Top 100 Chef Quotes
#1. I'm not a TV guy. I'm a restaurant chef and a businessman.
Emeril Lagasse
#2. Don't dunk your nigiri in the soy sauce. Don't mix your wasabi in the soy sauce. If the rice is good, complement your sushi chef on the rice.
Anthony Bourdain
#3. I love doing demonstrations. I think to be a great chef you have to be a great teacher. I love doing classes with people who love food and enjoy food, bringing them all around one table so to speak.
Michael Symon
#4. 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
#5. 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
#6. 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
#7. I'm not a trained chef. I'm a self-taught cook, and I want people to be like, 'Yo, I could do that! Maybe I didn't think to or maybe it seemed harder than it really is.'
Haylie Duff
#8. 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
#9. I would love to date a chef. I'd probably get really fat, but I don't care.
Elizabeth Olsen
#10. The celebrity-chef thing, even at its worst, its most annoying, its silliest, its goofiest, its most egregious and cynical, has been a good thing.
Anthony Bourdain
#11. I was chef to the French Presidents between '56 and '59, finished with de Gaulle, and during de Gaulle I remember serving Eisenhower, Nehru, Tito, Macmillan; those were the heads of state at the time. I never saw anyone. No one would ever, ever, ever come to the kitchen. You couldn't even see them.
Jacques Pepin
#12. Food is a passion because I basically grew up in a kitchen. My mother was a gourmet chef and I'm the youngest of five kids. We would always congregate in the kitchen.
Laura Prepon
#13. Shows like 'Top Chef,' 'Hell's Kitchen' have helped bring attention to the culinary world on a whole, but you have to be cautious it doesn't get out of hand.
Geoffrey Zakarian
#14. Roberto Donna is a great Italian chef.
Jose Andres
#15. If you're not the one cooking, stay out of the way and compliment the chef.
Michael Strahan
#16. It is great to add some glamour to the food industry, like television shows have done for the food world and inspiring people to work in the industry. The flip side of that is unfortunately people think that after they get their qualifications, they get their invitation to compete on 'Top Chef.'
Curtis Stone
#17. a good recipe in the hands of a bad chef is still distasteful! A good chef must have a discriminating palate, and a good band director must have a discerning ear
Mary Ellen Cavitt
#18. 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
#19. How do I speak Spanish? Not too well. Paz taught me a few words that, if people weren't nice to me, I could tell them a few things. I got to study with [chef] Thomas Keller, who we all love as a guy and Jim had a relationship with him at [his restaurant] the French Laundry.
Adam Sandler
#20. I'm an American chef. I'm American. I live here. I love being here. But, of course, it is different. A black man's journey is different.
Marcus Samuelsson
#21. 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
#22. Gordon Ramsay, the only chef in London honored with three stars by the 'Guide Michelin,' is not a monster.
Bill Buford
#23. I probably use my chef's knives more than any other tool in the kitchen. I'm not married to a particular brand, because they all work, they all have sharp blades.
Bobby Flay
#24. The biggest challenge of being a pastry chef is that, unlike other types of chefs, you can't throw things together at a farmer's market. When you're working with baking powder and a formula, you have to be exact. If not, things can go wrong.
Carla Hall
#25. You can't really class all reality shows together. For instance, 'Top Chef' is about talent and competition. 'Big Brother' is more like what happens when you get all those narcissistic personalities crammed in together ... and there are limits to that.
Sienna Guillory
#26. 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
#27. The exposure from 'Iron Chef' has been helpful, but at the end of the day your product and your service determine whether you get customers or not. If people decide to eat out less during a recession, the first restaurants that they will cut out are the ones that don't do a great job.
Michael Symon
#28. I cannot bring myself to wear the Nobu hats, or the Nobu T-shirts. But the chef's jacket, that is mine. And when I wear it, I am very proud of myself.
Nobu Matsuhisa
#29. One of the things is challenging yourself to do a Rome show when everybody's done a Rome show. To find some aspect of food culture or chef culture that people can look at in a new way.
Anthony Bourdain
#30. I am so proud of 'Top Chef' - I think it's got great cred.
Andy Cohen
#31. Nobody makes bouillabaisse from scratch. It's all a bunch of malarkey. Even the restaurants buy a commercial-grade product. I had a very famous chef tell me that.
Sandra Lee
#32. There's not a single chef I know of that does not think about the politics of the food they're serving.
Gail Simmons
#33. Emerald [Cunard] alleged that Mrs Ronnie instructed her chef to inflate the quails to be served at dinner with a bicycle pump.
Sian Evans
#34. My future chef was an oversized, hysterical hedgehog with a martyr complex.
Ilona Andrews
#35. My dream as a passionate cook has been to go to Le Cordon Bleu. Never could my most incredible dream have lived up to the experience. The food, the lesson, the chef, the ingredients - all the best of the best. I see why Le Cordon Bleu is world-renowned.
Blake Lively
#37. This kitchen is completely calm. Some of the old-fashioned chefs - they become kings in their kitchen, they've got to be called chef. But I don't care if someone calls me chef or Heston, it really doesn't bother me.
Heston Blumenthal
#38. 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
#39. I moved to Louisiana to become the executive Chef at Commander's Place. And I must say I had some encouragement from friends such as Ella Brennan, the queen of the New Orleans's culinary set, and others. This was very flattering to a young man with a dream. I was only 26 years old.
Emeril Lagasse
#40. 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
#42. 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
#43. Since I don't have access to the White House pastry chef anymore, it's done wonders for my figure.
William J. Clinton
#44. Nobody believes in racial profiling until they get a red-haired sushi chef with a southern accent.
Jim Gaffigan
#45. Culinary arts. I'm one of those crazy people who dream of being a chef one day.
Karina Halle
#46. I've been experimenting more and more with LN2, liquid nitrogen. I've used it in battle on 'Iron Chef America,' but have also made some great ice creams at home for my family. Since it freezes basically on contact, you can have ice cream ready in mere minutes.
Cat Cora
#47. Who needs one more chef in one more building with four walls and a kitchen?
Jose Andres
#48. Whenever I'd go to restaurants, the main chef came out and was cooking for me, and he's asking me how the food is. I get, like, VIP service, so it's weird.
Inbee Park
#49. 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
#50. There's only one cook in the kitchen, only one chef. I let the soloists do their thing - you've gotta let a man do a solo the way he wants - but as far as picking the tunes and working on the arrangements, I take full responsibility for it.
Gregg Allman
#51. I had no desire to be a chef, but I had a desire to be someone who was heard.
Eddie Huang
#52. My friends, the hardest thing, when you reach a certain level, is to stay fresh, day in and day out. The world changes very fast around us, no? So, as difficult as it is, the key to success is to embrace this constant change and move with the times," said Chef Piquot.
Richard C. Morais
#53. Lesson: Never underestimate a woman. Or a chef.
Gwenda Bond
#54. Anyone who's a chef, who loves food, ultimately knows that all that matters is: 'Is it good? Does it give pleasure?'
Anthony Bourdain
#55. Whenever I want to know how to cook something, I can't ask one chef - I have to ask six.
Alice Waters
#56. Biblical, Talmudic, or Koranic literalists remind me of children wrinkling their noses at Belon oysters and asking for more Chef Boy-E-Dee. They want the world to be as simple as they are.
Tim Kreider
#57. 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
#58. JEMAINE
Lisa?
BRET
Yes, she's in Delta Force. She's been deployed to Fallujah.
JEMAINE
But she works in the croissant shop.
BRET
Yeah, she's got two jobs. She's a pastry chef and a sniper.
Flight Of The Conchords
#59. I believe no chef becomes what he becomes without having many people influence him.
Jose Andres
#60. It's a very naive idea to think that the chef is cooking everything, and, on top of it, is irreplaceable. That would mean that basically he is the only genius, and there are idiots all around him, which doesn't make sense.
Eric Ripert
#61. 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
#62. If you want to become a great chef, you have to work with great chefs. And that's exactly what I did.
Gordon Ramsay
#63. If your grandparents are Mexican, you can relate through the roots of the show [Top Chef], through the food, through the traditions and find yourself and get to know yourself too.
Ana Claudia Talancon
#64. If I didn't ever model? I would be back in Kansas. I would probably end up being a pastry chef. My grandma taught me how to make a pie.
Lindsey Wixson
#65. Sometimes you just dread reading scripts; it's like the chef who doesn't want to cook at home.
Martin Henderson
#66. Delivering a speech or presentation is like cooking a meal; as long as the chef is good the cuisine doesn't matter.
Jack Canfield
#67. The worst food you'll ever eat will probably be prepared by a 'cook' who calls himself a 'chef.' Mark my words.
Alton Brown
#68. You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made,' [Chef Bugnard] said. 'Even after you eat it, it stays with you - always.
Julia Child
#69. Danny was a matador. Other cast members included a chubby Italian chef, a mime, and, for some reason, a mummy. I found that offensive on behalf of living Egyptian people, but I also knew that Parker McHune's mother couldn't sew, so wrapping her son in Ace bandages was the best she could do.
Molly Harper
#70. Close interaction with farmers and scientists can expose the chef to new flavours that can be used to delight diners.
Rene Redzepi
#71. Last week I told my wife, If you would learn to cook, I could fire the chef. She said, If you could learn to make love, I could fire the chauffer.
Rodney Dangerfield
#73. 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
#74. Chef Michel Richard is always at the top of his game.
Jose Andres
#76. I think the most wonderful thing in the world is another chef. I'm always excited about learning new things about food.
Paul Prudhomme
#77. 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
#78. One thing I always say is being a great chef today is not enough - you have to be a great businessman.
Wolfgang Puck
#79. 'The chef on duty will constantly point out the time, name the next project, and finish with 'push!' The entire team then calls it back. It is a simple one, but it gives me goosebumps every time.
Jorge Hernandez
#80. Then i don't know I remembered how he was when he was nineteen, the way he looked, running across this field to where his dad sat on a tractor, hand over his eyes, watching Wes run toward him - Chef's House
Raymond Carver
#81. Whether it's a hospital or wherever ... we can deliver to anyone with a phone book."
A phone book.
Such a simple and basic answer.
When the chef picked up the phone and said, "Russia Sushi, how can I help you?" did she take him literally?
Ryohgo Narita
#82. In Europe I couldn't be anything but a black cook working for somebody. My inspiration was to own, to be the chef.
Marcus Samuelsson
#83. I don't like food that's too carefully arranged; it makes me think that the chef is spending too much time arranging and not enough time cooking. If I wanted a picture I'd buy a painting.
Andy Rooney
#84. I am a very eco-friendly chef but a guilty air traveller.
Alain Ducasse
#85. I stock up on fancy food because I'm also planning on morphing into a master chef and actually cooking instead of just eating nachos for dinner every night.
Allie Brosh
#86. 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
#87. I have dreams of becoming a professional pastry chef and having a little bakery - that's how much I love baking. I love to cook in general, but my heart lies in desserts.
Kim Barnouin
#88. I did all the Chef Boyardee commercials, in America, when I was young.
Jane Seymour
#89. I always say this to the young chefs and mean it: The customer is excited, he says you are an artist, but we are not, just craftspeople with a little talent. If the chef is an artist, he doesn't succeed. Why? Because he is inspired today but not tomorrow. We cannot do that.
Andre Soltner
#90. 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
#91. Management is the kitchen that produces a delicious meal, where Leadership is the Chef hooked by a purpose across the canyon of risks that adds the fragrance and taste to make it go beyond expectations.
Amit Chatterjee
#92. ... 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
#93. Think about your menu, and if you're not a skilled chef - which I'm not - follow a recipe. You can't go wrong if you don't cut the fine print.
Karen Elson
#94. Isobel moved farther into the kitchen, not knowing whether to be relieved that her mother hadn't had an atomic meltdown, or mortified that she'd taken it upon herself to play head chef with the nearest thing Trenton High had to a Dark Lord.
Kelly Creagh
#95. I was the head chef on the S.S. Diarrhea.
Mr. Krabs
#96. I train my chefs completely different to anyone else. My young girls and guys, when they come to the kitchen, the first thing they get is a blindfold. They get blindfolded and they get sat down at the chef's table ... Unless they can identify what they're tasting, they don't get to cook it.
Gordon Ramsay
#97. If you've attended the Cordon Bleu, you would know that no woman is supposed to be a chef - only men.
Sandra Lee
#98. Ask any comedian, tennis player, chef. Timing is everything.
Meg Rosoff
#99. 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
#100. I make a really delicious eggplant and squash curry that's inspired by Vij of Vij's Restaurant, a great chef and restaurateur in Vancouver. I like to cook that dish because it's really simple, but the flavor is so pungent and intense that I feel like I'm a real chef whenever I create it.
Carmen Ejogo
