Cooking as Though You Might Cook Again

1) "To cook or not to cook: it is a new question in history. In the age of supermarket buffets and liquid meal replacements, cooking at home has never made less sense. Cooking has become a luxury on the one hand and a chore on the other, and it is both of these too much, and it is neither one quite enough, and it has made me wonder, against the odds, against reason, and against common sense: what exactly is cooking for?"

2) "I wonder if this widespread availability of detailed instruction discourages home cooks from thinking about what they are doing while they are doing it. It is an amazing thing that one can now be considered a great cook without actually knowing how to cook anything at all."

3) "Cooking for me often begins in the pantry, where I find beans. I like beans and regret that they are not given a chance by so many. They are too humble to be seen, too small for common fantasy. It should not be this way. Beans are nutritious, delicious, versatile, and cheap, glamorous in their little way. I am at peace when I know I have a pot of beans in the fridge, ready to make into lunch.

When I cook beans, I cook too many. I do this on purpose. I start with a pound of dried beans―cannellini, navy, kidney, or cranberry, though every bean has its appeal. I sort through them for small stones and soak them in water, covered by a few inches, overnight. A pound of beans will make more than four servings and fewer than ten. I like this kind of ambiguity in cooking. It pushes me to keep an open mind, and to err on the side of excess. I like excess in cooking because I like dealing with the consequences."

4) "Probably you will want to know how long the beans will take to cook. It is a normal, obvious question yet difficult to answer directly. The truth is that I don't really know how long anything takes to cook. No one does, and no recipe can tell you. Given that the production of the earth is variable, and so are ovens and so are stoves, not to mention the tastes of individuals, any cooking time is always a suggested cooking time. I can tell you that soaked dried beans take about an hour to cook, but they can take anywhere from half an hour to two hours depending on the age of the beans, the qualities of the water, the intensity of the flame, and so on. In the end, the only relevant rule here is that things should be cooked until they are done."

5) "Everything in cooking is optional, including the cooking itself. Cookbooks are just books, which are just ideas."

6) "Garnish is a final intervention, and it begins by looking at what lies before you, and asking yourself what could make it more beautiful, because that is what will make it more delicious."

7) "Cooking is about knowing what to add and when to add it. The way to learn this — how to cook — is through attention and repetition."

8) "You will notice that the amount of onion that I suggest (one) remains invariable for an undisclosed number of servings (two to six, let's say). How is this possible? It is possible because it just doesn't matter very much. Everything involved here is delicious. Rice is delicious, onion is delicious, garlic is delicious, broth is delicious. In combination with salt, pepper, and cheese, one simply cannot go wrong. Of course a very serious cook with a very refined palate and a reputation to uphold will want to cook with great consistency and exactness. But I am young and free; I want to eat well and soon, not perfectly."

9) "Failed, broken mayos have left me feeling impotent and despondent, confused and irritable."