Being a chef never seems like a job, it becomes a true passion.
I never cooked at home - my father was the chef.
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.
IMBECILE!" the chef shouted. "Next time why don't you just put your whole HAND in the food, hey? Yes, your whole hand, or maybe your FACE! I arrange the food on plates with care, are you understanding what I am telling you? It is part of the art form of cooking, yes? A lovely plate of food is a thing of beauty! And then you, NUMBSKULL, come along and put your fat greasy FINGERS all over my plate, and SHAKE the plate, and move my food all around the plate until it looks like pigs' vomit!" "Chef Vlad!" I cried out in delight.
The chef that grew up with the grandma who cooks tends to always beat the chef that went to the culinary institute. It's in the blood.
I would love to date a chef. I'd probably get really fat, but I don't care.
Learning about issues such as sustainability and locavorism are things that you need to have as part of you as a chef because it will make you cook more delicious food.
Society, civilized society at least, is never very ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating. It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals, and, in its opinion, the highest respectability is of much less value than the possession of a good chef.
In any restaurant of this caliber, the chefs are in the same position, building relationships.
I think for a chef, to have a signature dish is a tough question to answer. On one, you don't want to be associated necessarily with just one thing that you think you might do well. On the other side, you've got to commit to owning up to certain things.
If you were to go to a restaurant and disagree with Daniel Boulud, he'd probably throw something at you. Restaurant chefs have a problem with caterers because we accommodate special requests, but great service is about getting exactly what you want.
Food is life, life is food. If you don't like my approach you are welcome to go down to McDonalds.
It's an interesting thing, Top Chef. Some of the contestants will make you one great dish, and then make you something on the next show that will make you say, "Is that the same person?"
I actually studied cooking and, like, was thinking about becoming a chef.
If I want popularity, I go to a chef's convention.
There's a bond among a kitchen staff, I think. You spend more time with your chef in the kitchen than you do with your own family.
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.
As a chef and someone who's been in the restaurant business for almost thirty years now, if there's one thing I learned early on: Never eat at a buffet. I don't want to eat yesterday's food and whatever they're trying to get rid of from their cooler for my lunch, dinner, or breakfast, thank you very much.
Part of being a good chef is being able to work well with others and make things work under different circumstances.
Do we really require so many gardening programmes, makeover programmes or celebrity chefs?