Ruth Reichl Quotes

I do a lot of recipe creation. Translation: cooking tempting dishes that must be eaten.

My family is usually the first guinea pigs to try out my new recipes.

Because I am a chef, I have to try new things all the time, so it's been really good to have my family to be able to be there and test everything out.

Part of my job as a food writer is to describe food. So my work on 'Top Chef,' I feel, is an extension of that. When we give a criticism to the contestant, we want to make sure we tell them why it's not working and why it would work if they did it a different way.

It is important to experiment and endlessly seek after creating the best possible flavors when preparing foods. That means not being afraid to experiment with various ingredients.

After all these years of cooking and writing recipes, I am still amazed every time I notice how even the minutest of variation in technique can make a spectacular difference.

It's very hard to be an innovator at the highest level in any discipline. For some chefs it's merely about combining ingredients, but that's something you can do with your eyes closed.

I love food and am very good at improvising when preparing it - it's a really creative experience for me.

Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore.

I'm a home cook, and I'm constantly embarrassed by twentysomethings who really do know the mechanics of cooking. How to build a sauce.

Chefs think about what it's like to make food. Being a scientist in the kitchen is about asking why something works, and how it works.

When it was availed to me that I had free time, I chose to go to cooking school every day, six hours a day, like a diploma program. I wanted to learn something new.

Your idea of that dish has evolved, and if you're a cook, you can start thinking in different ways about it, maybe even a different way than I think about it.

We can use all the scientific tools, but it will never replace the palate or the talent of the chefs who are in the kitchen.

I remember loving food tech because of the precision and the creativity, the weights and measures, the tiny glimpses of flavour.

Everything is tested in my little kitchen. The recipes are mine and that's really important to me. When I do a cookery show I know these recipes really well, because every recipe I've ever published has been tested by my kids.

As chefs, especially pastry chefs, your creativity plays such an important part in your daily work. We truly do have a blank canvas to work with every time we create a new dish.

Talent in cooking can be described as skill, creativity, your instincts, how do you approach a problem.

I'm yet to attack French cooking, you know, where it's intense, following recipes and stuff. I'm more of a 'make it up' kind of thing.

When I'm menu-developing at Milk Bar, I'll go for weeks at a time where all I'm doing is testing out layer cakes or different cookies and testing out changes.

I love cooking and eating - I'm a total foodie. It started off as a survival thing as a student, when cheese and potato pie was all I could afford to make. My most successful results come from concocting something with leftovers. Any chef will tell you that you should taste as you cook, so I might make it a bit more spicy, yogurty or eggy.

I am well aware that a chef is only as good as his last meal.

Cooking's my hobby.

Generally, I cook from the soul and measure by eye, throwing in this and that along the way. But I want to be a certified chef. That's one of my goals.

I'm a keen experimenter in the kitchen. With food, not with anything else!