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" I love Alton Brown's show 'Good Eats,' about the chemistry of food. It's really thoughtful. "

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" The most important thing for having a party is that the hostess is having fun. I'm very organized. I make a plan for absolutely everything. I never have anything that has to be cooked while the guests are there. The only thing I might have to do is take something out of the oven and carve it. "

" The dirty little secret is that I grew up in a household where there were no carbohydrates allowed, ever. No cookies, no bread, no potatoes, no rice. My mother was very extreme in terms of what she served. Since I left home more than 40 years ago, I've been making it right for myself. "

" You don't have to do everything from scratch. Nobody wants to make puff pastry! "

" I try to greet my friends with a drink in my hand, a warm smile on my face, and great music in the background, because that's what gets a dinner party off to a fun start. "

" I measure everything, because I always think that if I've spent so much time making sure this recipe was exactly the way I want it, why would I want to throw things into a pot? "

" I time everything. I'm a scientist at heart. "

" Never let 'em see you sweat. Guests feel guilty if they think you've worked too hard to make dinner for them - which of course you have! "

" When I wrote 'Barefoot in Paris,' I wanted to make simple recipes that you could make at home that tasted like French classics. "

" I like almonds as a snack - keeps your energy up but doesn't fill you up. "

" I'm really a scientist. I follow recipes exactly - until I decide not to. And then I'll follow something else exactly. I may decide I could turn this peach tart into a plum tart, but if I'm following a recipe, I follow it exactly. "

" Creme Brulee is the ultimate 'guy' dessert. Make it and he'll follow you anywhere. "

" I've taught myself how to use good, fresh ingredients and to prepare them as simply as possible by cooking only to enhance their intrinsic flavors. "

" I absolutely adore Thanksgiving. It's the only holiday I insist on making myself. "

" If it's a cocktail party, I generally make five or six different things, and I try to choose recipes that feel like a meal: a chicken thing, a fish or shrimp thing, maybe two vegetable things, and I think it's fun to end the cocktail party with a sweet thing. "

" I love to take something ordinary and make it really special. "

" The most overrated tool: a pasta maker. Why make it when you can buy it? It's a lot of work! "

" I use other cookbooks for inspiration. I must say I tend to cook from my own cookbooks for parties. "

" Take one flower that you like and get lots of them. And don't try to 'arrange' them. It's surprisingly hard to do a flower arrangement the way a florist does one. Instead, bunch them all together or put them in a series of small vases all down the table. "

" If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it's really like making a large chicken. "

" Instead of going out to dinner, buy good food. Cooking at home shows such affection. In a bad economy, it's more important to make yourself feel good. "

" I've lived in the Hamptons since 1978, when I first bought my store Barefoot Contessa. "

" There's something really wonderful about a party where you help yourself. Of course, first you get what you really want. But 'family style' service also really encourages people to connect with one another. "

" My mother would never let me in the kitchen. I always wanted to cook, but I was never allowed to. Her view of the world was, 'Cooking is my job, and studying is your job.' I think, in retrospect, she didn't like the chaos. She was very orderly. It had to be her way. "

" I worked for the Office of Management and Budget in the White House, on nuclear energy policy. But I decided it would be much more fun to have a specialty food store, so I left Washington D.C. and moved to the Hamptons. And how glad I am that I did! "

" I always have music. I love it to be very upbeat. When you're having drinks, I like something like Cesaria Evora. During dinner, I like the much more traditional - old Frank Sinatra and things like that. "

" People have more fun if they don't eat so much they have to be taken home in an ambulance. "

" My favorite fall or winter lunch is big steaming bowls of soup. I usually invite people for around 12:30 and have two hearty soups like shrimp corn chowder and lentil sausage soup, which can be made a day or two ahead. "

" Grilled cheese and tomato soup is the ultimate comfort meal. "

" My extravagance is my garden - it's the first thing I look at every morning when I wake up. It gives me so much pleasure. "

" The thing about all my food is that everything is a remembered flavor. Maybe it's something I had as a child or maybe it's something I had in Milan, but I want it to taste better than you ever thought. "