32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line
Robuchon taught me that no ingredient is humble; every ingredient is sacred. It has been many years now and I have been shaped by many other chefs, but there are moments—like when I grab a tray of tomatoes—when I hear his voice urging me to respect the fact that even a tomato is precious, and it is as if I’m twenty again and he is walking beside
... See moreVeronica Chambers • 32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line
My boyhood had wounded me but, in time, I had managed to gather the pieces together into something that felt fairly whole.
Veronica Chambers • 32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line
My father died when I was young. That is the central tragedy of my life. But his spirit never left me, and that may be the defining miracle of my life.
Veronica Chambers • 32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line
to learn how little it took to be happy, to understand from a young age that the human heart is a small and delicate vase. You must handle it carefully, but in the right circumstances, it does not take much to fill it up.
Veronica Chambers • 32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line
Fish, which is what I did for Robuchon, is more technical, but meat is more sensual. At the time, I was more of an intellectual chef. But it’s important to have both—the instinct and the technique, the elegance and the muscular sensuality—to be a great chef.
Veronica Chambers • 32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line
cruelty is one of fear’s most common by-products.
Veronica Chambers • 32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
Veronica Chambers • 32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line
The more the small things became second nature, the more I would be free, as a chef, to build on the foundations with even more complex combinations of tastes, textures, and colors.
Veronica Chambers • 32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line
In many countries, waiting tables is a working-class trade, or something you do just to pay the rent while you pursue a more creative profession. But in France, being a waiter is a proud vocation with a noble history.