If your big dream is to be renown chef, here’s a collection of the 50 best cooking quotes of all time to inspire you with your culinary (or “foodie”) dreams.
These cooking quotes are about falling in love with food and the love of cooking from some of the world’s most famous chefs. Feel free to share this collection of top gastronomy quotes with everyone you know who is passionate about the culinary arts and the joys of cooking.
The 50 Best Cooking Quotes of all Time
1. “It’s not about passion. Passion is something that we tend to overemphasize, that we certainly place too much importance on. Passion ebbs and flows. To me, it’s about desire. If you have constant, unwavering desire to be a cook, then you’ll be a great cook.” – Thomas Keller
2. “I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.” – WC Fields
3. “If God had intended us to follow recipes, He wouldn’t have given us grandmothers.” – Linda Henley
4. “The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.” – Julia Child
5. “Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” – Harriet Van Horne
6. “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf
7. “I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation.” – Madam Benoit
8. “Cheese–milk’s leap towards immortality.” – Clifton Fadiman
9. “There is no such thing as a little garlic.” – Anonymous
10. “The way you make an omelet reveals your character.” – Anthony Bourdain
11. “Great food is like great sex. The more you have, the more you want.” – Gael Greene
12. “Great cooking is about being inspired by the simple things around you–fresh markets, various spices. It doesn’t necessarily have to look fancy.” – G. Garvin
13. “Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.” – Sophia Loren
14. “Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian, wine and tarragon make it French, sour cream makes it Russian, lemon and cinnamon make it Greek, soy sauce makes it Chinese, garlic makes it good.” – Alice May Brock
15. “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” – Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
16. “Cooking is the art of adjustment.” – Jacques Pepin
17. “Food, glorious food!” – Lionel Bart
18. “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” – George Bernard Shaw
19. “Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” – Michael Pollan
20. “Condiments are like old friends—highly thought of, but often taken for granted.” – Marilyn Kaytor
21. “Cookery is a wholly unselfish art: All good cooks, like all great artists, must have an audience worth cooking for.” – Andre Simon
22. “Love and eggs are best when they are fresh.” – Russian proverb
23. “Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.” – Don Kardong
24. “A chocolate in the mouth is worth two on the plate.” – Anonymous
25. “If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.” – Julia Child
26. “All sorrows are less with bread.” – Don Quixote
27. “A well-made loaf of French bread will leave a thousand crumbs strewn across the table.” – Anonymous
28. “I can’t stand people that do not take food seriously.” – Oscar Wilde
29. “The secret of good seafood stuffing is in starting with cubes of stale bread, rather than breadcrumbs.” – Anonymous
30. “Most seafoods should be simply threatened with heat and then celebrated with joy.” – Jeff Smith
31. “Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements.” – Marcel Boulestin
32. “Cuisine has become too complicated — this is about subject, verb, adjective: duck, turnips, sauce.” – Alain Ducasse
33. “Life is too short for self-hatred and celery sticks.” – Marilyn Wann
34. “A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.” – James Beard
35. “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.” – Adelle Davis
36. “Fish, to taste right, must swim three times — in water, in butter and in wine.” – Polish Proverb
37. “You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.” – Julia Child
38. “Banish the onion from the kitchen and the pleasure flies with it.” – Elizabeth Robbins Pennell
39. “When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste.” – Laiko Bahrs
40. “The greatest dishes are very simple.” – Auguste Escoffier
41.”Life is a combination of magic and pasta.” – Federico Fellini
42. “Popcorn for breakfast! Why not? It’s a grain. It’s like, like, grits, but with high self-esteem.” – James Patterson
43. “We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.” – David Mamet
44.”Anything is good if it’s made of chocolate.” – Jo Brand
45.”The preparation of good food is merely another expression of art, one of the joys of civilized living.” – Dione Lucas
46.”Fat gives things flavor.” – Julia Child
47.”I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.” – Erma Bombeck
48. “Cooking is an observation-based process that you can’t do if you’re so completely focused on a recipe.” – Alton Brown
49. “I think every woman should have a blowtorch.” – Julia Child
50. “Food should be fun.” – Thomas Keller
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