Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm married to an Italian woman, and I used to love cooking Italian at home, because it's one-pot cooking. But my wife does not approve of my Italian cooking.
When I'm menu-developing at Milk Bar, I'll go for weeks at a time where all I'm doing is testing out layer cakes or different cookies and testing out changes.
For me to go casual is not to go simple. To me, it is to be able to bring back the art of tradition and the soul of French food and my interpretation of that.
The livelihood of the restaurant is dependent upon getting the word out. There's so much more competition. You can do an event every week and not cook at all.
As a child, I didn't see my dad that much because he was always working at the restaurant. He became pretty jaded after working at the restaurant for so long.
When I realized, "Hm, I'm not that good at all. It will take me weeks, maybe months, to master the 32 yolks." When I did, it was a turning point in my career.
If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony.
When you become a good cook, you become a good craftsman, first. You repeat and repeat and repeat until your hands know how to move without thinking about it.
Since the gluten-free diet is not for everyone, it's recommended that you stick with a gluten-free diet for at least 3 weeks first to see if it works for you.
I learned from my grandmother, who grew up in devastating war times, how important it is to keep with tradition and celebrate the holidays during tough times.
Sometimes I think you can lose the joy in what you do. It becomes a sense of 'I've got to beat him, I've got to beat him,' and you lose your own sense of joy.
I think if you've been invited to someone's house, you eat what they serve you. Even if you leave hungry, you be gracious enough to eat what they've prepared.
They know what my standards are. They know what I need and how to get it to me, and they know how to communicate with me if for some reason they can't get it.
Your idea of that dish has evolved, and if you're a cook, you can start thinking in different ways about it, maybe even a different way than I think about it.
Chefs don't use white pepper just to avoid spoiling the whiteness of pommes puree or bechamel. It has a more peppery aroma, with sharpness and sweetness, too.
My first proper kitchen was this funny little club that we set up in Mercer Street in Covent Garden. It got shut down. Then I worked at a club in Notting Hill.
Pressure's healthy. It becomes stressful when you can't handle that. I mean, if you don't want to become pressurized in this environment, then don't be a chef.
The thing is, I can teach. I can teach bloody well. So few chefs have that level of generosity. I demand a lot, a f***ing hell of a lot, but I give a lot back.
Creating deluxe cuisine is like playing a sport. Always competitive. Always challenging. And if you slow down a bit, you can no longer return to the top level.
Everyting starts to happen at my home at 7 A. M., 7:20, when you hear the orange juicer. That means my daughters are already making the fresh Clementine juice.
I don't use the word gourmet. The word doesn't mean anything anymore. 'Gourmet' makes it sound like someone is putting sherry wine in the corn-flake casserole.
To become a good cook is to know yourself, and I, at this point, know myself. I know myself, and I know the cook I want to be and the cook I am striving to be.
We trust something in a grocery store and assume it's good. We don't learn about the most precious thing in life-the food we put in our body. Educate yourself!
Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore.
I love food, all food, everything about food. I enjoy going to the market and having what's in front of me - what's fresh, seasonal - tell me what I'm cooking.
I would say that I mostly use Kosher Salt for seasoning my water and flour. I love sea salt, too. I think both are just fine, as long as it's not iodized salt.
Normally, when congee is served, the different condiments and garnishes are placed in little bowls on the side so diners can make their own personal creations.
Salbitxada is a sharp and lightly sweet Catalan sauce that's traditionally served with calcots - spring or salad onions, grilled whole, make a good substitute.
I was a little, uh, incorrigible as a kid, so the kitchen was a good place to give me structure and balance. It taught me hard work, but then I grew to love it.
Nowadays, food needs to be healthy, local, sustainable and not filled with too much fat, salt or sugar. It should be slow-cooked and seasonal. That's my vision.
I believe there should be breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack, all for free and for every child that goes to school. And all food that is good, clean and fair.
I believe that there is always something new to learn, in fact, that is one of the three reasons that I chose to become a chef, that my education is never over.
I admire people who do things that are interesting to them, who don't have a strategy or a master plan or have a brand - I don't care about any of those things.
Having been a chef for some many years, I understand what it's like to work really, really hard to get good at something, only to have someone piss all over it.
Understand, when you eat meat, that something did die. You have an obligation to value it - not just the sirloin but also all those wonderful tough little bits.
I like telling stories, and I tell stories that interest me. It would be boring to have to go to nothing but the best restaurants. That would be a misery to me.
I used to exist on just two or three hours of sleep, no problem, like sleep wasn't even a thought. Sleep was just like a chore that you had to do late at night.
I still have the 'New York Post' delivered because it's so garrulous and nasty and wonderful when you read it in print. Some things just don't translate online.
Opportunities present themselves and you have to enjoy the ride. All of us get so worried about the next step that we don't enjoy the moment we're in right now.
I don't like looking back. I'm always constantly looking forward. I'm not the one to sort of sit and cry over spilt milk. I'm too busy looking for the next cow.
We launched it in the London branch - phenomenal sausages, incredible eggs, homemade baked beans, black pudding - and it's something I wanted to bring to Dubai.
I love eating out. I don't deny that. But I don't want 12 or 15 courses because the chef wants me to taste this or taste that. I just want to be able to decide.
Food feeds our souls. It is the single great unifier across all cultures. The table offers a sanctuary and a place to come together for unity and understanding.
The filming happens in my home, and I cook like I do at home, on my home stove with my house pots and so on. That's who I am. I am very true to my real profile.
I've lived all over the world, but Harlem is very special to me, and when I decided to open a restaurant near my home, I didn't want it to be business as usual.
Hardly any of my most memorable meals have been eaten in a restaurant, and definitely none in one of those fancy marble-floored, polished-silver establishments.
The fact that most kids aren't eating at home with their families any more really means they are eating elsewhere. They are eating out there in fast food nation.
I wasn't passionate about food until I'd been cooking for a while. I started long before food became part of the mainstream media. I just wanted to cook, period.
My office in New York is overflowing with all kinds of cookbooks, and in New Orleans we have a huge culinary library. So yeah, I guess I'm a little bit obsessed.
When I step into the kitchen in the morning, I go for the scrambled eggs with pine nuts and minced lamb. When I finish at night, it is hard to resist the burger.