Chef Quotes

“Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.”

“Since the very beginning, Emeril's had a sense of humor about me calling him names and poking fun at him.”

“What is left of the poor? Try to buy a fresh f**king vegetable in West Baltimore. It is a not completely inconceivable scenario in the future, we'll all look like that... Waddling from convenience store to fast food outlet, chewing mindlessly on 99 cent hamburgers.”

“Really annoys me any time I see Asian fusion too. Asia is a big place; which Asian are you talking about? You notice it's never Uzbek or Tajik food. It's Thai, and it's generally insulting.”

“I could do one show after another in China for the rest of my life and still die ignorant. There's a lot of places left to go.”

“Anyone who's a chef, who loves food, ultimately knows that all that matters is: Is it good? Does it give pleasure?”

“In this way, writers are indeed, as Henry Miller suggested, traitors to the human race. We may turn a light on inequity, injustice, and oppression from time to time, but we regularly kill what we love in insidious fashion.”

“I'm not afraid to look like an idiot on TV.”

“Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria's mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once.”

“I wasn't that great a chef, and I don't think I'm that great a writer.”

“My love of soft, runny cheese - it's impossible to resist.”

“That without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, moribund.”

“As you move through this life...you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life - and travel - leaves marks on you.”

“Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic.”

“If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it's the restaurant business.”

“There's something wonderful about drinking in the afternoon. A not-too-cold pint, absolutely alone at the bar - even in this fake-ass Irish pub.”

“Those places I don't understand, just doing bad food. It takes some doing. Making good pasta is so much easier than making bad stuff. It actually takes quite an effort to make poor linguine pomodora.”

“I love New York. I'm a guy for whom a New York accent is a comforting thing.”

“[When I die], I will decidedly not be regretting missed opportunities for a good time. My regrets will be more along the lines of a sad list of people hurt, people let down, assets wasted and advantages squandered.”

“I could eat bloody Elvis - if you put enough vinegar on him.”

“Anything that improves people's expectations of a meal is good for the world. Anything that weans even one kid or one adult away from Chili's or T.G.I. Friday's is definitely a win for the good guys.”

“I'm never a reliable narrator, unbiased or objective.”

“I'm a decent cook; I'm a decent chef. None of my friends would ever have hired me at any point in my career. Period.”

“your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.”

“I urge you to travel - as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to.”