Top 100 A Chef Quotes
#1. A chef is a mixture maybe of artistry and craft. You have to learn the craft really to get there.
Wolfgang Puck
#2. A lot of people love the idea of improvising but are terrified of it, so I tried to make a book that was not a chef's book about improvising but a real home cook's book with a real home cook's pantry, supermarket ingredients, that sort of thing.
Sally Schneider
#3. You don't have to be a chef or even a particularly good cook to experience proper kitchen alchemy: the moment when ingredients combine to form something more delectable than the sum of their parts. Fancy ingredients or recipes not required; simple, made-up things are usually even better.
Erin Morgenstern
#4. Let me ask you: Who do you prefer, a clown organizing your menu - with all due respect to Mr. McDonald - or a chef? I do believe it's a very simple answer.
Jose Andres
#5. The hardest thing for a chef is to become comfortable with what you do. Not to be too neurotic and worried with what you are doing and how wrong or right you are.
Daniel Boulud
#6. I, alas, must present myself somewhat ignominiously as a chef in a busy kitchen. Somewhere a novel is bubbling on a back burner, an old attempt at history may come out of the freezer.
Theodore White
#7. 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.
Arthur Potts Dawson
#8. Generally a chef's book is like a calling card or a portfolio to display their personal work.
Sally Schneider
#9. Mostly I enjoy the restaurants (my husband is a chef), though I wish we had a wider diversity of ethnic food.
Poppy Z. Brite
#10. David Levi is a teacher as well as a chef, and, like most teachers, he loves to talk.
Kate Christensen
#11. I have a chef who makes sure that I'm getting the right amounts of carbs, proteins and fats throughout the day to keep me at my max performance level.
Barry Bonds
#12. When you have a chef that wants to be in the spotlight, maybe after one or two appearances on a show, they think they're at a certain level that they haven't reached yet in the kitchen. Shows like 'Top Chef', 'Hell's Kitchen' have helped bring attention to the culinary world.
Geoffrey Zakarian
#13. My father was a chef but hadn't owned his own business. I didn't like that. In my heart of hearts, I knew I wanted to be in business.
Andrew Cherng
#14. I am not a food critic. Or a chef. Or even a professional writer. What I am schooled in the art of, however, is enjoying myself.
Jewel Staite
#15. As I mature as a chef, I no longer aim to pack multiple techniques and ingredients into a single dish. Realizing that restraint is more difficult, I find it often renders incredibly beautiful results.
Daniel Humm
#16. As a chef, I had started working with groups like Share Our Strength and various local food banks in New York, raising money for hunger-related issues. And not only me, but the entire restaurant industry has been very focused on this issue.
Tom Colicchio
#17. My aunt is a famous L.A. chef, Susan Feniger, and she's got Street and Border Grill. So a fun night out for me is to go to my aunt's restaurants.
Ben Feldman
#18. Fish butchering means a lot to me as a chef; I take pride in it and get a lot of joy from filleting fish, working with fish, breaking down fish, trying to understand fish.
Wylie Dufresne
#19. The last thing a chef wants in a line cook is an innovator, somebody with ideas of his own who is going to mess around with the chef's recipes and presentations. Chefs require blind, near-fanatical loyalty, a strong back and an automaton-like consistency of execution under battlefield conditions.
Anthony Bourdain
#20. My plans are not to open a restaurant, but what I would like to do is open a kitchen somewhere in D.C. proper and have a chef's table where people can come and taste my food without having to have a catered event.
Carla Hall
#21. A chef and a restaurateur are different jobs: One is about pleasing people with what's on the plate; the other is about understanding the market. I'm a chef, but I think I'm a savvy businessperson, too.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten
#22. As a chef, if I can taste something, I can basically figure out what's in it.
Kelis
#23. I'm a normal guy. I'm not a chef.
Al Roker
#24. The first year I sold a photo to was a lady who thought I was a chef, for some reason. I've no idea why.
Graeme Le Saux
#25. I like cooking, but I don't think I could be a chef. Everyone from the ground up does terrible hours, whether you've just walked in off the street and you've got no experience, to whether you're the head chef. You can work 14 or 15-hour days. It's really, really intense.
James McAvoy
#26. 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.
Jeremy Miller
#27. Cooking is for chefs. Science informs us and lets us cook while knowing what we are doing, but it is not a replacement for the skills of a chef.
Nathan Myhrvold
#28. Marcus Samuelsson is a chef who inspires me everyday. He has such a deep understanding of flavors and techniques. His food is representative of the diverse world that we live in. What he has done in Harlem with Red Rooster is very special. Marcus is not just a chef, he's a food activist.
Aaron Sanchez
#29. I don't like to sit still for long at all, which has probably helped me along the way, and partly why I was drawn to the heat of a restaurant kitchen. The rush of service means that you're always on your toes and keeps a chef pretty active.
Curtis Stone
#30. I am a chef who happens to appear on the telly, that's it.
Gordon Ramsay
#31. You know that old expression "It's not whether you win or lose; it's how you play the game". That line was definitely not coined by a chef. Because for a chef, it's only about whether or not you pull through. If you fail, nobody cares how hard you tried.
Marcus Samuelsson
#32. Actually, I wish you were a chef. Then I'd get something out of this relationship.
Wesley Chu
#33. I always loved cooking, from an early age. I kind of wanted to be a chef.
Caleb Followill
#34. If I wasn't an actress, I'd be a chef. I'd love to open a restaurant.
Blake Lively
#35. I've never said I was a chef - I think I make great food. I will never open a restaurant to do, like, tasting courses.
Eddie Huang
#36. I want to be a chef, but I'm only a fat girl chef; like, I only like to make fat comfort food. I'm not, like, a healthy chef person.
Khloe Kardashian
#38. We in the media have been guilty about not doing a better job of making people understand how really simple cooking is. We've made everyone feel like they have to be a chef.
Ruth Reichl
#39. Omelets are about technique. Now, different people make it different ways, but, if you're a chef in Europe, an omelet has to be cooked on the outside, with just a simmer of color, and the inside has to be soft. It should be cooked like a steak - medium rare.
Wolfgang Puck
#40. The midfield are like a chef, trying to prise open a stubborn oyster to get at the fleshy meat inside.
George Hamilton
#41. I know from personal experience, if a chef yelled at me in a kitchen, the first thing I'd want to do is hit them with a pot.
Tom Colicchio
#42. The stressful part of that is that you're not a chef. People who have learnt to be chefs have spent years in kitchens just on the vegetable section and then move up to the fish section, etc, whereas you have to do everything and it's really full on, but it's an amazing experience.
Jayne Middlemiss
#43. Ever since I read 'Kitchen Confidential,' I saw a little light bulb go off. Being a chef is like being on a pirate ship; it's not like 'Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?' or whatever my impression was as I was growing up.
Jon Favreau
#44. I always thought that family was the most important thing in life, and no matter what I do, whether being a chef or an actor or a dancer, being a dad is what I do best.
David Burtka
#45. Chef?" Carmel exclaims. "I could give a shit about a chef. I'm going to find the most expensive thing in that kitchen, eat one bite, and throw the rest on the floor. Then I'm going to break some plates.
Kendare Blake
#46. I call all chefs 'cooks.' They're all cooks. That's what we do, we cook. You're a chef when you're running a kitchen.
Tom Colicchio
#47. In normal life, "simplicity" is synonymous with "easy to do," but when a chef uses the word, it means "takes a lifetime to learn.
Bill Buford
#48. I would love to date a chef. I'd probably get really fat, but I don't care.
Elizabeth Olsen
#49. I think, as a chef and restaurateur, that you have to take care of your business. Otherwise, you're only as good as your last meal. You have to watch if your food costs are too high, or you could be out of business in no time.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten
#50. My dad was in the restaurant business, but I didn't really think about following him. Had I done better at school, I don't know if I would have been a chef.
David Chang
#51. Only when a chef changed the way you saw the world, through cooking, did food truly become art, and that was rare indeed.
Michael Ruhlman
#52. Now everybody thinks that once you do Top Chef, then 13 weeks later you're a chef. Nobody wants to learn to cook anymore.
Wolfgang Puck
#53. My husband is a musician. He cooks and he's a chef but he also, he makes basement recordings. So many people in my life make basement recordings, so I feel very lucky, I'm surrounded by very creative people.
Dana Spiotta
#55. When I was younger, I behaved a bit strangely sometimes - lost my temper, did silly things - but little by little, I've gotten better. As a chef, I think you need to do a lot of work on yourself and your temperament.
Alain Ducasse
#56. Culinary arts. I'm one of those crazy people who dream of being a chef one day.
Karina Halle
#57. If you are a chef, no matter how good a chef you are, it's not good cooking for yourself; the joy is in cooking for others - it's the same with music.
Will.i.am
#58. I had no desire to be a chef, but I had a desire to be someone who was heard.
Eddie Huang
#59. Lesson: Never underestimate a woman. Or a chef.
Gwenda Bond
#60. Anyone who's a chef, who loves food, ultimately knows that all that matters is: 'Is it good? Does it give pleasure?'
Anthony Bourdain
#61. As a chef and father, it kills me that children are fed processed foods, fast food clones, foods loaded with preservatives and high-fructose corn syrup.
Jose Andres
#62. If you've attended the Cordon Bleu, you would know that no woman is supposed to be a chef - only men.
Sandra Lee
#63. I don't have a nanny. I have a chef, and I have my assistant, and that's it. I do it myself. You know, those hours with your child are really important ones, even if it's just the two of you, being quiet in the car together.
Melania Trump
#64. ... to me, a restaurant with no menu, headed by a chef I trusted, would be ideal. In such a utopia, guests could specify deathly allergies, hunger level, and time constraints, but then they would unfurl their napkin and surrender".
Phoebe Damrosch
#65. It was a chef's knife," I said, holding my hands about a foot apart. "And a very large one."
"That's what she said," Ethan murmured.
Chloe Neill
#66. The better the ingredients, the more farmers I can buy from, the closer I feel to the food I want to make that represents what I care about as a chef.
Alexandra Guarnaschelli
#67. In an Indian kitchen, the focus is on getting the job or dish done right in whatever way possible; however, in a French kitchen there's a clear hierarchy, and a chef has to know where their skills are and not go beyond them.
Manish Dayal
#68. America gave me the opportunity to open successful restaurants, start a TV show, and write books. I can even fill an auditorium when I give a speech, which in America is rare for a chef.
Jose Andres
#69. When you're a chef, you graze. You never get a chance to sit down and eat. They don't actually sit down and eat before you cook. So when I finish work, the first thing I'll do, and especially when I'm in New York, I'll go for a run. And I'll run 10 or 15k on my - and I run to gain my appetite.
Gordon Ramsay
#70. I bet a chef could get more pussy than a guitar player right now.
Roy Choi
#71. There's not much you can do about time - it just keeps on passing. But experience? Don't tell me that. I'm not proud of it, but I don't have any sexual desire. And what sort of experience can a writer have if she doesn't feel passion? It'd be like a chef without an appetite.
Haruki Murakami
#72. A friend of mine is a chef in Bali, and another friend said, 'God, he's like Brad Pitt,' and I said, 'Yeah, I think he's more like arm Pitt,' 'cause, you know, 'Brad Pitt' would be a bit of an overstatement.
Owain Yeoman
#74. I really feel I have found myself as a chef. It's very clear to me what I want to do - and how it should taste.
Daniel Humm
#75. The worst food you'll ever eat will probably be prepared by a 'cook' who calls himself a 'chef.' Mark my words.
Alton Brown
#76. I wanted to be a vet, a nurse, a chef - I mean, anything but the music industry. But once I hit high school, the bug really bit me. You can't deny where you come from and what's in your genes, and music definitely was. I haven't looked back since.
Hillary Scott
#77. As a soccer player, I wanted an FA Cup winner's medal. As an actor you want an Oscar. As a chef it's three-Michelin's stars, there's no greater than that. So pushing yourself to the extreme creates a lot of pressure and a lot of excitement, and more importantly, it shows on the plate.
Gordon Ramsay
#78. 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.
Anne Burrell
#79. You can call me the bad boy chef all you want. I'm not going to freak out about it. I'm not that bad. I'm certainly not a boy, and it's been a while since I've been a chef.
Anthony Bourdain
#80. 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.
Anthony Bourdain
#81. My husband cooks fancier food for himself than I've ever cooked on-air. I call him from the road, and he's making champagne-vanilla salmon or black-cherry pork chop. Half of me is feeling unworthy. Not only am I not a chef, I'm not a better cook than my own husband!
Rachael Ray
#82. Every man has his destiny. But who needs to go to a fortune-teller to find it? Do I go to a chef to find out if I'm hungry?
Arthur Golden
#83. Chicago is a lot of my background as a chef.
Jose Garces
#84. Being a sport star and a chef both require passion, commitment, work and natural ability.
Paul Rankin
#86. As a chef, you need to respect your guests and their needs. If they decide that they want to eat certain things and not eat others, if for religious reasons or just decide they don't want to eat certain ingredients, you have to respect that.
Joel Robuchon
#87. Don't take a butcher's advice on how to cook meat. If he knew, he'd be a chef.
Andy Rooney
#88. Everybody these days wants to be a star, including myself. Don't get me wrong, I'm a chef but you want to market yourself and your projects.
Geoffrey Zakarian
#89. One of the great awards from a chef's point of view are Michelin stars. The ultimate is three Michelin stars. For example, Gordon Ramsey has three Michelin stars. Having one Michelin star is a big deal, two is incredible and having three puts you in a bracket of maybe 30 chefs worldwide.
Paul Rankin
#90. I am not a chef. I am not even a trained or professional cook. My qualification is as an eater.
Nigella Lawson
#91. My husband and I have always incorporated things into our life that reduce stress. We're very careful with our health. We go to bed early. In this job, fatigue would be very detrimental! We've always eaten very healthily; now it's really particularly easy because we have a chef.
Laura Bush
#92. Just like if you were brought up on a farm, you would most likely carry on your father's business as a farmer; I was brought up in the kitchen and ended up becoming a chef.
Martin Yan
#93. All of the people who work in the kitchen with me go out into the forests and on to the beach. It's a part of their job. If you work with me you will often be starting your day in the forest or on the shore because I believe foraging will shape you as a chef.
Rene Redzepi
#94. Most people think buying is investing, but they're wrong. Buying doesn't make you an investor any more than buying groceries makes you a chef.
Gary Keller
#95. I get along great with my family. My parents are really proud of me and my brother, who's a chef here in New York. I don't see my parents often, but they're very supportive, especially as I get older.
Alison Mosshart
#96. I studied to be a chef as a side thing, a little hobby that I enjoyed doing, but I ended up falling madly in love with the food and the lifestyle.
Kelis
#97. I cannot wait to see the day that one day we will have a chef that will become the secretary of food of the United States of America.
Jose Andres
#98. When I was twelve, I decided to become a chef. I stole a book from the library about the greatest restaurants in France. I'd flip the pages and dream. I should return that book to the library some day.
Eric Ripert
#99. While some people may think being a chef only entails making enticing dishes and pushing the culinary boundaries, being a part of the food industry involves much more.
Marcus Samuelsson
#100. My dad was a master butcher and I trained to be a butcher when I left school. I didn't enjoy it at the time but I love cooking now, so perhaps I would have been a chef.
Brendan Coyle
