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

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

- Paul Bocuse

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

- Harriet van Horne

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

- Thomas Keller

"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

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

- Ina Garten

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

- Julia Child

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

- David Chang

"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 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

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

- Thomas Keller

"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

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

- Heston Blumenthal

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

- Alton Brown

"The kitchen is a sacred space."

- Marc Forgione

"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

"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

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

- Genevieve O’Reilly

"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 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

"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

"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

"Food should be fun."

- Thomas Keller

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

- Théo­dore Zeldin

"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

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

- Joël Robuchon

"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 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

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

- Johnny Iuzzini

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

- Gordon Ramsay

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

- Elsa Schiaparelli

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

- Homaro Cantu

"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

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

- Andre Simon

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

- Leo Buscaglia

"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

"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

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

- Jose Andres

"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

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

- Julia Child

"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

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

- Paul Theroux

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

- W.C. Fields

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

- Laura Esquivel

"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

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

- Paul Bocuse

"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

"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

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

- Muriel Barbery

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

- Maurice de Vlaminck

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

- Guy Fieri

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

- Asha Bhosle

"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

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

- Guillaume Musso

"All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast."

- John Gunther

"Work Hard and be Kind"

- Dick Cattani

"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

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

- James Beard

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

- picodegallowaffle

"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

"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)

"Remember your ABCs. Always Be Closing"

- scotzorz56

"Falling knife has no handle"

- aralseapiracy

"if you’re on time you’re late"

- padraigtherobot

"Cooking is like love."

- Rachael Ray

"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

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

- Anonymous

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

- Anonymous

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

- Michael Jordan

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

- Jack Welch

"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

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

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

"Slow is steady, and steady is fast"

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

"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."