This Is My Invariable Advice To People:

If You're Buying Tomatoes Pick Them Up And Smell Them-they Should Have A Lovely Perfume. They Need To Be Kept At Fifty Degrees Or Above, Particularly During The Growing Season, Because That's When They Develop Their Flavor.

It Is The Americans Who Have Managed To Crown Minced Beef As Hamburger, And To Send It Round The World So That Even The Fussy French Have Taken To Le Boeuf Hache, Le Hambourgaire.

In France Cooking Is A Serious Art Form And A National Sport. I Think The French Enjoy The Complication Of The Art Form And The Cooking For Cooking's Sake. You Can Talk With A Concierge Or Police Officer About Food In France As A General Rule. It Is Not The General Rule Here. Classical Cuisine, Which I Hope We Are Going Back To, Means Certain Ways Of Doing Things And Certain Ways Of Not Doing Things. If You Know Classical French Cooking You Can Do Anything. If You Don't Know The Basics, You Turn Out Slop.

I'm Not Wild About Those Twenty-four Hour Marinades

Cooking Is Just As Creative And Imaginative An Activity As Drawing, Or Wood Carving, Or Music. And Cooking Draws Upon Your Every Talent--science, Mathematics, Energy, History, Experience--and The More Experience You Have, The Less Likely Are Your Experiments To End In Drivel And Disaster. The More You Know, The More You Can Create.