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Michael Ruhlman Quotes

A kitchen is a good place to be, almost always the best place in the house.

A kitchen is a good place to be, almost always the best place in the house.

Michael Ruhlman
House, Kitchen, Best Place
Michael Ruhlman (2006). “The Reach of a Chef: Professional Cooks in the Age of Celebrity”, p.337, Penguin

Stories--from the literature of our culture to descriptions of our days to the lunatic's ravings--appear to be hardwired into us. Even in sleep we tell ourselves stories through our dreams, and it's been shown that those who are prevented from doing so cease to function.

Michael Ruhlman
Dream, Sleep, Culture
Michael Ruhlman (2005). “House: A Memoir”, Viking Press

If you could choose to master a single ingredient, no choice would teach you more about cooking than the egg. It is an end in itself; it's a multipurpose ingredient; it's an all-purpose garnish; it's an invaluable tool. The egg teaches your hands finesse and delicacy. It helps your arms develop strength and stamina. It instructs in the way proteins behave in heat and in the powerful ways we can change food mechanically. It's a lever for getting other foods to behave in great ways. Learn to take the egg to its many differing ends, and you've enlarged your culinary repertoire by a factor of ten.

Michael Ruhlman
Powerful, Hands, Eggs
Michael Ruhlman (2011). “Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques, 200 Recipes, A Cook's Manifesto”, p.104, Chronicle Books

Recipes are not assembly manuals. Recipes are guides and suggestions for a process that is infinitely nuanced. Recipes are sheet music.

Michael Ruhlman
Suggestions, Recipes, Assembly
Michael Ruhlman, Anthony Bourdain (2007). “The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen”, p.200, Simon and Schuster

People, you have six senses! The last one is common! Use it!

Michael Ruhlman
People, Use, Lasts

I believe it's a cook's moral obligation to add more butter given the chance.

Michael Ruhlman
Believe, Cooking, Add

Only when a chef changed the way you saw the world, through cooking, did food truly become art, and that was rare indeed.

Michael Ruhlman
Art, Food, Cooking

We better take care of the earth or we're gonna have shitty food, and having shitty food is no fun.

Michael Ruhlman
Fun, Earth, Care
Michael Ruhlman (2006). “The Reach of a Chef: Professional Cooks in the Age of Celebrity”, p.25, Penguin

I love this book! There are very few cookbooks published today that add something truly new and distinctive to the literature of food and cooking. Jennifer McLagan's Fat is a smart, thoughtful book that ultimately asks us to understand our food better.

Michael Ruhlman
Smart, Book, Thoughtful

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