Stirring Words: The Ultimate Collection of Cooking Inspirational Quotes

"Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love."

- Craig Claiborne

"A recipe has no soul. You as the cook must bring soul to the recipe."

- Thomas Keller

"Eating is so intimate. It’s very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you’re inviting a person into your life."

- Maya Angelou

"Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all."

- Harriet van Horne

"Cooking is one of the great gifts you can give to those you love."

- Ina Garten

"Food, to me, is always about cooking and eating with those you love and care for."

- David Chang

"No one is born a great cook. One learns by doing."

- Julia Child

"Cooking will never be good if it isn’t made with love for the person it’s being made for."

- Paul Bocuse

"The table is a meeting place, a gathering ground, the source of sustenance and nourishment, festivity, safety, and satisfaction. A person cooking is a person giving: Even the simplest food is a gift."

- Laurie Colwin

"Cooking is all about people. Food is maybe the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people get together to eat."

- Guy Fieri

"If you have constant, unwavering desire to be a cook, then you’ll be a great cook."

- Thomas Keller

"Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors – it’s how you combine them that sets you apart."

- Wolfgang Puck

"Good food is very often, even most often, simple food."

- Anthony Bourdain

"Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors—it’s how you combine them that sets you apart."

- Wolfgang Puck

"Let’s face it: if you and I have the same capabilities, the same energy, the same staff, if the only thing that’s different between you and me is the products we can get, and I can get a better product than you, I’m going to be a better chef."

- Thomas Keller

"Cooking is an observation-based process that you can’t do if you’re so completely focused on a recipe."

- Alton Brown

"To me, food is as much about the moment, the occasion, the location and the company as it is about the taste."

- Heston Blumenthal

"The kitchen is a sacred space."

- Marc Forgione

"I always say that I don’t believe I’m a chef. I try to be a storyteller."

- Jose Andres

"Cooking and baking is both physical and mental therapy."

- Mary Berry

"Great cooking is about being inspired by the simple things around you – fresh markets, various spices. It doesn’t necessarily have to look fancy."

- G. Garvin

"I like cooking, and it’s a real family thing – an expression of love being together."

- Genevieve O’Reilly

"I cannot stress a greater importance than to teach the young generation about the risks of unhealthy eating. A great way to pique their interest in nutrition is to involve them more in the cooking process. They not only will learn to cook for themselves, but also develop a lifetime of healthy habits."

- Marcus Samuelsson

"If you are a chef, no matter how good a chef you are, it’s not good cooking for yourself; the joy is in cooking for others – it’s the same with music."

- will.i.am

"I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation."

- Madam Benoit

"What I have found is that the best way to unwind is cooking. You only have two hands. If you are chopping veggies, you are forcing yourself to put the phone down or step away from the computer. It’s extremely relaxing."

- Whitney Wolfe

"Food should be fun."

- Thomas Keller

"Gastronomy is the art of using food to create happiness."

- Theodore Zeldin

"Cooking demands attention, patience, and above all, a respect for the gifts of the earth. It is a form of worship, a way of giving thanks."

- Judith B. Jones

"You can’t cook if you don’t like people."

- Joël Robuchon

"I think cooking is really key because it’s the only way you’re going to take back control of your diet from the corporations who want to cook for us. The fact is, so far, corporations don’t cook that well. They tend to use too much salt, fat, and sugar – much more than you would ever use at home."

- Michael Pollan

"You don’t need a silver fork to eat good food."

- Paul Prudhomme

"Cooking is a love story. You need to fall in love with the ingredients and then of people who cook them."

- Alain Ducasse

"I think the best food is the food that you want to eat. If you want to eat it, it's probably good."

- David Chang

"Spending time in the kitchen with people who love to cook as much as you do is fun and educational."

- Homaro Cantu

"A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness."

- Elsa Schiaparelli

"I cook, I create. I’m incredibly excited by what I do. I’ve still got a lot to achieve."

- Gordon Ramsay

"Cookery is a wholly unselfish art: All good cooks, like all great artists, must have an audience worth cooking for."

- Andre Simon

"Cooking is one of the strongest ceremonies for life. When recipes are put together, the kitchen is a chemical laboratory involving air, fire, water and the earth. This is what gives value to humans and elevates their spiritual qualities."

- Laura Esquivel

"Cooking is about imbibing different cultures and putting them in a plate on the table."

- Johnny Iuzzini

"Food is celebratory. People who don’t cook don’t know how much fun they’re missing."

- Leo Buscaglia

"Great cooking can be boiled turkey, crawfish, or lettuce picked from the garden and hastily seasoned."

- Paul Bocuse

"Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements."

- Marcel Boulestin

"The preparation of good food is merely another expression of art, one of the joys of civilized living."

- Dione Lucas

"Much like gardening, most cooking manages to be agreeably absorbing without being too demanding intellectually. It leaves plenty of mental space for daydreaming and reflection."

- Michael Pollan

"I love to cook comfort food. I’ll make fish and vegetables or meat and vegetables and potatoes or rice. The ritual of it is fun for me, and the creativity of it."

- Reese Witherspoon

"We learn from other people’s cooking, then we start making our own."

- Michael Pollan

"In the childhood memories of every good cook there’s a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot, and a mom."

- Barbara Costikyan

"Simple ingredients prepared in a simple way - that's the best way to take your everyday cooking to a higher level."

- Jose Andres

"If you’re afraid of butter, use cream."

- Julia Child

"I think you should always have a good time when you cook. It should be fun."

- Wolfgang Puck

"If you are a chef, no matter how good a chef you are, it's not good cooking for yourself; the joy is in cooking for others. It's the same with music."

- will.i.am

"Cooking is a bit like cinema. It’s the emotion that counts."

- Anne‑Sophie Pic

"Cooking is multisensory. It’s made for the eyes, the mouth, the nose, the ear, and the soul. No other art is as complex."

- Pierre Gagnaire

"I am not a glutton – I am an explorer of food."

- Erma Bombeck

"I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food."

- W.C. Fields

"Cooking requires confident guesswork and improvisation—experimentation and substitution, dealing with failure and uncertainty in a creative way."

- Paul Theroux

"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking, you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude."

- Julia Child

"I watch cooking change the cook, just as it transforms the food."

- Laura Esquivel

"Food is art, and food is love. And we should show love and appreciation for those who cook it by eating it with relish."

- Mark Bittman

"Good painting is like good cooking; it can be tasted, but not explained."

- Maurice de Vlaminck

"You can only become a chef by mastering your five senses."

- Muriel Barbery

"Cooking well, with love, is an art."

- Asha Bhosle

"Cooking with kids is not just about ingredients, recipes, and cooking. It’s about harnessing imagination, empowerment, and creativity."

- Guy Fieri

"All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast."

- John Gunther

"Cooking is not difficult. Everyone has taste, even if they don't realize it. Even if you're not a great chef, there's nothing to stop you understanding the difference between what tastes good and what doesn't."

- Gerard Depardieu

"Work Hard and be Kind"

- Dick Cattani

"A bad cook seeks to hide the flavour of the original ingredient rather than awakening it."

- Guillaume Musso

"I feel a recipe is only a theme which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation."

- Madam Benoit

"No rules. Don't be afraid to do whatever you want. Cooking doesn't have to have rules. I don't like it that way."

- Masaharu Morimoto

"Make it nice or make it twice :-)"

- picodegallowaffle

"I don't like gourmet cooking or 'this' cooking or 'that' cooking. I like good cooking."

- James Beard

"So when people ask me, ‘What do you think of Michelin?’ I don’t cook for guides. I cook for customers."

- Gordon Ramsay

"Whatever I'm doing, I'm in that moment and I'm doing it. The rest of the world's lost. If I'm cooking some food or making soup, I want it to be lovely. If not, what's the point of doing it?"

- Sade Adu

"Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness."

- Auguste Escoffier

"Save the Planet...Buy Organic"

- Nancy Philips

"I’m not a chef, I’m a cook. I’m a bloody good cook. But I’m not a chef. I’m a cook."

- Gordon Ramsay

"Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride."

- Anthony Bourdain

"Cooking is like love."

- Rachael Ray

"if you’re on time you’re late"

- padraigtherobot

"Remember your ABCs. Always Be Closing"

- scotzorz56

"Falling knife has no handle"

- aralseapiracy

"To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late is to be left."

- Green420Basturd (quoting band director)

"If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

- Vincent van Gogh

"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

- Steve Jobs

"There’s a special place in hell for people that don’t break down boxes"

- padraigtherobot

"The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize."

- Alton Brown

"If i can't clock in early I'm always on time. No unpaid work ever."

- mzltvccktl

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others."

- Jack Welch

"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen."

- Michael Jordan

"Show up on time, know the text, and have an idea."

- Tom Hanks

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

- Margaret Mead

"If you want breakfast in bed, then sleep in the kitchen."

- Anonymous

"It should be entered into with abandon or not at all."

"I am a chef, my job is top secret. Even I don’t know what I am doing."

- Anonymous

"Real cooking is more about following your heart than following recipes."

"When in doubt, throw it out. Take a chance, shit your pants"

"Slow is steady, and steady is fast"

"Heard is the most perfect thing to say in a kitchen when communicating and if you ever do it outside of the kitchen, everyone is so pissed off and offended. that word holds so much power"

"The actual saying is “slow is smooth, smooth is fast”"

"You can’t teach someone to give a shit"

"We are all dishwashers in God’s eyes."