Laura Esquivel Quotes

I think America's food culture is embedded in fast-food culture. And the real question that we have is: How are we going to teach slow-food values in a fast-food world? Of course, it's very, very difficult to do, especially when children have grown up eating fast food and the values that go with that.

Simply by starting to cook again, you declare your independence from the culture of fast food. As soon as you cook, you start thinking about ingredients. You start thinking about plants and animals and not the microwave. And you will find that your diet, just by that one simple act, that is greatly improved.

I'm going to work on food culture and help food become fun and part of peoples' lives again. The traditional restaurant is more commercial-oriented. But I want community through food.

The business of feeding people is the most amazing business in the world.

I can remember when I first went into the Himalayan area way back in 1951. Money, for instance, was not important at all to the local people. But now, finance has become just as important to them as it is to us, and this is a change maybe not for the better.

When it becomes a revolutionary act to eat real food, we are in trouble.

I love to sit and eat quietly and enjoy each bite, aware of the presence of my community, aware of all the hard and loving work that has gone into my food.

I love to talk about cooking and recipes, but I love as much talking about how food and cooking can change the world.

My contribution I hope is to get people to eat full-flavored food. If I could come away with that alone, that would be a fantastic accomplishment. I'm also very proud of being a very American chef.

Know you food, know your farmers, and know your kitchen.

To be interested in food but not in food production is clearly absurd.

No one could touch the home cooking of an Italian woman. French women, they are very intelligent, very sexy - but they don't like to cook.

When you grow up close to poultry and fields and gardens and open-air markets, you can't help but develop an instinct for quality food.

My favorite kitchen was the Japanese and the Italian kitchen.

There's never been a culture that wasn't obsessed with food. The sort of sad thing is that our obsession is no longer with food, but with the price of food.

We've been so disconnected agriculturally and culturally from food. We spend more time on dieting than on cooking.

I've always believed food, like music, has the power to change our day and even shape our world.

I've always been very open about how my mother taught me to cook and how I'm delighted to share my family's recipes.

The United States is far too efficient. We've lost the ceremony of eating. People don't eat at home and cook meals at home.

People cooked with a certain integrity before fast food, 50 or 60 years ago. When the cheap food arrived, and we didn't have the education and deep cultural roots to hold on, we got swept away by fast, cheap and easy.

My grandmother taught me the seasonality of food. She lived with the rhythms of nature. That's the way we should live. Why do we need raspberries in January flown from Chile?

I grew up with an abundance of things from our garden, so fried food was not enjoyable.

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

We undervalue food in this country, yet Britain has beautiful food and beautiful growing conditions. It is astonishing the range we can grow.

When you taste something delicious, ask for the recipe! Or offer to trade a recipe!