When they’re not busy being stern but lovable, reliable but spontaneous, chefs pass the time saying fiesty, inspiring things. Sew one of these quotes on a pillow. Then chop five onions. No, not like that, Evelyn. Like this. Thank you, Evelyn.
“Fortunately, I knew the cardinal rule of getting on with one’s fellow cooks. It applies in any kitchen and can be summed up in two short words: bust ass.”
– Jacques Pépin, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen
“I’m not having babies any longer, so I don’t need to be nice or make sure everyone is okay. I just need to get shit done and see what I can make and contribute while I’m still here. I find that very exciting.”
– Gabrielle Hamilton, on The High Road with Mario Batali
“Every woman should have a blowtorch.”
– Julia Child
“If you are not extreme, then people will take shortcuts because they don’t fear you.”
–Marco Pierre White, The Devil in the Kitchen
“I don’t think of being a woman in an industry of men. I didn’t walk into the kitchen and go, ‘Ooh, I’m a girl!’ I didn’t get into my chosen profession. I wanted to be good at something.”
– April Bloomfield, in the New Yorker
“Studying hard doesn’t guarantee you will become a respectable person.”
– Jiro Ono, Jiro Dreams of Sushi
“I feel that good food should be a right and not a privilege, and it needs to be without pesticides and herbicides. And everybody deserves this food. And that’s not elitist.”
– Alice Waters, in a 60 Minutes interview
“Cooking is not about convenience, and it’s not about shortcuts. Our hunger for the twenty-minute gourmet meal, for one-pot ease and prewashed, precut ingredients has severed our lifeline to the satisfactions of cooking. Take your time. Take a long time. Move slowly and deliberately and with great attention.”
– Thomas Keller, The French Laundry Cookbook
“Risk is to do something that 99 percent of the time would be a failure.”
– Ferran Adrià, in Esquire
“Don’t touch my d*ck, don’t touch my knife.”
– Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
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