Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.

When she goes about her kitchen duties, chopping, carving, mixing, whisking, she moves with the grace and precision of a ballet dancer, her fingers plying the food with the dexterity of a croupier.

He was an innovator, an experimenter, a missionary in bringing the gospel of good cooking to the home table.

Man is born to eat

Physically he was the connoisseur's connoisseur. He was a giant panda, Santa Claus and the Jolly Green Giant rolled into one. On him, a lean and slender physique would have looked like very bad casting.

A fat kitchen, a lean will.