Elizabeth David

“The best bread is made with the best flour.”

“It is wise to be suspicious of any recipe which does not tell you in the first few lines all you need to know about the ingredients.”

“To have a well-stocked store-cupboard is to be halfway to a good dinner.”

“A bottle of wine was a necessity of life to me.”

“As a rule, I do not approve of any culinary legerdemain or dubious aid in the kitchen.”

“It is perhaps in the use of herbs that the greatest difference between the intelligent and the ignorant cook is shown.”

“All one’s life, one is inventing transformations of a few simple themes.”

“What is this mania for 'instant' everything?”

“If I have a mission, it is to show that good food need not be extravagant.”

“Good food is the basis of true happiness.”

“You can't eat a la carte in a canteen.”

“Books on cookery are gastronomic pornography.”

“There is no part of the country that can't be civilized by a good cook.”