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I’m going to break one of the rules of the trade here. I’m going to tell you some of the secrets of improvisation. Just remember—it’s always a good idea to follow the directions exactly the first time you try a recipe. But from then on, you’re on your own.

James Beard

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James Beard
Age: 81 †
Born: 1903
Born: May 5
Died: 1985
Died: January 21
Chef
Non-Fiction Writer
Portland
Oregon
James Andrews Beard
Always
Tell
Secrets
Time
Remember
Rules
Ideas
Exactly
Firsts
Trade
First
Follow
Recipe
Trying
Break
Improvisation
Going
Secret
Recipes
Good
Idea
Directions

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I have had, in my time, memorable meals of scrambled eggs with fresh truffles, scrambled eggs with caviar and other glamorous things, but to me, there are few things as magnificent as scrambled eggs, pure and simple, perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned.
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I believe that if ever I had to practice cannibalism, I might manage if there were enough tarragon around.
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No vegetable exists which is not better slightly undercooked.
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In a house without a genuine kitchen, one of the delights of growing up is lost.
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The only thing that will make a souffle fall is if it knows you're afraid of it.
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The secret of good cooking is, first, having a love of it… If you’re convinced that cooking is drudgery, you’re never going to be good at it, and you might as well warm up something frozen.
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Hands are our earliest tools. Cooking starts with the hands which are so sensitive that when they touch something they transmit messages to your brain about texture and temperature.
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It's foolish to go through life bemoaning the fact that you can't have this or that. Twaddle! You can omit certain foods and still enjoy eating.
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I don't like gourmet cooking or 'this' cooking or 'that' cooking. I like good cooking.
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I am still convinced that a good, simple, homemade cookie is preferable to all the store-bought cookies one can find.
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Too few people understand a really good sandwich.
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Grilling, broiling, barbecuing - whatever you want to call it - is an art, not just a matter of building a pyre and throwing on a piece of meat as a sacrifice to the gods of the stomach.
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Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.
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Good bread and good butter go together. They are one of the perfect marriages in gastronomy, and they never fail to cheer me.
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When you cook, you never stop learning. That's the fascination of it all.
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Nothing is quite as intoxicating as the smell of bacon frying in the morning, save perhaps the smell of coffee brewing.
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A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.
James Beard
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I am so happy to see more and more people in this country are becoming addicted to cheese.
James Beard
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What comforted me? That is easy. It was a strong cold chicken jelly so very, very thick. My mother's Chinese cook would fix it. He would cook it down, condense it-this broth with all sorts of feet in it, then it would gell into sheer bliss. It kept me alive once for three weeks when I was ill as a child. And I've always craved it since.
James Beard
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The kitchen, reasonably enough, was the scene of my first gastronomic adventure. I was on all fours. I crawled into the vegetable bin, settled on a giant onion and ate it, skin and all. It must have marked me for life, for I have never ceased to love the hearty flavor of raw onions.
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