68 Quotes by Gail Simmons

My mother's kitchen was built to be the focal point of our house. I got into the kitchen often as a child.

The less you do to beautiful food, the better it's going to taste. You don't need to mess with it all the time.

First and foremost, you have to remember that restaurants are businesses and they have to stay in business. And though everyone thinks they want grass fed beef, most people actually prefer the taste of corn fed - it is less dry, more marbled, and less gamey, not to mention much less expensive than grass fed.

I reveled in the most basic rules and techniques that are the foundation of professional cooking. For example, it is essential to use a sharp knife: the sharper the knife, the more fluid and precise your work and the less likely you are to get hurt. Dull knives are a danger - they slip far more often.

I was very, very little - it was the first time I ever cooked on my own, with my mother's supervision - and I made scrambled eggs. I felt so accomplished, like magic!

If you don't use good ingredients, the outcome is never going to be excellent. But if you buy the freshest ingredients that are in season, at their peak, and you cook with them, you can't really go wrong.

Find combinations of flavors you love and buy the best quality ingredients you can afford. Your food is only going to be as good as the sum of its parts, like anything else.

There are days when I literally have to eat 17 plates of food - it's intense. It's about moderation. You just need a few bites to get the gist of a dish.

When I diced vegetables, it was painstaking work to make sure that every single piece looked the same: 1/4-inch cubed for small, 3/4-inch cubed for large. It's a matter of practice and precision.