Top 100 Quotes About Chefs
#1. I spent time at my grandfather Dino's gourmet store where he brought in chefs from Naples to cook. I thought of them as rock stars.
Giada De Laurentiis
#2. Chefs are fond of hyperbole, so they can certainly talk that way. But on the whole, I think they probably have a more open mind than most people.
Anthony Bourdain
#3. Chefs don't use white pepper just to avoid spoiling the whiteness of pommes puree or bechamel. It has a more peppery aroma, with sharpness and sweetness, too.
Yotam Ottolenghi
#4. I think what I do differently from a lot of TV chefs is that I break down barriers and make fine food more accessible to the regular person, who might be intimidated. I try hard, particularly with wine, to make it not intimidating. It's sort of a teaching job.
Ted Allen
#5. The good news about showcasing chefs and the TV shows is they've attracted a lot more smart kids to the profession than 30 years ago. On the downside, though, these young chefs all say they want their own restaurant and their own TV show.
Wolfgang Puck
#6. It's okay if you finish cooking something easy after your guests arrive - some dishes must be prepared a la minute, as chefs say. Just remember to keep talking.
Ted Allen
#8. You're getting to know who the great chefs are through their books.
Thomas Keller
#9. In recent years, I've been writing because I'm fortunate enough to work in the world of food television, to travel and taste and learn about cooking from the best chefs in the business.
Ted Allen
#10. I hated the Naked Chef. Fine, yes, he did good things for school food or whatever, but, you know, I don't want my chefs to be cute and adorable.
Anthony Bourdain
#11. A lot of chefs don't have a natural sense of economy. I was with one guy the other day, and I had to show him how to peel a turnip, because the way he was peeling turnips, he was throwing half of it in the garbage. It's not about being cheap. It's about being proper.
Daniel Boulud
#12. No one raps about food like I do. I rap about fine dishes - like, all kinds of things that only real chefs and real foodies are going to know about.
Action Bronson
#13. I think that a lot of us at home are iron chefs in their own right in that we have to come up with meals real quickly.
Jose Garces
#14. He shook his ladle overhead as if summoning the wrath of angel chefs among the stars.
Gregory Maguire
#15. In Singapore, there is this life and locals and restaurants and then big casinos and an array of chefs, and even Miami is almost close to Vegas when it comes to an amazing presentation of chefs. But they don't have these massive hotels that have become their own culinary villages.
Daniel Boulud
#16. I hate the opera. I think I must have a tin ear. No matter how hard I concentrate it still sounds like a bunch of Italian chefs screaming risotto recipes at each other.
Aristotle Onassis
#17. We [chefs] are competitive, although I think you need to be careful with competitiveness as it can become quite negative.
Paul Rankin
#18. I've always hoped 'Chopped' would telegraph our enormous affection and love and admiration for chefs and food, but at the same time, we are inflicting extraordinary cruelty on them.
Ted Allen
#19. My chefs don't apply for 'Top Chef'. They all know that there is no way. At the end of the process I look at the resumes of the last 25 options just to make sure they've never worked for me before.
Tom Colicchio
#20. There really is a camaraderie among chefs and a willingness to help out whenever we can.
Rocco DiSpirito
#21. The popularity of the Internet and using it as an available resource has really changed the way chefs kind of gather information and look for inspiration. To me, a food trend is potentially a lot of people following an idea.
Grant Achatz
#22. At the end of the day, it seems like there's a critic archetype for food movies, like with 'Ratatouille' or anything. You know, if you were doing a puppet show about chefs, one puppet would be the chef, one would be the critic.
Jon Favreau
#23. It was as if his fingers knew things, but they couldn't show him unless they were moving, touching. He had to think it was similar for carpenters and writers, and he knew it was the same for chefs.
Laura Lippman
#24. 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
#25. The real evolution is to learn something new every day - it's very important for chefs to share what they have discovered.
Alain Ducasse
#26. In a perfect world all men would be pastry chefs.
Ed Polish
#27. One of the biggest problems with young chefs is too much addition to the plate. You put cilantro and then tarragon and then olive oil and then walnut oil or whatever. It's too much.
Jacques Pepin
#28. A lot of writers and artists are like chefs who eat their own cooking in the kitchen and then deliver an empty plate with assurances that it's great.
Peter Schjeldahl
#29. I think people lose sight of the fact that chefs should be ultimately in the pleasure business, not in the look-at-me business.
Anthony Bourdain
#30. More and more, museums will look at restaurants and chefs differently - as if they are curating art.
Danny Meyer
#31. In the past few years, we've been doing amazing stuff with desserts. Pastry chefs have been using herbs and spices in their desserts. So vanilla cake doesn't have to be just vanilla, it can have a little thyme. Or you could have a custard with a little lavender in it, which is just amazing.
Ron Ben-Israel
#32. I'm not a purist. Coffee drinking minus cream and sugar is an acquired taste. I'm still not sure it isn't like telling chefs to dispense with spices in cooking.
Kevin Sinnott
#34. Male egos require constant stroking. Every task is an achievement, every success epic. That is why women cook, but men are chefs: we make cheese on toast, they produce pain de fromage.
Belle De Jour
#35. People complain that chefs aren't at their restaurants anymore, but I don't think that's the case at all. You see them on TV and you assume they're not working but they are.
Michael Symon
#36. Following the devastating India Ocean tsunami of 2004, I founded Chefs for Humanity, modeled after Doctors Without Borders, but comprised of chefs. There wasn't anything out there like it, and there was a definite need for chefs to be able to offer assistance and aid.
Cat Cora
#37. Some chefs go crazy with one restaurant, and if I had 20, I would go nuts.
Eric Ripert
#38. He's called Ottolenghi, that chef. And he deserves a tongue twister of his own. Lo, Ottolenghi lengthens leeks laterally. How about that? Or, Competent chefs count cous cous cautiously?
Alexander McCall Smith
#39. It's very hard to be an innovator at the highest level in any discipline. For some chefs it's merely about combining ingredients, but that's something you can do with your eyes closed.
Ferran Adria
#40. Restaurants and chefs have become followed by such a broad swath of the public, in a way that used to be reserved for sports stars, movie stars, and theater actors. Restaurants are in the firmament of today's common culture.
Danny Meyer
#41. A lot of young chefs today get carried away by trends, by influences, by movements.
Daniel Boulud
#42. Chefs, as a whole, say yes to any project, fundraiser, or tasting because they have such a generous spirit.
Charlie Trotter
#43. The country's top chefs, designers, media personalities and businesses are part of this dynamic city. We know that Chicagoans are used to the highest standards.
Ivanka Trump
#44. What's frustrating more than anything is when chefs start to cut corners and believe that they are incognito in the way they send out appetizers, entrees, and they know it's not 100 percent, but they think the customers can't spot it.
Gordon Ramsay
#45. Salt is one of the flavors that makes food taste good - salt, sugar and fat. So it's a natural thing for all chefs and cooks to add salt, because it enhances the flavor of the food. If you go out to eat, I guarantee you're going to be eating a lot of salted foods that you are going to have no idea.
Brett Hoebel
#46. The pressure, the heat, the almost impossibly fast pace at which you need work - this is the reality of working in the culinary industry. This is what professional chefs do night after night.
Joe Bastianich
#47. Chefs become attracted to being able to get product and then clientele - those are the two things that attract you as a chef.
Michael Mina
#48. The internet has become such a great tool not just for chefs but for everyone. The net has given everyone the tools to see and almost experience new and different ideas.
Graham Kerr
#49. Very good cooks who are employed as 'chefs' rarely refer to themselves as 'chefs.' They refer to themselves as 'cooks.'
Alton Brown
#50. Chefs are at the end of a long chain of individuals who work hard to feed people. Farmers, beekeepers, bakers, scientists, fishermen, grocers, we are all part of that chain, all food people, all dedicated to feeding the world.
Jose Andres
#51. Techniques are not the most difficult to teach. The attitudes chefs take are much more important.
Alain Ducasse
#52. I'm surprised by the talent I find all over. There are always new chefs who propose many interesting new ideas, new ways of looking at ingredients.
Alain Ducasse
#53. We define content very broadly. Representing chefs, designers, makeup artists - it's all important.
Ari Emanuel
#54. I think it's a universal truth that most chefs I know are happiest eating simple, unadorned good things.
Anthony Bourdain
#55. I've seen cookbooks from lots of great chefs that have been disappointing. A book, to me, it has to have a story. Some of these people, they open a restaurant, and one year later, there's a cookbook. There's not much of a story yet.
Wylie Dufresne
#56. I'm a Twitter addict. Jose Andres is a serial tweeter. It's funny to see which chefs have embraced it, and the different paths they take.
Anthony Bourdain
#57. I cannot bear the language TV chefs use - they don't seem able to look at a plate of vegetables without accusing it of sexual activity.
Ann Widdecombe
#58. I only get fat when I eat food cooked by other chefs. At home, my wife does all the cooking. She makes simple things like soups and salads. We both like steamed tofu.
Alain Ducasse
#59. But our goal, remember, is to feed around our table the people we love. We're not chefs or restaurateurs or culinary school graduates, and we shouldn't try to be. Make it the way the people you love want to eat it.
Shauna Niequist
#60. I love chicken. But, like a lot of chefs and cooks, I get tired of preparing it the same way.
Marcus Samuelsson
#61. What you're going to be eating in the next year is decided by chefs. If the consensus is that pot-bellies are in next season, that's what's on your plate. And I think that's a good thing, because we know, obviously, about food.
Anthony Bourdain
#62. To set the standard for beauty in classical and modem cookery, and attest to the distant future that the French chefs of the 19th century were the most famous in the world.
Marie-Antoine Careme
#63. When I first went to Las Vegas, I thought I would never go to Las Vegas; you can't get anything. But then I realized that they were trucking in almost everything; you could get a lot of your product, and I think that's why a lot of chefs actually went there.
Michael Mina
#64. Good chefs started with a pizza
Pizza
#65. But constantly thinking and talking about food is what makes werewolves some of the best chefs in the world. Think about it. Have you ever seen Emeril Lagasse during a full moon?
Molly Harper
#66. I launched Chefs for Humanity, a national nonprofit, with my voice, heart and money from my own pocket. Money gives you the ability to make a difference in the world and, when used in a positive way, is a lot of fun.
Cat Cora
#67. I've always been fascinated by chefs and the worlds of chefs - what they do is incredibly cinematic.
Jon Favreau
#68. I've always said that I think females make the best chefs anywhere in the world.
Gordon Ramsay
#69. I was lucky enough to have great mentors both in the culinary world and in the world of chefs who became celebrities. Bobby Flay is one of my dearest friends and a tremendous mentor for me. Mario Batali is the same way. They began doing TV a little before me and they showed me the way.
Michael Symon
#70. All chefs are like Jewish mothers. They want to feed you and feed you and impress you. It's an eagerness to please.
Padma Lakshmi
#71. Slaves were taught to be fine chefs, but they endangered their lives if they made a mistake or served an ill-prepared dish. Rather than being reprimanded, they were often hauled into the dining room and flogged in the presence of the guests.
Jeff Smith
#72. Sometimes, early in their careers, chefs make the mistake of adding one too many things to a plate to get attention. If a chef is just coming up with wiz-bang gimmicks on their plate, that has nothing to do with bringing real pleasure to people.
Danny Meyer
#73. Young chefs, famous chefs, home cooks, and everyone who loves food and cooking-we all depend on Larousse Gastronomique. It is the only culinary encyclopedia that is always up-to-date.
Daniel Boulud
#74. There are so many impassioned winemakers. I think there are more impassioned winemakers than chefs.
Alain Ducasse
#75. When I'm back in New York - and this is a terrible thing to complain about - I eat a lot more really, really good food than perhaps I'd like to. So many of my friends are really good chefs. It's kind of like being in the Mafia.
Anthony Bourdain
#76. The great chefs understand human desire. They can balance nurturing with the desire to dazzle or seduce or impress.
David Blum
#77. In a time when it is common for chefs to simply reproduce the innovations of others, the few who speak for themselves through their food become the skilled artists of their time.
Charlie Trotter
#78. I love cooking, but I love the business, too. It's important because a lot of chefs forget the business side and have to shut down after six months.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten
#79. The restaurant chefs in Spain are breaking ground, but in terms of the everyday cooking in Spain I still hear people coming back and saying they were disappointed. I think it's because they're expecting the chef stuff.
Sally Schneider
#80. It's a harmless breakfast."
"Nothing harmless about what he whips up. His parents are chefs, so he's picked up a few tips and anything he makes is beyond yummy."
"Uhm, you're not doing a good job talking me out of it,
Veronica Blade
#81. We can't all be bakers or chefs. Many of us have modest ambitions. But we can all buy a piece of the pie.
Amah Lambert
#82. Chefs are artists, and I couldn't be happy with my art if I was forced to use cheap ingredients.
Nobu Matsuhisa
#83. With chefs, the problem is we have to be very confident because people are looking at us for that. So pretty soon, you think you're a plumber, you think you're an electrician, you think you're an accountant.
Michael Mina
#84. TV chefs are not responsible for people's consumption of fibre; this is not our job.
Yotam Ottolenghi
#85. We can use all the scientific tools, but it will never replace the palate or the talent of the chefs who are in the kitchen.
Daniel Humm
#86. For the longest time, chefs and restaurateurs were able to get products home cooks couldn't get, but that's not the case anymore.
Michael Symon
#87. Many chefs are either technically or artistically better than me, but I know my food has soul.
Nobu Matsuhisa
#88. In my early days, I copied the great French chefs, like most chefs do. Copying is not bad. Copying and not recognizing that you are copying is bad. For me, when I go to a restaurant and am served a dish influenced by something we created at elBulli, if it's well done, it makes me extremely happy.
Ferran Adria
#89. Don't put too many chefs to work. Sometimes they get too involved in the ingredients and are of no help.
Jose Andres
#90. I don't know any group of professionals that mobilize as fast and as often as chefs do when there are people who are in need.
Jose Andres
#91. It's wild how chefs have become like rock stars.
Todd English
#92. When France was the only reference for chefs to learn, you could go everywhere in the world, and they would copy dishes directly because they didn't have much expanded imagination or technique or knowledge.
Daniel Boulud
#93. You see fewer and fewer chefs who are really big - most stay in shape.
Wolfgang Puck
#94. If you want to become a great chef, you have to work with great chefs. And that's exactly what I did.
Gordon Ramsay
#95. As chefs, we cook to please people, to nourish people.
Jose Andres
#96. She looked at me and laughed pointlessly. Then she flounced over to the dog, kissed it with ecstasy, and swept into the kitchen, implying that a dozen chefs awaited her orders there.
F Scott Fitzgerald
#97. Even the most astute chefs seek out the assistance of Celine Labaune, owner of Gourmet Attitude, because they know they can rely on her keen senses and deep understanding of the truffle trade.
Thomas Keller
#98. Chefs are nutters. They're all self-obsessed, delicate, dainty, insecure little souls and absolute psychopaths. Every last one of them.
Gordon Ramsay
#100. There was no Internet, not even many cookbooks except the old reference books. So we would sit down at night, a group of six chefs, and we'd exchange recipes and each talk about how we were doing things. It was the only way to learn new ideas.
Daniel Boulud
