Cooking Quotations | Page 9

For me, the cooking life has been a long love affair, with moments both sublime and ridiculous.

To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.

When I was 13 or 14, my parents had a bit of a windfall so bought a lovely new kitchen, but I burnt it down. I was making cheese on toast when flames escaped from the grill. My father stopped the fire with blind panic and excessive water. I was forgiven, but it put me off cooking for years.

We use two-thirds water, one-third semi-skimmed milk and cook for 40 minutes on a slow heat. Slow soaking and cooking of organic oats soften the mix.

Boxing is individual, although there's a team concept because you need a great corner, you need a great trainer, you need a great prep man, you need all of these things, but it's more of a Mano a Mano; it's more you versus me. I miss that time in training camp and Dad and Mom cooking meals. It was one big family.

I wanted to come up with a hybrid show of sorts that wasn't your traditional 'dump and stir' type of cooking show.

I've always been a foodie. My grandmother got me hooked on cooking.

I've always been one of those people who romanticized cooking, but the few attempts I'd made in my life resulted in friends' contorted faces as they desperately tried to say something nice about the "dish" they were eating.

Everything I touched in the kitchen turned out crappy, no matter how closely I followed the recipe or copied the cooking show.

Classical cooking and molecular gastronomy should remain separate...you can mix two styles and get fusion; any more and you just get confusion.