I have always looked at it this way: If you strive like crazy for perfection - an all-out assault on total perfection - at the very least you will hit a high level of excellence, and then you might be able to sleep at night. To accomplish something truly significant, excellence has to become a life plan.
A jazz musician can improvise based on his knowledge of music. He understands how things go together. For a chef, once you have that basis, that's when cuisine is truly exciting.
Excellence is about fighting and pursuing something diligently, with a strict and determined approach to doing it right. It's okay if there are flaws in the process - it makes it more interesting.
Well, I kind of think that the opposite is true. The customer is rarely right. And that is why you must seize the control of the circumstance and dominate every last detail: to guarantee that they're going to have a far better time than they ever would have had if they tried to control it themselves.
I love faltering. I love, in a sense, coming up short. Because you learn nothing from success. You learn so much from failing.
You have to be critical of what you do every day, to analyze it and be willing to push it further.
The art of cooking is among the most intimate things that we can do for another.
Chefs, as a whole, say yes to any project, fundraiser, or tasting because they have such a generous spirit.
Fernand Point's philosophy instilled what cuisine is all about: generosity and hugeness of heart.
My fantasy is to have a restaurant where there are no written menus, but where you just ask people, What are you in the mood for? Fish? Meat? White wine?
Cuisine is only about making foods taste the way they are supposed to taste.
It's a challenge to demonstrate that you can prepare some really interesting food with humble ingredients.
I’m all about making money. It’s the greatest thing, because it means you get money to spend.
If you want the meaning of families and life and religion and philosophy rolled into one package, all you need to read is The Brothers Karamazov.
Students need to learn how to think critically, how to argue opposing ideas. It is important for them to learn how to think. You can always cook.
One must know combinations, one must have a true knowledge of food to be in the moment.
Always make stock in a large quantity and freeze it in plastic bags. That way, when you want to make a nice soup or boil veggies, you can simply pull the bag out of the freezer.
I never considered Miles Davis a perfectionist; I always considered him as an excellence-ist, where deviation is actually kind of cool.
My parents couldnt be looser. It was the ultimate laissez faire upbringing.
I couldnt really relate to the fraternity or party scene, to the people out in the mall every day protesting one thing or another. I felt like there was no one I could relate to.
What I was reading was already part of my psyche, but finally someone else was saying it's okay to walk alone.
I wasnt using college as a stepping stone to law school or some other career. I just wanted a liberal-arts education.
