The Main Thing Is To Have A

In France Cooking Is A Serious Art Form And A National Sport. I Think The French Enjoy The Complication Of The Art Form And The Cooking For Cooking's Sake. You Can Talk With A Concierge Or Police Officer About Food In France As A General Rule. It Is Not The General Rule Here. Classical Cuisine, Which I Hope We Are Going Back To, Means Certain Ways Of Doing Things And Certain Ways Of Not Doing Things. If You Know Classical French Cooking You Can Do Anything. If You Don't Know The Basics, You Turn Out Slop.

I Had My First French Meal And I Never Got Over It. It Was Just Marvelous. We Had Oysters And A Lovely Dry White Wine. And Then We Had One Of Those Lovely Scalloped Dishes And The Lovely, Creamery Buttery Sauce. Then We Had A Roast Duck And I Don't Know What Else.

To Be A Good Cook You Have To Have A Love Of The Good, A Love Of Hard Work, And A Love Of Creating.

There Are Only Four Great Arts: Music, Painting, Sculpture, And Ornamental Pastry- Architecture Being Perhaps The Least Banal Derivative Of The Latter.

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.