Top 918 Quotes & Sayings by Famous Chefs - Page 15

You're only as good as the people who you surround yourself with.

I love fresh citrus and always keep lemons, limes, and oranges on hand; they come in handy for spritzing up quickly grilled meats, seafoods, and vegetables, especially when followed up by a quick drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Actually, I'd really love to do something in Bali, up in the mountains. A little restaurant with that scenery would be beautiful.

I'm a neurotic Jew who doesn't want loans. I can't even carry a balance on my credit card without having a nervous breakdown.

I keep going back to foundation, heritage cooking techniques from my family in Naples and Abruzzi. There are a lot of traditional dishes from those regions that I want to educate my kids' palates about, to pass down that heritage and that lineage. I think my mom would have been pleasantly surprised and absolutely thrilled to have seen all the cookbooks and all the restaurants and all the television I've done.

I don't think any other holiday embraces the food of the Midwest quite like Thanksgiving. There's roasted meat and mashed potatoes. But being here is also about heritage. Cleveland is really a giant melting pot - not only is my family a melting pot, but so is the city.

I like crazy, childlike, candy bar-filled cakes with gooey caramel, chocolate-covered nuts, marshmallows, and the like.

Most writers need to write. I write for money, really. If I won the lottery, I would never write another word. I would rather read.

The Governors Ball is like a big birthday party, and all these stars are like excited kids running around - 'Oooo, look at my pretty new dress!' And what's the best, most fun surprise at a birthday party? When the cake comes out!

I was in Paris, Milan and London from '89 until '91, and I did mostly runway modeling. I know there's so many people out there looking for pictures, but this was way before the age of the Internet, sorry!

Brussels sprouts are misunderstood - probably because most people don't know how to cook them properly.

Chocolate is one of those flavors that's very likeable, very loveable, very versatile.

My father has said a hundred times, and I have paid attention, that it's stupid to let money be the reason you don't do something.

It’s all about getting them back in, and I think…my husband and I talk about it all the time…it’s about making it personal for the guest.

As a chef, I got into this because I love the creative energy and I love the science, but I also love to feed people and make them happy.

You have to explain to little children 'why' and you also have to listen to them and believe me, they will reason with you, they're unbelievable! So you can learn from everyone at any age. Life is about listening, leaning and never giving up. As long as you're here on earth, you're here for a purpose and it's not about you it's about what you can do to better the world you live in. And that's why I'm here, to help someone else up.

It's promising and seductive, that huge Italian family, sitting around the dinner table, surrounded by olive trees. But it's not my family and I am not their family, and no amount of birthing sons, and cooking dinner and raking leaves or planting the gardens or paying for the plane tickets is going to change that. If I don't come back in eleven months, I will not be missed, and no one will write me or call me to acknowledge my absence. Which is not an accusation, just a small truth about clan and bloodline.

When designing a kitchen, always keep in mind the social aspect.

If the first bite is with the eye and the second with the nose, some people will never take that third, actual bite if the food in question smells too fishy, fermented or cheesy.

Every few years, I change my look for the simple reason that I get bored. If you Google Image me, you will see so many different looks: long hair, short hair, clean shaven, beard, etc.

I think people will want to eat more street food, things that are more off the cuff, things with a food truck background that people have flipped into a restaurant. If you look at the new places opening, they're quite gutsy, earthy places.

I adore my mother, and I am probably a chef because of my mother. She was adventurous.

I have been cooking with preserved lemon for years, using it left, right and centre, but I am still far from reaching my limit.

The key to a good meal is simplicity and the right seasoning.

Being tired isn't anything. What's important is the mind. The body being tired isn't important. You can get over the body being tired by resting for a half-hour or an hour. What's important is whether the mind is tired.

I would try and barter a cake for some help with coding. I'm not the best coder. I have some basic HTML but that's about it.

Canadians will usually give charity to those in need overseas but will ignore the people in their own backyards. It's infuriating.

Success is seldom permanent, and failure is seldom fatal. The important thing is to keep trying.

There's a layer of satisfaction that I get from cooking that is more than the work itself. I think when you're too competitive sometimes you can lose the joy of what you do.

We closed the restaurant in New Orleans and brought the entire staff to San Francisco. But we had to go home.

The modernity of yesterday is the tradition of today, and the modernity of today will be tradition tomorrow.

I take after my mother more than my father in terms of personality. My mother's a worrier, and I'm a worrier. Both were very good with numbers and mathematics, so I kind of got that from both of them.

I've had a lot of success; I've had failures, so I learn from the failure.

Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and, in my opinion, the best place to visit. It is an amazing hub of history. It's called the Pink City because all the architecture has a hint of pink in the stones used. It's an amazing stop for all kinds of food but also for history and shopping. It has a little bit of everything.

I'm a chef, I'm a cook, I was created by this industry, and I like to think I'm giving back. But I'm not giving back because I can make a scallop souffle, I'm giving back because I can make compost.

Cooking is chemistry, really.

My life just got taken over by my cooking. If you don't have any discipline, which I don't, you can make 10 gallons of chocolate mousse, take a spoonful and another and another, and you won't realize you've eaten like five servings of it. It's just what you do.

By thinking through the grilling process while still in the kitchen, you can easily gather all of the items that you might need and conveniently carry them to the outdoors area.

I like to create events where people are going to make memories, and that always starts and ends with food in my life.

The perfect ham and cheese sandwich is all about focusing on quality ingredients and about simple techniques. You start with great bread, a well-cured ham and a sharp local cheese, and the rest is easy. A little butter in a pan and a little patience - in the end you'll have a sandwich that is at once comforting and delicious.

How can it be, after all this concentrated effort and separation, how can it be that I still resemble, so very closely, my own detestable mother?

Success is the sum of a lot of small things done correctly.

With the Industrial Revolution, the production of food was delegated to big companies in order for women and men to be in the labour force, to come home, stick something in the oven, and eat. It became a big industry that does not have a love affair with food nor is really concerned about nurturing you or giving you the right nutrition.

I like working with fish, so naturally I like seafood.

Restaurants stress the protein. People read menu items left to right, with the protein first. I read descriptions right to left.

The differences between a tart, a pie and a quiche are a blur.

Everything tastes better with butter. Meat that has fat in it is tender in a certain way, flavorful in a certain way. It's hard to deny the flavor quotient there.

I don't want to spend my life not having good food going into my pie hole. That hole was made for pies.

I grew up in Lucknow, which is famous for its street food and kebabs. It was the street food and Lucknowi kebabs that inspired me. The culture of the varieties of food that I tasted as a child inspired me to be a cook.

Go vegetable heavy. Reverse the psychology of your plate by making meat the side dish and vegetables the main course.

If any one element of French cooking can be called important, basic and essential, that element is soup.

I'm more comfortable weaving Indian flavors into American classics.

But what I'm very interested in, whether it's writing, whether it's hosting a show, whether it's cooking food, I'm just into the discussions of identity, culture and the politics of culture.

I try not to focus on taking things away; I try to add in nutrient-rich foods into the things I eat. I don't say, 'I'm going to take out the fat.' I say, 'What can I add in to make my muscles work more? What can I add into this that will give me the vitamins I need?' It feels luxurious!

I fell in love with pastry because I felt I could be much more creative. It's precise, and you don't have to kill anything.

How do we remember people when they don’t make reservations?

Ham and cheese between two slices of bread do not make a great sandwich. But add some creamy mayonnaise, maybe some bright pickles, and some crunchy vegetables, and we got a decent lunch going on.

When you think about a barbecue, most people think of slabs of ribs, but you don't need to do that in today's culinary barbecue world. Short ribs, barbecue chicken, skewered shrimp, vegetable kebabs, lobster mac and cheese with or without the lobster, and a donut bread pudding for dessert that's absolutely amazing. These are things that are safe whether you're a novice or a professional. Be creative and stay within your culinary pantheon.

Being a chef is about feeding people, which is part of the story of all humanity.

All Italians speak Spanish without studying.