Cuisine Quotes

“Her cuisine is limited but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotchwoman."

[Sherlock Holmes, on Mrs. Hudson's cooking.]”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Naval Treaty - a Sherlock Holmes Short Story

“A culinary triumph: the ingenious use of food as an offensive weapon.”
― James Hamilton-Paterson, Cooking with Fernet Branca

“Stop that! I am not a corn dog!”
― Tatsuki Fujimoto, チェンソーマン 15 [Chainsaw Man 15]

“Fine food is poison. It can be as bitter as antimony and bitter almonds and as repulsive as swallowing live toads. Like the poison the emperor took every day to stop himself being poisoned, fine food must be taken daily until the system becomes immune to its ravages and the taste buds beaten and abused to the point where they not only accept but savour every vile concoction under the sun.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Teran, The Palace

“brown-capped porcini, yellow chanterelles, and oysters, every hillside ablaze with multicolored mushrooms, tasty and not nourishing in the slightest.”
― Ioanna Karystiani, The Jasmine Isle

“Nasir made a plate of food for her, heaping bright green rice next to a red spill of the curried goat, layering slices of breadfruit by the edge of her plate. Feyi thanked them both awkwardly, then ate in blissful silence as flavors unfurled in her mouth, Joy would kill to be here. Feyi tried to remember everything so she could describe it to her best friend later, the way the breadfruit melted in her mouth, how easily the curried goat dripped off its bone, how fragrant the rice was.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty

“Culinary history is rife with controversy and debate. Ketchup on steak and pineapple on pizza are quaint discussions compared to outright fights over adding salt to the water when boiling pasta or the balance of peanut butter and jam in a sandwich. Foodies now wonder whether a Pop-Tart can be considered a ravioli.”
― Jeff Swystun, TV DINNERS UNBOXED: The Hot History of Frozen Meals

“The meteorologist sent more LA restaurant recommendations as they occurred to him: mapo tofu lasagna, cheese wheel pasta just for the spectacle of it, pupusas, cha gio, tahdig from his uncle's sit-down establishment, neither of us dwelling on whether these restaurants still existed.”
― C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey

“But my own style, I'd say, is more homestyle, with Jewish influences? Not kosher cooking; that's a different thing. I'm inspired by traditional Jewish cuisine."
Paper rustled on the other end. "Right, the matzah ball ramen you cooked in your video looked fantastic. We were all drooling in the room!"
I perked up. Forgot that I was naked. Forgot that lately I was a walking disaster. "That's one of my go-tos and will definitely be on my future menu. I've been experimenting lately with putting a spin on kugels..."
As I chattered on, I could practically see my grandma shaking her head at me. Grandma Ruth had cooked up a storm for every Passover, Yom Kippur, and Chanukah, piling her table till it groaned with challah rolls, beef brisket in a ketchup-based sauce, and tomato and cucumber salad so fresh and herby and acidic it could make you feel like summer in the middle of winter.”
― Amanda Elliot, Sadie on a Plate

“She'd make all the ingredients individually for her kimchi-jjigae," he went on. "Anchovy stock. Her own kimchi, which made the cellar smell like garlic and red pepper all the time. The pork shoulder simmering away. And when she'd mix it all together..." He trailed off, tipping his head back against the seat. It was the first movement he'd made over the course of his speaking; his hands rested still by his sides. "It was everything. Salty, sour, briny, rich, and just a tiny bit sweet from the sesame oil. I've been trying to make it for years, and mine has never turned out like hers."
My anxiety manifestation popped up out of nowhere, hovering invisibly over one off Luke's shoulders. The boy doesn't know that the secret ingredient in every grandma's dish is love. He needs some more love in his life, said Grandma Ruth, eyeing me beadily. Maybe yours. Is he Jewish?
I shook my head, banishing her back to the ether. "I get the feeling," I said. "I can make a mean matzah ball soup, with truffles and homemade broth boiled for hours from the most expensive free-range chickens, and somehow it never tastes as good as the soup my grandma would whip up out of canned broth and frozen vegetables."
Damn straight, Grandma Ruth said smugly.
Didn't I just banish you? I thought, but it was no use.
"So is that the best thing you've ever eaten?" Luke asked. "Your grandma's matzah ball soup?"
I shook my head. I opened my mouth, about to tell him about Julie Chee's grilled cheese with kimchi and bacon and how it hadn't just tasted of tart, sour kimchi and crunchy, smoky bacon and rich, melted cheese but also belonging and bedazzlement and all these feelings that didn't have names, like the dizzy, accomplished feeling you'd get after a Saturday night dinner rush when you were a little drunk but not a lot drunk because you had to wake up in time for Sunday brunch service, but then everything that happened with Derek and the Green Onion kind of changed how I felt about it. Painted over it with colors just a tiny bit off.
So instead I told him about a meal I'd had in Lima, Peru, after backpacking up and down Machu Picchu. "Olive tofu with octopus, which you wouldn't think to put together, or at least I wouldn't have," I said. The olive tofu had been soft and almost impossibly creamy, tasting cleanly of olives, and the octopus had been meaty and crispy charred on the outside, soft on the inside.”
― Amanda Elliot, Sadie on a Plate

“Appalachian food?"
"It's not given its proper due," Kel said. "But it's just as rich and diverse and interesting as every other cuisine."
I didn't know a ton about Appalachian food, but I knew it incorporated foods native to the Appalachian region and was sometimes stereotypically associated with times of hardship, when families had to feed a lot of people with very little. Buckwheat cakes. Vinegar pie. Stews and rabbits. Vegetables like morrels and ramps eaten fresh, or others canned in creative ways.”
― Amanda Elliot, Sadie on a Plate

“I gave Kangaroo Joe his nickname because all I could find when I looked him up was that he'd won a kangaroo cooking challenge at one of those bars that specializes in cooking exotic meats," Nia chirped.
"Kangaroos are the deer of Australia," said Kangaroo Joe.
"Okay." I glanced over at Potbelly and Loafers. "And Vanilla Joe?
"His signature recipe on his food truck involves a vanilla sauce on a hot dog," Nia said.
"It's an artisan sausage, not a hot dog," said Vanilla Joe. "And the sauce is technically an aioli."
"Okay, Vanilla Joe," Kel said. Their lips twitched, and I suspected the reasoning behind his nickname had nothing to do with the vanilla sauce on his food truck.
"It's the season of the Joes," Nia said. "Oh! I think I just heard the door open."
Over the next couple of hours, I ate my weight in cheese and met four of the other five contestants. There was Ernesto, a serious-looking guy in his thirties who cooked Tex-Mex, heavy on the Mex. Oliver, who cooked California cuisine. Mercedes, who cooked modern Filipino food. Megan, a solidly built woman with a buzz cut who cooked what she called "eclectic food" with a Chinese twist.”
― Amanda Elliot, Sadie on a Plate

“Chef Kel, your spoon bread and trumpet mushrooms were so rich you almost didn't need to add those shavings of ham on top," Maz said, then added a hearty laugh. "Though I'm sure glad you did. Almost as glad as I was for those bracingly vinegary sumac-pickled onions in the mix. They kept the dish from being over-the-top rich.”
― Amanda Elliot, Sadie on a Plate

“I have eaten too many types of cuisines and food. For me, every dish has their own taste and story. I can't pick the best dish I've ever had, simply because I enjoy all food types!”
― Rinrin Marinka

“No matter what, there will always be tahdig. It's who we are. It's where we come from.”
― Naz Deravian, Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories

“The familiar cooking warmth coming from the booths soothed my anxious thoughts, like entering a labyrinth of barbecued, breaded, deep-fried treats. Acarajé bursting with shrimp. Grilled fish covered in lime juice and raw onion rings. Coxinhas loaded with shredded chicken and potato. Pastéis heavy with extra minced meat and olives. Coconut and cheese tapioca. Crepe sticks, too, prepared on demand right before the customers' eyes, the batter cooked like a waffle and filled with chocolate and doce de leite.”
― Rebecca Carvalho, Salt and Sugar

“Bell pepper and onion skewers dripping with garlic hot sauce and a little lime. Chicken and steak skewers wrapped in bacon. And a side of farofa so we could dip the skewers and feel the crunch of kasava flour soaking up juices from the meat.”
― Rebecca Carvalho, Salt and Sugar

“Food is language; cuisine is a dialect.”
― Odale Cress, Cuisine is a Dialect, A Leisurely Stroll Through the Edible History of Provincetown

“Bon VoyApetit!”
― Odale Cress, Cuisine is a Dialect, A Leisurely Stroll Through the Edible History of Provincetown

“Some may go so far as to label these pleasures vices, but I would not, for what is a vice after all, but a pleasure with a bad reputation?”
― Odale Cress, Cuisine is a Dialect, A Leisurely Stroll Through the Edible History of Provincetown

“I knew there would be a talk coming, but obviously we couldn't let the food get cold. Or warm, in the case of the tuna tartare with benne seeds I finally got to compare to Jada Knox's review. It really did taste a little bit like coffee, which, contrasted with the cold, clean chunks of tuna and hits of acid, was the perfect mellowing factor. The red stew, with a tender chicken thigh nearly falling apart in the spicy, sharp broth, was both hearty and exciting, the bland, fluffy fufu it was served over the perfect contrast. And the curried goat with roti and crispy potatoes? The whole fried red snapper with jerk seasoning? All the contrasts of flavor and texture made me want to eat and eat and eat until I burst.”
― Amanda Elliot, Best Served Hot

“There is an expectation difference when eating frozen meals. They have long been maligned and ridiculed. Early ones were said to taste metallic or bland or salty or a combination of the three. Their association as a lower-income staple has impacted perceptions. This is why even the most mediocre experience is elevated. The Swanson TV Dinner mostly satisfies but will never be confused with fine dining.”
― Jeff Swystun, TV DINNERS UNBOXED: The Hot History of Frozen Meals

“The sight of the pale-yellow façade of 82 Queen with the large golden numerals on the small black awning over the narrow entrance always made me smile. It was one of the grand dames of the Charleston restaurant scene. Opened in 1982 and comprised of three adjoining eighteenth-century town houses and a courtyard, it was the first restaurant to combine the local African, French, Caribbean, and Anglo-Saxon tastes to create a new culinary genre known as Lowcountry cuisine.”
― Victoria Benton Frank, My Magnolia Summer

“Many of the featured establishments have been around for generations, some for hundreds of years. The reason is that whilst Kyoto is a modern city, it is also an ancient city where much of Japanese culture sprouted and developed, including many aspects of the Japanese kitchen. Visiting these establishments, experiencing their hospitality, and sampling their wares is literally taking a tour through a significant part of Japanese culinary history, often in the original setting. It’s a unique opportunity for anyone with an interest in Kyoto and Japanese culture more generally. Through these establishments, you can feel the Kyoto style and by extension a core aspect of Japanese style.”
― Chikashi Miyamoto, An Insider’s Guide to Authentic Kyoto for Foodies: A Curated List of Where to Eat and Drink in Kyoto

“One of the recurring themes mentioned in this guide is the quality of well water in Kyoto. Their soft water is an essential ingredient in making many of their gastronomic creations exceptional. However, it takes people to recognise its importance and use the resource appropriately and responsibly. It requires care. It requires sensibility. The availability of their superior well water is happenstance, but the creative use of it is hardly an accident. It’s because of the crafts practised by the people.”
― Chikashi Miyamoto, An Insider’s Guide to Authentic Kyoto for Foodies: A Curated List of Where to Eat and Drink in Kyoto

“This little place is a jewel that is quite possibly my #1 eatery in the world. Pre-publication, I said that [O] is in my global top five, but after actually giving the notion some thought, I don’t think there is another restaurant anywhere in the world that I would rather visit.”
― Chikashi Miyamoto, An Insider’s Guide to Authentic Kyoto for Foodies: A Curated List of Where to Eat and Drink in Kyoto

“His cuisine struck me as delicate, for the Pudding, which had always been known for its delicious but none-too-daring gentleman's club cuisine, the richer, the better. Gus's dishes included dabs of steak tartare placed on top of thinly peeled cucumbers and studded with quail eggs; poached sea bass on top of a scoop of asparagus puree; potatoes mousseline whipped so smooth you could not detect even the flecks of pepper.”
― Charlotte Silver, Charlotte Au Chocolat: Memories of a Restaurant Girlhood

“Un simple plat en sauce peut avoir un effet tranquillisant, quasi maternel. Même si, en vérité, c’est souvent meilleur avant de le manger. Les promesses trahies des spécialités locales qui, une fois en bouche, se révèlent originaires de Barquette-en-Alu me font le même effet qu’un copain qui vous raccroche au nez.”
― Fabien Maréchal, L'Attendeur (de Première classe)

“La Lauze est l’un de ces restaurants à la mode depuis quelques années à Paris. Sièges anguleux, ambiance en nuances de gris avec la signature bien en vue du designer au coin d’un comptoir patiné pour paraître authentique, et une assiette dressée autant pour le goût que pour les réseaux sociaux avec son voile de curry, son trait de jus de bette- rave et sa compotée de carotte bleue, comme si une sculpture de Niki de Saint Phalle s’était échappée du centre Pompidou pour se soulager dans votre hors-d’œuvre. On appelle cela la « bistronomie », je suppose qu’elle finira par envahir jusqu’à Limoges, et le boudin aux pommes jettera les armes aux pieds des légions gustatives du XXIe siècle, tel Vercingétorix devant Jules César.”
― Fabien Maréchal, L'Attendeur (de Première classe)

“Tsuyahime rice from Yamagata-extra-big portion of that. Pork miso soup on the side. Plenty of root vegetables in there too, even if they're not all fancy Kyoto specialties. Now, the large platter is a fusion of Japanese and Western cuisine. That there is deep-fried hamo eel with sour plum pulp and perilla leaf. The Manganji peppers are deep-fried too. Try those with my homemade Worcestershire sauce. The small bowl is miso-simmered mackerel with a shredded myoga ginger dressing. The roast beef is Kyoto stock- best enjoyed with a drizzle of the wasabi-infused soy sauce and wrapped in a sheet of toasted nori. As for the teriyaki-style duck meatballs, you can dip those in the accompanying quail egg yolk. Chilled tofu garnished with the minced skin of the hamo eel and, finally, deep-fried Kamo eggplant with a starchy curry sauce. Enjoy!”
― Hisashi Kashiwai, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes