I believe in the magic of preparation. You can make just about any foods taste wonderful by adding herbs and spices. Experiment with garlic, cilantro, basil and other fresh herbs on vegetables to make them taste great.
I believe in using fresh, high quality from-the-earth ingredients and cooking methods that protect the natural goodness and nutrients of foods, while always maximizing flavor and taste.
Hunger is the best seasoning.
I have been cooking with preserved lemon for years, using it left, right and centre, but I am still far from reaching my limit.
For the Anglo-Saxons, meat was the main meal of the day, which revolved around 'before-meat' and 'after-meat.' But it has ended up as the metaphor for the most basic: 'meat and potatoes' is as far from sassy - from 'sauce' - as you can get.
While a pot of boiling water may not offer the char or smoke of a grill, it does give the cook an advantage when it comes to seasoning food.
Over the years I've tweaked my stuffing recipe many times, adding a variety of ingredients like sauteed wild mushrooms, dried cherries, fresh chevre, toasted hazelnuts, chopped ham hock meat, and other taste treats.
People under-salt their food, and they think it's bland, but salt brings out flavor.
Woe to the cook whose sauce has no sting.
Garlic is divine. Few food items can taste so many distinct ways, handled correctly. Misuse of garlic is a crime...Please, treat your garlic with respect...Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic.
Good-quality nuts, toasted in a little butter and salt, make a magical addition to many salads.
I love working with big flavors like chiles and smoke. Honey is perfect for softening the edges, mellowing them out a bit. I put it in everything - vinaigrettes, soups, stocks, salsas, so I'm always on the hunt for great honey.
Cuisine is only about making foods taste the way they are supposed to taste.
I've taught myself how to use good, fresh ingredients and to prepare them as simply as possible by cooking only to enhance their intrinsic flavors.
What makes bitter things sweet? Hunger.
At some point during every cooking class I teach, I do my signature move: dramatically add handful upon handful of salt to a large pot of boiling water, then taste it and add even more.
One of the smartest things you can do on 'Chopped' is to take one of those ingredients and make a pickle out of it, because almost every dish benefits from that. I'm feeling like those intuitions are becoming more natural.
There's no sauce in the world like hunger.
The addition of vinaigrette to freshly roasted vegetables gives them a freshness and juiciness they don't normally have; the acidity brings out new shades of flavour, too.
I always have a good quality extra virgin olive oil. A cheap quality oil will end up cheapening your dishes. And I love sweetening my dishes with maple syrup. It has a bit of a bitter kick at the end that works wonderfully in savory dishes.
If you're at a restaurant and someone asks, 'Fresh pepper?,' the answer is yes. When people shake off the fresh pepper, they clearly have no interest in living a full life. Same thing goes for grated Parmesan. Why would you turn that down?
I have encouraged my kids to eat well from day one. I add flavor - herbs and spices - to everything because I don't want them getting used to starchy, bland food. I also want them to experiment - they don't have to love everything, but they do have to try it.
When you use a simple gelatin like collagen, you can get flavor that is 100 percent pure, maybe event 150 percent.
My culinary skills are terrible. I can't even make toast taste good. I do make scrambled eggs for myself sometimes but I wouldn't even inflict that on anyone else.
Whatever dressing one gives to mushrooms, to whatever sauces our Apiciuses put them, they are not really good but to be sent back to the dungheap where they are born.
