Food brings back memories. I had a mom that wasn't a good cook, so I would eat my grandma's food. It was amazing because it brings back a time almost in Technicolor. I see her house, I see her stove; I think about what it felt like when I was sick, and it felt like love.
When I was growing up, my grandmother cooked every day. She is the best chef ever.
My husband and I grew up in India, so saag and tikka sauces are very nostalgic for us.
You never forget the discovery years. First kisses. The first time you try certain foods.
No better way to bond than food.
For me, food is about memories, feelings, emotions, and so is Le Bernardin, and that's why it's not just a restaurant.
I grew up watching my mom cook.
One thing that I miss because we spend a lot of time in America is English food, like cooked breakfast and Sunday dinners.
Sometimes I miss hamburgers, I should say that. I miss the tuna pizzas at Mercer Kitchen.
I don't think there was ever a dish that changed my life. I certainly remember a constant series of things that I had for the first time and thought, 'Where has this been all my life?' One was brie. I mean, oh my God! One was my first soft-shell crabs.
I don't know that I have a favorite meal. When I'm cooking I'm thinking about the person I'm feeding and I want to make them whatever they want. My husband's favorite meal is carbonara. I guess my favorite food is anything my mom makes. Because like anybody who loves their mother's cooking, if you try and make your mom's recipes, they never taste quite the same. And I don't know if that's because she's lying about what she's putting in there and just not telling me. Like when I turn my back, she's sneaking something in there. It just never seems to taste the same.
My grandmother used to make the most incredible chicken divan, and my mom has carried out that tradition. It's my comfort food. It's amazing how you can almost taste the memories with a dish like that! And the more leftovers, the better.
When I was a child, I used to eat sugar Frosted Flakes with chocolate milk, but I digest, I mean digress.
The pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet. People who know the garden in which their vegetables have grown and know that the garden is healthy will remember the beauty of the growing plants, perhaps in the dewy first light of morning when gardens are at their best. Such a memory involves itself with the food and is one of the pleasures of eating. (pg. 326, The Pleasures of Eating)
Everyone's past is locked up in their recipes - the past of an individual and the past of a nation as well.
'Blue Plate Special' is the autobiography of my first half-century of life, with food as the subject.
When my mother first passed away some time ago, I didn't enjoy food anymore. I just ate to live. My mother had always cooked so well that I didn't think I could follow her.
Food is a passion because I basically grew up in a kitchen. My mother was a gourmet chef and I'm the youngest of five kids. We would always congregate in the kitchen.
Whether it evokes pleasant memories of holidays in the Caribbean, or best-forgotten outings to Notting Hill, most of us have experienced jerk chicken in one form or another.
I'm not sure I'm a good cook. But I like cooking, and it's a real family thing - an expression of love being together.
I can't hide where I grew up or the flavors I grew up on.
I seriously love to cook... My grandmother was an amazing cook. As a kid I used to help her make handmade pasta, Cavatelli and Ravioli. It was one of my favorite things to do. I love the idea of making whatever is in the fridge into something.
Actually, I am loathe to admit, but I also remember freshman year of Emory - and I'm so sorry to have to admit this - but there was a Domino's Pizza in Emory Village, where I went to college, and I was ordering a pizza.
Along with some of my college friends, I would often bunk classes and drive to Murthal, which is about 50 km from New Delhi, just to have some piping hot parathas. There was this small roadside dhaba where they would serve absolutely delicious aloo parathas with dollops of butter.
Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one's life.
