A Quote by Kristen Kish

One day I may commit to a city and settle down and do the restaurant thing - when I'm ready and however and whatever the definition of a restaurant means to me and how I want to cook for people. Many lessons to be learned that are probably long overdue for me and I'm finding them through all channels of exploration and keeping all my doors open.
Many chefs of a certain caliber do not see me as a chef. I don't have a restaurant. They see me as a TV food personality, not a chef. I've gotten respect, trust me, they respect me, but I think that I can't hit that particular level of respect from them until I have a successful Vegas restaurant that not only makes money but creates unbelievable food and a fabulous experience. I don't think people think I can cook, and they don't think I know what the hell I'm doing.
Well, I got people that help me with the restaurant. I don't have to be at the restaurant 24 hours a day.
You do tend to miss that repetition of day in and day out in a restaurant. I would like to open someplace where I can get back in touch with that side of my restaurant background. It is something we have plans to do and not sure how or when, but it is not too far away.
I was in a restaurant, and it just struck me, something I'd never thought of before. And it's menus in the restaurant just hit me. I was ordering and I thought, "God, think of all the people who handle these meals day in and day out" and they, I mean you're going to a restaurant, you can be pretty - you can feel secure that they wash the silverware in the kitchen and the linens and all that stuff, but they don't wash their menus, who washes menus? Now, I've got to worry about that for the rest of my life.
My grandmother was a chef, and she taught me to cook. One day I want a restaurant, a small Italian grill. Thats my aspiration.
My grandmother was a chef, and she taught me to cook. One day I want a restaurant, a small Italian grill. That's my aspiration.
During one of his uncannily well-timed impromptu visits to my restaurant, Union Square Cafe, Pat Cetta taught me how to manage people. Pat was the owner of a storied New York City steakhouse called Sparks, and by that time, he was an old pro at running a fine restaurant.
One day, I'll open my own restaurant or do something related to food, though I can't cook to save my life.
As you go through life, you learn many lessons. Unfortunately these lessons only apply to the specific instances in which you learned them. Therefore you can expect to make horrible mistakes no matter how long you live.
It depends as there's many different types of chefs, some who cook for awards and others who cook to make their restaurant a great business. There are those who cook for a lifestyle, they'll have come through pubs and they like to have the connection to the farmers and the chickens and the natural produce. So for each chef it'll be slightly different.
I can't tell you how many life lessons I've learned through bowling. Time management, finding balance in life, how to lose, how to win, how to bowl as a team and deal with people. How to do something I love to do and inspire other people.
It's very important in a restaurant to really do the right hiring because there's no restaurant that you have one cook and one chef and nobody else in the kitchen. Generally you have five, ten, 15 people with you. So that's really important is to train them right, but first you have to hire the right people.
Making food is a labor of love - it's a nice thing to do for your loved ones to show you care about them, that you took the time to make them something. But for me, I don't cook. I would much rather hop in my car and go to a restaurant.
However, I was a restaurant critic at Chicago magazine before I worked at Esquire, and I've been a really enthusiastic home cook for a long time. It's just something I'm passionate about.
It's one thing to execute dishes on your own time for family and friends, but quite another to perform and be judged in a competition. And that's what cooking in a high profile restaurant is. It's a competition. You're up against every other three-star restaurant in your city, and if you want to stay in business, you'd better deliver.
I'm lucky that my restaurant partners are my wife Liz and Doug Petkovic. We opened our first restaurant over 15 years ago. And we didn't open up our second restaurant for almost ten years. So that gave us a good foundation of employees.
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