Food quotes suitable for home decor?

[meg944]

We are considering painting a quote on the stair risers in our front hall. I found this and we both quite like it, but my husband recommended I check here and see if anyone has other food-related quotes that might work well. Any suggestions?

We live very simply but with all the essentials of life well understood and provided for: hot baths, cold champagne, new peas and old brandy.
-Winston Churchill

[Stassage]

"Enjoy every sandwich"
- Warren Zevon

said on his last appearance on Letterman a few months before his death.

[cornFusion]

Have you settled on one?

My favorite saying is "welcome friends and strangers....have you eaten yet?"

[meg944]

We went with the Churchill quote, though we wound up doing it on a wall in the dining room. It looks great, and we get lots of compliments. Maybe I can get my guy to upload a photo.....

[rockycat]

A little bit long but oh so comforting:
Those who have been too long at their labor who have drunk too long at the cup of voluptuousness, who feel they have become temporarily inhumane, who are tormented by their families, who find life sad and love ephemeral; they should all eat chocolate and they will be comforted.
-- Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

And perhaps my favorite bumper sticker (although maybe not ideal for your risers unless you're 19 and more than a little odd):
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons for thou art crunchy and go well with ketchup.

[toodie jane]

~A waist is a terrible thing to mind~

Oscar Wilde

[cristina]

My mother, God rest her soul, had four brass plaques hanging on the doors to her dining room. Here are the quotes she had engraved on the plaques:

Since Eve ate apple, much depends on dinner.
It was a brave man first eat oyster.
Before the food comes, send word that the food tomorrow must be better.
Is there a life beyond the gravy?

When she passed in 2003, I brought those plaques home with me to Mexico, where they now hang in my house and make me smile.

[Marsha]

From Lord Lytton:

We may live without poetry, music and art;
We may live with conscience, and live without heart;
We may live without friends, we may live without books;
But civilized man cannot live without cooks.

He may live without books - what is knowledge but grieving?
He may live without hope - what is hope but deceiving?
He may live without love - what is passion but pining?
But where is the man who can live without dining?

From Brillat-Savarin:

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.

[FoodFuser]

One friend's severely cluttered, harried, but prolific kitchen is hoisted by the laughter that comes from reading her wood engraved plaque: "Neat people are weird."

[professorbeezer]

old stand by: One cannot live well, love well or sleep well. unless one has dined well- Virgina Woolf

[HillJ]

A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat. ~Old New York Proverb

couldn't resist :)

[Junie D]

"I continue to gather, make wine, till the soil, and cook the family dinner because, my good friends, it’s a hell of a lot of fun no matter how you look at it."
or
"Nothing is so effective in keeping one young and full of lust as a discriminating palate thoroughly satisfied at least once a day." both from Angelo Pellegrini in The Unprejudiced Palate

But I think Churchill's quote is just perfect.

[meg944]

Hah! Yeah, whenever we are out to eat and have something we make at home but which tastes SO much better, we say “must be the half-stick of butter of every serving.” The last time this happened we were having a mussel dish and mentioned this to the chef when he came by. He smiled and said, “It’s actually about a full stick.”

[Fydeaux]

There is a sign on the wall of Solly's Restaurant in Milwaukee that says, "Food should be cooked with lots of love and lots of butter."

[Sam Fujisaka]

More seriously, then (but everyone will have to help out): There is a Russian proverb something along the lines of "Bread, salt, truth".

[meg944]

“Eat bread and salt, and always tell the truth”? I found that via Google, but I must admit I don’t quite get it. Is it more of a wish? I know my sister studied in Russia for a time and told me there was a tradition of bringing bread and salt to a new homes as an expression of the hope that the inhabitants’ lives will be nourishing and full of savor.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Can you ask your sister? I thought it meant that telling the truth is as important and as basic to life as bread and salt.

[jillp]

My husband is half Italian and says that's an Italian tradition - but also with a bottle of wine. Bread so you're never hungry, wine so you won't be thirsty and salt so your life always has flavor.

[Sam Fujisaka]

We have a beautiful winner:

"Bread so you're never hungry, wine so you won't be thirsty and salt so your life always has flavor."

[chaddict]

"It's a Wonderful Life" uses that blessing in a scene. Not sure if that's verbatim but it's close.

[meat_eater]

The old classic, "You are what you eat", should be appropriate. Although it really depends on your personality and the type of atmosphere you're trying to create. What effect are you aiming for? Do you want people to think or do you want them to laugh?

Sim
Blog: http://foodlava.com/blog/

[meg944]

We want it to be light-hearted, I would say, but intelligent and apropos; not necessarily funny/silly. Primarily we want it to be about food but as a reflection on life. I tried looking up lists of quotes but far too many of them were truly jokes, which is probably not what we want. So far for our purposes I quite like the Tolkien quote, the “some things in excess,” and the “reckless abandon” one. Some of the others are great but perhaps more appropriate for the kitchen itself. A friend of mine also suggested something from Willy Wonka “Little surprises around every corner, but nothing dangerous,” which is about food in its context and also about our hopes for life.

Yes, as Veggo said, so many quotes, so few risers!

[hotoynoodle]

"wine is proof god loves us and wants us to be happy."

~~ben franklin

[MaspethMaven]

thought that applied to beer?

[Sam Fujisaka]

Bourdain: "Yeah, yeah, I know, my mother told me to never eat anything bigger than my head!"

[misterbrucie]

"Barriga llena, corazon contento" (Belly full, heart content) -- has hung over my mother's stove for many years

[srr]

One of husband's nuggets of wisdom: Everything is good in moderation, but some things are better in excess. (This can apply to a wide range of topics})

[chowser]

Restating Shakespeare..If music be the love of food, play on...

[Veggo]

"So many food quotes; so few risers." ( I just made that one up)

[Sherri]

"Approach Love and Cooking with Reckless Abandon" is one of my favorites.

[bolivianita]

I just typed in food quotes in my google search bar and found a ton of sites witha ton of quotes.

[LindaWhit]

I have this one on a small ceramic plaque my mother gave me: "I love cooking with wine...sometimes I even put it in the food!" :-)

I also love the following:

“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” – Harriet Van Horne, Vogue, Oct. 1956

"There is no such thing as a little garlic." – Arthur Baer

"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude." – Julia Child

[JK Grence the Cosmic Jester]

there's always Orson Welles... "Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what's for lunch."

[Justpaula]

Not exclusive to food, but living a good life in general (which of course includes good food!), but Ialways liked this one:

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

-J.R.R.Tolkien

But I really like the one you already have too!!

[revsharkie]

After seeing Big Night over the weekend, I have to add this: "To eat good food is to be close to God."

[sparkalina]

Also, "Sometimes spaghetti likes to be alone."..... that still cracks me up!

[Junie D]

"Everything you see I owe to spaghetti" Sophia Loren

[Chinon00]

Your quote is perfect. One of my favorites however has always been: “Any time not spent drinking Port is a waste of time.” - Percy Croft

[jillp]

This was posted on my kitchen bulletin board for many years:

"The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star."

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Physiologie du Gout, 1825

[orangewasabi]

a la the food channel George Bernard Shaw is often quoted as "There is no sincerer love than the love of food." .

a la PBS, the more fun, entire quote "Oh, the tiger will love you. There is no sincerer love than the love of food."