Laurie Colwin

Provision as much pure and organic food as you can, and let the rest go by.

No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, and the wisdom of cookbook writers.

It is not just the Great Works of mankind that make a culture. It is the daily things, like what people eat and how they serve it.

Recently, I was in Bernalda, my dad's ancestral home town in Italy. He has just refurbished a palazzo and turned it into a hotel, so we had my sister's wedding there. It was beautiful.

I don't like to get in front of people.

I have a naturally camp sensibility and a camp sense of humour. I love the icons that gay people love.