Hungry Quotes

“No, the rules of sneaking into upper-class spaces and passing as posh were much more nuanced; it was a spurious cocktail of bluffing and well-timed name-dropping, mixed with an air of pseudo-effortless confidence and sometimes, when faced with someone who was trying to impress you, giving”
― Grace Dent, Hungry: The highly anticipated memoir, from Celebrity Masterchef’s new judge Grace Dent

“The longer I lived in London, the further the gap grew between my tastes and theirs. And the more bewildered they were by my life choices. They were politely bewildered by my choice to get married in Vegas, wearing a forty-quid Laura Ashley tea frock, using witnesses”
― Grace Dent, Hungry: The highly anticipated memoir, from Celebrity Masterchef’s new judge Grace Dent

“high-society girls’ whims and weirdnesses. Their lack of touchy-feeliness suited me; unabashed Nineties bitches were far easier to navigate than today’s duplicitous blowhards staging elaborate Women’s Day events and presenting as living saints with one eye on an OBE.”
― Grace Dent, Hungry: The highly anticipated memoir, from Celebrity Masterchef’s new judge Grace Dent

“Are you hungry?' I say, slightly mischievously.
'Very, he says, unfurling his napkin.

This is a shame, because we're sitting down for a tasting menu that will not be a meal, but more a random collection of the chef's ambitions, presented with seventeen verses of Vogon poetry from the staff as they dole out tiny plates of his life story. These tomatoes remind chef of his grandmother's allotment. This eel is a tribute to his uncle's fishing prowess. I will pull the requisite faces to cope with all of this. The lunch will be purposefully challenging, at times confusing and served ritualistically in a manner that requires the diner to behave like a congregation member of a really obscure sect who knows specifically when to bow her head and when to pass the plate and what lines to utter when.”
― Grace Dent, Hungry

“If whelk is the first name on the list, it will almost definitely be course number one – unless the chef sends out three or four unadvertised courses beforehand, boosting the eight-course lunch up to twelve. I realise that nowadays almost all five-course tasting menus are actually around eight courses, because the chef will send ‘palate cleansers’ and ‘amuse-bouches’ and ‘snacks’ and ‘extra courses’. This will seem generous but is actually just the restaurant buying time – a bit like when you go to a Beyoncé gig and three of the tracks are videos of her daughter at a family party, which is really cute, but it’s just filler so Beyoncé can sit down and change her wig.”
― Grace Dent, Hungry: The highly anticipated memoir, from Celebrity Masterchef’s new judge Grace Dent