Heat Control Quotes

Recipe writers hate to write about heat. They despise it. Because there aren't proper words for communicating what should be done with it.

I don't know how to cook at all.

Copper is a superb cooking metal, conducting heat so evenly it has unparalleled control, especially at low temperatures.

A grill is just a source of heat. Just like a stove, it is very user-friendly.

I prefer lump charcoal over briquettes but I do use both for different reasons and different recipes and sometimes I combine them both when I really want the woodsy aroma from the lump charcoal and long, even heat from the briquettes.

Three or four stones in one firing will all react differently. I try to achieve a balance between those that haven't progressed enough and those about to go too far.

Cooking is physical; it's easier to learn than playing golf. You chop food, you pan fry it - what else is there to it?

I'm trying to learn how to cook.

I found that preparation is everything when you cook.

For the timid or uninitiated, leaf-wrapped foods offer an ideal and gentle introduction to fire cooking. Liberated from the need to worry about whether the fish is sticking to the grill or burning, pay attention instead to the rate of browning on the surface of the leaf, which you'll get to discard whether it chars or remains pale.

I'm cautious about using fire. It can become theatrical. I am interested in the heat, not the flames.

I love using gas grills because they are easier to heat and it's much easier to control the flames with a gas grill than with a charcoal fire. Grilling is not just about lighting a fire.

There's a point of no return when you're cooking tomatoes. A little too much heat, a little too long in the pot, and you lose that sense of fresh ripeness that makes tomatoes so great.

A great trick for frying is to put a popcorn kernel in the oil, and when it pops, you're ready to fry.

Too often, chefs just want to experiment - they want to use liquid nitrogen before they know how to use heat.

The key to good grilling is to recognize that you are setting yourself up to cook in a whole new environment. This is actually one of the main purposes of grilling - to get yourself outside.

Grilling used to make me nervous, but then I learned to view the fire as just another source of heat, no different from a stove or an oven.

The only thing that counts is if you know how to prepare your ingredients. Even if with the best and freshest ingredients in the world, if your dish is tasteless or burnt, it's ruined.