Finding Freedom Quotes

“The world was forever changed now. I was no longer one; we were two.”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

“The closeness and connection of feeding a complete stranger a plate of food that you had made with attention and care, created with your own two hands, to witness the reaction on their faces when they took the first bite and felt the flavors and textures on their tongue—it was a satisfaction built out of the greatest simplicity, even if it was just a plate of fried food.”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

“The love that my grandparents gave us was strong. It was a different kind of love from what a parent gives you, and they were receiving a different kind of love from us than from their children. It was a special bond and one that I felt at times my father was resentful of.”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

“My grandfather was plump and kind. He would whistle almost all the time, tweeting little tunes that he knew from his childhood or some that he just made up on the spot but sounded practiced and perfect.”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

“My grandparents saw hard work as respectable—honorable, even. If you wanted something, you worked for it.”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

“To me the building represented everything I thought Freedom was: If you stay here, you will rot.”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

“Left alone in the kitchen without my dad to answer my many questions, I was learning how to use my intuition, to rely on it. To taste and test and figure out what seemed just right. All those years of experimenting—out of necessity—had started shaping me as a cook.”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

“It was a way to care for people—something that struck at the core of who”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

“wanted to serve; I wanted to entertain and host; I wanted to take in strangers and feed them my love on a plate. As a woman, I felt a most innate joy in caring for people. Something that felt so natural to me, something that I craved to do.”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

“For me, food wasn't a competition about who could make the best dish. It's greatest power was to make taste and turn it into a long lasting memory. As a girl, I had learned from my father that good food could be a vessel, a way to show love, even when you might not have the words to say so. I could feel it in my soul that this was exactly what I was meant to do now. But the question remained, if I built it, would they come.”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

“I always knew food held this kind of power, this something so simple as a piece of flaky halibut served with a silky puree of parsnips, lightly dressed leaves of arugula, a squeeze of lemon and a spicy nasturtium blossom could evoke a memory and make an emotional impact.”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

“Walls had never defined me, like I had once thought. It was what I brought, from my heart, hands, and soul, to the space within that defined me.”
― Erin French, Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch