Chris Morocco

“I have a well-documented obsession with spoons.”

“I can't keep pumpernickel bagels at home because just knowing they are in the freezer makes it hard for me to fall asleep.”

“I would rather have 1/4 of a cookie for four days than a big cookie on day one followed by three days with nothing - this has been documented by my colleagues.”

“In some circles there's a conception that milk chocolate is the Merlot of the chocolate world.”

“I would never try to make ketchup from scratch. Or Dijon mustard, for that matter. These condiments, and plenty of others, are hard to improve upon and even harder to reproduce in a home kitchen.”

“Stir-fried spring vegetables over miso polenta is the meal equivalent of wanting it so badly to be spring yet recognizing it is 40 degrees outside with a brisk headwind no matter which way you are facing.”

“I love to cook, but, after spending a full day in the Bon Appetit test kitchen, the last thing I need to do is start chopping onions all over again when I get home. That means dinners can be a bit scrappy: reheated leftovers from my weekend prep, fridge-dump salads, or just taking whatever I can find and putting a scoop of cottage cheese on it.”

“Many spicy condiments blend into fiery sameness, and even the ones that don't hold back on heat often offer little flavor aside from burn. Yet occasionally, a condiment comes along that's like a black hole, compressing physics-defying amounts of flavor in a tiny package. Such is the case with Auria's Kitchen sambal sauces.”

“Thinly slicing even the bulkiest vegetables, like cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, or cabbage, then aggressively cooking them in a hot skillet and finishing with a shower of spices means they cook and develop flavor super quickly.”

“There are some things, like sushi, that I'll still choose white for, because its flavor is so unobtrusive. But I actually prefer the nutty intensity of brown rice in stir-fries, grain bowls, and as my go-to grainy side dish.”

“Pretty much anything pureed needs a big flavor assist to be delicious; just think about how much butter, cream, and salt it takes to make mashed potatoes truly amazing.”

“Unlike meat fibers which contract and bind as they cook, vegetables, grains, and legumes just want to fall apart as they heat up. So when I said I wanted to create a grillable, totally vegan veggie burger that came together in under 20 minutes, there was a good chance this would be the mission that I simply never came back from.”

“A refrigerator, to me, isn't as clever an appliance as people would have you believe. To me, it's a cold limbo, a temporary reprieve from the inevitability of spoilage. The freezer, on the other hand, is a far more satisfying solution for keeping foods at their best.”

“A sharp knife is the best tool you can have in the kitchen.”

“I spend a lot of time apologizing for the things I say when I am hungry. That's why breakfast, for me, is non-negotiable. It's an insurance policy against saying things I'll regret before my blood-sugar levels have stabilized.”

“I'm not a food-optional person. People who forget to eat meals are like aliens to me and, even now, in the age of Seamless and Caviar, I have a hard time relying on strangers to feed me.”

“Everyone has foods that take them on mental journeys.”

“In July and August, when everyone I know is at the beach, I am cooking through turkey, potato, and pie recipes for Bon Appetit's November issue.”

“When done right, sheet pan dinners are a dream come true: Your whole dinner goes into the oven on one pan and comes out ready to eat. But it takes a little finesse and a few rules to get everything done right.”

“In the BA Test Kitchen, I don't consider my station to be set up until there are at least 50 tasting spoons in the crock on my counter, and when I walk, my spoon-filled pockets jangle like a villain's spurs in a spaghetti Western.”