Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.
James BeardRead
The secret of good cooking is, first, having a love of it… If you’re convinced that cooking is drudgery, you’re never going to be good at it, and you might as well warm up something frozen.
Interpretation
Cooking requires passion and enjoyment; without love, it becomes tedious and unremarkable.
James Beard emphasizes that the foundation of excellent cooking lies in a genuine love for the craft. When cooking is approached with enthusiasm, it transforms from a mundane task into an art form, elevating the quality of the food and the experience of cooking itself. Conversely, if one views cooking as a chore, the results will likely reflect that lack of passion.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a cooking class to inspire participants.
Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.
There is absolutely no substitute for the best. Good food cannot be made of inferior ingredients masked with high flavor. It is true thrift to use the best ingredients available and to waste nothing.
Food is our common ground, a universal experience.
A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.
Anecdotes don't make good stories. Generally I dig down underneath them so far that the story that finally comes out is not what people thought their anecdotes were about.
Everybody has the same energy potential. The average person wastes his in a dozen little ways. I bring mine to bear on one thing only: my paintings, and everything else is sacrificed to it...myself included.
Apropos, is not the Scotch phrase 'Auld Lang Syne' exceedingly expressive? I shall give you the verses on the other sheet. The words of 'Auld Lang Syne' are good, but the music is an old air, the rudiments of the modern tune of that name. ... Dare to be honest and fear no labor. ... Opera is where a man gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings. ... Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure thrill the deepest notes of woe. ... Critics! Those cut-throat bandits in the paths of fame.
Making art was really about the problem of the soul, of losing it. It was a technique for inhabiting the world. For not dissolving into it.
What I really like is an intelligent review. It doesn't have to be positive. A review that has some kind of insight, and sometimes people say something that's startling or is so poignant.
I'm a musician and, just as the critics are hard on me, I'm hard on the critics.
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