that you can't have this or that. Twaddle! You can omit certain foods and still enjoy eating.

The secret of good cooking is, first, having a love of it.

Good bread and good butter go together. They are one of the perfect marriages in gastronomy, and they never fail to cheer me.

Grilling, broiling, barbecuing - whatever you want to call it - is an art, not just a matter of building a pyre and throwing on a piece of meat as a sacrifice to the gods of the stomach.

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.

If I had to narrow my choice of meats down to one for the rest of my life, I am quite certain that meat would be pork.

Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.

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.

I believe that if ever I had to practice cannibalism, I might manage if there were enough tarragon around.

I am still convinced that a good, simple, homemade cookie is preferable to all the store-bought cookies one can find.

Goodness, how much there is to learn about food!

A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.

Food is our common ground, a universal experience.