Elizabeth David Quotes

11 Sourced Quotes

The grotesque prudishness and archness with which garlic is treated in [England] has led to the superstition that rubbing the bowl with it before putting the salad in gives sufficient flavor. It rather depends whether you are going to eat the bowl or the salad.

Elizabeth David
Any human being possessed of sufficient gumption to track down a source of fresh yeast — it isn't all that rare — and collected enough to remember to buy at the same time a pound or two of plain flour, get it home, take a mixing bowl and a measuring jug from the cupboard, and read a few simple instructions, can make a decent loaf of bread.

Elizabeth David
Summer cooking implies a sense of immediacy, a capacity to capture the fleeting moment.

Elizabeth David
The cooking of the Mediterranean shores, endowed with all the natural resources, the colour and flavour of the South, is a blend of tradition and brilliant improvisation. The Latin genius flashes from the kitchen pans.

Elizabeth David
Good food is always a trouble and its preparation should be regarded as a labour of love.

Elizabeth David
In Europe, spices were the jewels and furs and brocades of the kitchen and the still-room.

Elizabeth David
It is not really an exaggeration to say that peace and happiness begin, geographically, where garlic is used in cooking.

Elizabeth David
Some sensible person once remarked that you spend the whole of your life either in your bed or in your shoes. Having done the best you can by shoes and bed, devote all the time and resources at your disposal to the building up of a fine kitchen. It will be, as it should be, the most comforting and comfortable room in the house.

Elizabeth David
Aubergines, peppers, courgettes and fennel had hardly been heard of. Even garlic was hard to come by. If you'd mentioned basil or tarragon, you'd have been asked who they were.

Elizabeth David
Summer cooking means the extraction of maximum enjoyment out of the produce which grows in the summer season and is appropriate to it.

Elizabeth David
Provence is a country to which I am always returning, next week, next year, any day now, as soon as I can get on a train.

Elizabeth David