I like chicken a lot because chicken is generous – that is to say, it’s obedient. It will do whatever you tell it to do.

Who bothers to cook TV dinners? I suck them frozen.

Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.

When I was younger we had a grape arbor, and my mom would go out and pick grapes and make grape jam in the sink – boil it, put it in jars, and give it away as gifts.

Onion rings in the car cushions do not improve with time.

When I cook for my family on Christmas, I make feijoada, a South American dish of roasted and smoked meats like ham, pork, beef, lamb, and bacon – all served with black beans and rice. It’s festive but different.

I was mischievous. I wasn’t bad. I stole food so we could eat. My mother didn’t know. I used to tell her some man gave me $10 to sweep out the yard. I was like Robin Hood. I took from the rich and gave to the poor. Me.

My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.

The equal right of all citizens to health, education, work, food, security, culture, science, and wellbeing – that is, the same rights we proclaimed when we began our struggle, in addition to those which emerge from our dreams of justice and equality for all inhabitants of our world – is what I wish for all.

We have food all around us all the time, and if we haven’t eaten for three hours, we think we’re starving. You’re not starving – human beings can go for 30 days without food.

Tokyo would probably be the foreign city if I had to eat one city’s food for the rest of my life, every day. It would have to be Tokyo, and I think the majority of chefs you ask that question would answer the same way.

Writing’s just as natural to me as getting up and cooking breakfast.

George Carlin’s album, ‚Class Clown,‘ came out when I was in high school. I memorized a lot of that album. I’d come home from school, put it on, and listen over and over. I started memorizing it. I don’t even know why. I loved it so much I memorized it.

When you’re a chef, you graze. You never get a chance to sit down and eat. They don’t actually sit down and eat before you cook. So when I finish work, the first thing I’ll do, and especially when I’m in New York, I’ll go for a run. And I’ll run 10 or 15k on my – and I run to gain my appetite.

Remember, man does not live on bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up.

The food here is terrible, and the portions are too small.

Eating is so intimate. It’s very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you’re inviting a person into your life.

Some people wanted champagne and caviar when they should have had beer and hot dogs.

There is one thing I have never taught my body how to do and that is to figure out at 6 A.M. what it wants to eat at 6 P.M.

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage.

I have much more support than most women around this world, and I have the financial means to have a home and help with care and food.

I’m not looking to freak people out – eating rodents or bugs. I don’t do that anymore.

Think of our physical sustenance. It is truly heaven-sent. The necessities of air, food, and water all come to us as gifts from a loving Heavenly Father.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

‚Kitchen Confidential‘ wasn’t a cautionary or an expose. I wrote it as an entertainment for New York tri-state area line cooks and restaurant lifers, basically; I had no expectation that it would move as far west as Philadelphia.

Steak and Shake in Indianapolis is definitely the first stop when we hit that city.

Green Eggs and Ham was the story of my life. I wouldn’t eat a thing when I was a kid, but Dr. Seuss inspired me to try cauliflower!

Anyone who’s a chef, who loves food, ultimately knows that all that matters is: ‚Is it good? Does it give pleasure?‘

If you want to become a great chef, you have to work with great chefs. And that’s exactly what I did.

I love sleep; it’s my favorite.

There is no sincerer love than the love of food.

I wasn’t that great a chef, and I don’t think I’m that great a writer.

I’m not trying to take New York by storm. I just want to sneak in there, keep my head down, batten down the hatches and cook.

Acorns were good until bread was found.

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

I’m a decent cook; I’m a decent chef. None of my friends would ever have hired me at any point in my career. Period.

Sometimes, it’s just easier to say yes to that extra snack or dessert, because frankly, it is exhausting to keep saying no. It’s exhausting to plead with our kids to eat just one more bite of vegetables.

My sisters like cooking at my place. It has a bit more room, and the food tastes a little bit better. A big pot of spaghetti and sauce, some warm French bread – works all the time. I think I’ve been eating pasta for 26 years.

In New York I pretty much live in diners – I order French Fries, Diet Coke floats and lots of coffee.

The vulgar boil, the learned roast, an egg.

I’m very type-A, and many things in my life are about control and domination, but eating should be a submissive experience, where you let down your guard and enjoy the ride.

Fashion is life-enhancing, and I think it’s a lovely, generous thing to do for other people.

I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick. Not wounded. Dead.

The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

Out of all the guitars in the whole world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite. They’re cheap and totally inefficient, and they sound like crap and are very small.

I want my food dead. Not sick, not dying, dead.

Cooking is about passion, so it may look slightly temperamental in a way that it’s too assertive to the naked eye.

You don’t come into cooking to get rich.

People are generally proud of their food. A willingness to eat and drink with people without fear and prejudice… they open up to you in ways that somebody visiting who is driven by a story may not get.

Regardless of what our national credit rating is, people will always want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, fuel for their cars, and clothes on their backs.

Let’s face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.

Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life.

Wherever I go, as long as I get a hot vegetable dish, I am okay. If I am in Gujarat, I have Gujarati food. If it’s Shillong, it’s northeastern.

Never order food in excess of your body weight.

Why can’t I just eat my waffle?

Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.

I’m evangelical on the subject of some chefs and writers.

Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish – too much handling will spoil it.

The Kobe craze really annoyed me. Most of the practitioners had no real understanding of the product and were abusing it and exploiting it in terrible and ridiculous ways. Kobe beef should not be used in a hamburger. It’s completely pointless.

My father opened a restaurant. It’s so amazing… it’s so freaking delicious, but I’m telling you I gain five pounds every time I go in there.