Top 204 Quotes & Sayings by Julia Child - Page 3

We are so bemused by our own petard, that we are unable to look at things objectively.

I’m awfully sorry for people who are taken in by all of today’s dietary mumbo jumbo. They are not getting any enjoyment out of their food.

I don't believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make.... Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile...then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile.

The main thing is to have a gutsy approach and use your head.

Ye gods! But you're not standing around holding it by the hand all this time. No. [...] [T]he dough takes care of itself. [...] While you cannot speed up the process, you can slow it down at any point by setting the dough in a cooler place [...] then continue where you left off, when you are ready to do so. In other words, you are the boss of that dough.

I believe in red meat. I often said: red meat and gin.

Upon reflection, I decided I had three main weaknesses: I was confused (evidenced by a lack of facts, an inability to coordinate my thoughts, and an inability to verbalize my ideas); I had a lack of confidence, which cause me to back down from forcefully stated positions; and I was overly emotional at the expense of careful, 'scientific' though. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.

I admired the English immensely for all that they had endured, and they were certainly honorable, and stopped their cars for pedestrians, and called you “sir” and “madam,” and so on. But after a week there, I began to feel wild. It was those ruddy English faces, so held in by duty, the sense of “what is done” and “what is not done,” and always swigging tea and chirping, that made me want to scream like a hyena

You have to eat to cook. You can't be a good cook and be a noneater. I think eating is the secret to good cooking.

We hit it off immediately, especially Helene, who was a 'swallow-life-in-big-gulps' kind of person.

People were hysterical about Communism the way people today are hysterical about flag burning. I'm really against these people who try to show that they're great patriots, because they're not thinking, they're just being hysterical.

Just how could a nation often be great if it's bread tastes want Kleenex.

People who are not interested in food always seem rather dry and unloving and don't have a real gusto for life.

My mother was independent. She had grown up in Dalton and Pittsfield, in western Massachusetts, and she was one of the first women drivers in that area.

Wine is one of the agreeable and essential ingredients of life

Was it a sign of Creeping Decrepitude?

Too much trouble," "Too expensive," or "Who will know the difference" are death knells for good food.

I was a romantic, messy thinker. I was raised with very conservative beliefs, but that was a long time ago.

It is the Americans who have managed to crown minced beef as hamburger, and to send it round the world so that even the fussy French have taken to le boeuf hache, le hambourgaire.

Food like love is a deeply emotional matter.

We should enjoy food and have fun. It is one of the simplest and nicest pleasures in life.

Sooner or later the public will forget you; the memory of you will fade. What's important are the individuals you've influenced along the way.

I was kind of an innocent hayseed from a middle-class, utterly nonintellectual background.

The American poultry industry had made it possible to grow a fine-looking fryer in record time and sell it at a reasonable price, but no one mentioned that the result usually tasted like the stuffing inside of a teddy bear.

Many of the delicious soups you eat in French homes and little restaurants are made just this way, with a leek-and-potato base to which leftover vegetables or sauces and a few fresh items are added.

the more experience you have, the more interesting cooking is because you know what can happen to the food. In the beginning you can look at a chicken and it doesn't mean much, but once you have done some cooking you can see in that chicken a parade of things you will be able to create.

If you are going to flip something, you must have the courage of your convictions.

Freshness is essential. That makes all the difference.

The problem for cookery-bookery writers like me is to understand the extent of our readers' experience. I hope have solved that riddle in my books by simply telling everything. The experienced cook will know to skip through the verbiage, but the explanations will be there for those who still need them.

But I was a pure romantic, and only operating with half my burners turned on.

There is nothing nicer than a kitchen really made for a cook. Things that are designed to be used always have an innate beauty.

Sometimes ... it takes me an entire day to write a recipe, to communicate it correctly. It's really like writing a little short story.

The sweetness and generosity and politeness and gentleness and humanity of the French had shown me how lovely life can be if one takes time to be friendly.

My, I get so depressed after a poor meal; that's why I can never stay in England for more than a week.

I have trouble with toast. Toast is very difficult. You have to watch it all the time or it burns up.

Remember, you are all alone in the kitchen and no one can see you.

There are reasons, and then there are excuses.

Because of media hype and woefully inadequate information, too many people nowadays are deathly afraid of their food, and what does fear of food do to the digestive system? ... I, for one, would much rather swoon over a few thin slices of prime beefsteak, or one small serving of chocolate mousse, or a sliver of foie gras than indulge to the full on such nonentities as fat-free gelatin puddings.

Wine is meant to be with food - that's the point of it.

Cassoulet, that best of bean feasts, is everyday fare for a peasant but ambrosia for a gastronome, though its ideal consumer is a 300-pound blocking back who has been splitting firewood nonstop for the last twelve hours on a subzero day in Manitoba.

I'm very much for making everything safe. The more natural the means we use to raise our vegetables and get rid of bugs, the better.

If you're in a good profession, it's hard to get bored, because you're never finished - there will always be work you haven't done.

Good french cooking cannot be produced by a zombie cook.

We had a happy marriage because we were together all the time. We were friends as well as husband and wife. We just had a good time.

...operational proof...it's all theory until you see for yourself whether or not something works.

Personally, I don't think pure vegetarianism is a healthy lifestyle. I've often wondered to myself: Does a vegetarian look forward to dinner, ever?

It's hard to imagine a civilization without onions; in one form or another their flavor blends into almost everything in the meal except the desert.

Celebrity has its uses. I can always get a seat in any restaurant.

I was a Republican until I got to New York and had to live on $18 a week. It was then that I became a Democrat.

When the war broke out I decided I would be very patriotic. Standing my full height. I presented myself to the Wacs and the to the Waves. And I was rejected - I was an inch too tall.

I'm afraid that surprise, shock, and regret is the fate of authors when they finally see themselves on the page.

...the waiters carried themselves with a quiet joy, as if their entire mission in life was to make their customers feel comfortable and well tended.

There is nothing worse than grilled vegetables.

You don’t spring into good cooking naked. You have to have some training. You have to learn how to eat.

I don't think about whether people will remember me or not. I've been an ok person. I've learned a lot. I've taught people a thing or two. That's what's important.

I'm a beet freak. I put them in the pressure cooker.

If you're buying tomatoes pick them up and smell them-they should have a lovely perfume. They need to be kept at fifty degrees or above, particularly during the growing season, because that's when they develop their flavor.

Some children like to make castles out of their rice pudding, or faces with raisins for eyes. It is forbidden -- so sternly that, when they grow up, they take a horrid revenge by dying meringues pale blue or baking birthday cakes in the form of horseshoes or lyres or whatnot.

No one's more important than people.

People liked to eat veal until they saw pictures of these darling little animals with brown eyes. Veal calves been raised the same way for centuries.