In cooking—as in business and war—hope for the best but plan for the worst.

You don’t need more recipes. You need to learn to cook without them.

Most good chefs believe there is no such thing as too much garlic.

As chef Mehdi Chellaoui says, “I use lemon like I use salt.” Mario Batali would agree: if something is missing, it’s probably acid.

Cooking practice can be expensive and impractical. If you have the time, you can practice your tennis serve a thousand times a day for a few dollars. Making a thousand omelets a day? That’s a different story.