Erin Morgenstern Quotes

You don't have to be a chef or even a particularly good cook to experience proper kitchen alchemy: the moment when ingredients combine to form something more delectable than the sum of their parts. Fancy ingredients or recipes not required; simple, made-up things are usually even better.

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.

The art of the cuisine, when fully mastered, is the one human capability of which only good things can be said.

A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.

As a child, I first wanted to be a cook because my mother was such a good cook.

I have real admiration for chefs who can maintain an edge and find new inspiration in their cooking after many years.

Ferran Adria making hamburgers... some thought it was crazy. But getting them perfect was a challenge. Plus I'm fascinated by all aspects of food.

To become a good cook is to know yourself, and I, at this point, know myself. I know myself, and I know the cook I want to be and the cook I am striving to be.

I'm surprised by the talent I find all over. There are always new chefs who propose many interesting new ideas, new ways of looking at ingredients.

If you combine good flavors, food turns into an orchestra.

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.

I'm always changing my work, as there are endless ways to think about food.

The holy grail of recipe developing is the recipe that turns out so much more impressive than you would expect from the effort it took to produce.

I don't have any specialties. Anything I cook, I just make it special.

Even more then long hours in the kitchen, fine meals require ingenious organization and experience which is a pleasure to acquire.

I never really cook from recipes. But the worst is when something turns out great and I can't figure out how to make it again!

I have met a lot of top chefs around the world during my travels. Each one of them has said 'Ratatouille' is their favorite movie and the only movie that truly captures what they do.

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

I'm actually a good cook.

They say that a good cook can ignite sparks by the way he kisses. The way I see, just because a guy can turn on the stove doesn't necessarily make him a good cook.

I have been cooking with preserved lemon for years, using it left, right and centre, but I am still far from reaching my limit.

I would try doing a dish 30 different ways.

Being a cook doesn't necessarily mean you are a competitor.

At wd~50, we have carried on, I think, a very honest, legitimate European tradition of messing with foie gras.