If you really taste a doughnut, it's pretty disgusting. They taste of grease.

You can be a decent critic if you know about food, but to be a really good one, you need to know about life.

In really good times, you say, 'No, I'm not taking that ad.' But in bad times, you'll take anything.

M. F. K. Fisher was a wonder and a huge influence, and someone I got to know pretty well at the end of her life.

I meet people, and we can get past small talk pretty quickly if they've read my books. It's a great shortcut.

What does happen in 'Gourmet,' we had eight test kitchens, and at any given time, there were, like, ten or twelve test cooks. And whenever anybody finished something, they would yell, 'Taste!' and everyone would go running towards it, and then taste, and then brutally deconstruct the dish.