In France, we have a geographic situation that is very exceptional, and it creates produce that is completely exceptional.
— Joel Robuchon
Once you establish a diet, you can make exceptions once you're able to balance it out.
I could move to New York. I love it here.
When I was young, they said in the future that you'd just take a pill and never have to eat. That will never happen.
Cooking is creating emotion.
New York in spring and autumn is absolutely beautiful, but the winter is absolutely depressing.
I'd always been a very competitive boy - I hated coming second.
The worst thing for me is to not taste what I'm eating, to not know what I'm eating. It upsets me to no avail.
The older I get, the more I realize the truth is the simpler the food, the more exceptional it can be.
A few years ago, kids from poor areas in France were asked to draw items of food. For a chicken, they drew a drumstick. For a fish, they drew a fish stick. Those are extremes, but there is a lot that needs to be done to help children discover good food.
Creating deluxe cuisine is like playing a sport. Always competitive. Always challenging. And if you slow down a bit, you can no longer return to the top level.
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.
Right now, I am doing the reverse of molecular gastronomy. I'm working with scientists to find ingredients and produce that are proven to be good for you.
If you are killing a chicken and cooking a chicken, it has to taste like chicken. Veal has to taste like veal. You have to be able to identify what you're eating. One of my worst experiences is when I can't tell what I'm eating. It is a waste.
My cooking philosophy, what I try to do, is to make a cuisine where the produce and the product shines, compared to some current trends that are maybe more adding additional things, like molecular cuisine, with a lot of additives and chemicals, which are now showing that they could be bad for your health.
When new cooks come to work for me, they obviously make mistakes at the beginning or there's some messiness to the presentation. What I always say to them is: 'If you were cooking this for your mother or your girlfriend, would you make those mistakes?'
Southeast Asia food uses many different types of spices which are quite new to me, like the curry leaves which I saw at the Kreta Ayer wet market in Chinatown. With such spices used in cooking, this usually imparts a strong aroma to Southeast Asian food, which appeals to the senses.
There is no such thing as the perfect meal; one can always do better.
I'm too lazy to work out.
I can be much more creative with my menus in the casino cities. In New York, there are certain things I can't make. In Las Vegas, they're much more receptive. Rabbit, some seafoods - they won't necessarily do well in New York, but I'll try them in Las Vegas, and they'll be a success.
I love Vegas. It really has the most wonderful shows, the greatest performers.
I highly doubt that many people are as organized as me.
I love the sun; I would have trouble living in Canada.
I think I grew up with the idea that there was something comforting about preparing food.
My role as a chef is respecting the produce. Why should I change and mask the original flavors of the produce that I'm utilizing?
Cooking is chemistry, really.
Taste is developed by the diversity of the products one can sample. I think our children today may be missing an education about food. We must teach them to know their cuisine and to know the equilibrium of nourishment. That is very important for health.
I travel a lot. If you look at my suitcase, everything is extremely well-packed and well-folded; people who travel with me are impressed at how organized I am. Some would refer to me as a maniac for this.
I am a gourmand. I like to eat. When I have something that I like, I tend to have too much of it. That is a guilty pleasure.
We the chefs have a responsibility to learn about the chemical makeup of food!
When you cook, you take a life. When you eat fish, or meat, you take a life. And you must be very respectful of the ingredients and that is very important.
I'm open to starting restaurants anywhere as long as the produce that's readily available is high quality. For example, I'm never doing a restaurant in Shanghai because I saw the produce available there, and it's just not good. I won't do a restaurant in Moscow for the same reason.
The simpler the food, the harder it is to prepare it well. You want to truly taste what it is you're eating. So that goes back to the trend of fine ingredients. It's very Japanese: Preparing good ingredients very simply, without distractions from the flavor of the ingredient itself.
When I was 13, I entered the seminary in the hope of becoming a priest. But I often found myself helping the nuns in the kitchen and thus discovered my passion for cooking. I began to cultivate my skills and aspirations at the age of 15, when I embarked on my first apprenticeship.
The most difficult thing is to make sure the standards remain high in each restaurant.
Las Vegas is amazing because of the clientele you have here. People come from all over the world; it really is a melting pot.
Sushi is taking over the world. It's like pizza: you can get it everywhere.
You get a lot of young chefs who have a lot of savoir-faire, a lot of technical knowledge. What's important is to convey to them a cuisine that is made from the heart.
In Europe, you can sit out and sit in the sun, and you get a very golden tan. The tan you get in Las Vegas is a darker tan, and it's not the same.
From the age of 15 to 50, I'd hardly stepped out of a kitchen. I just wanted to live a little, to spend time with my wife and children. The first time I saw snow was when I was 50, because I'd never had the time before.
I've never thought of myself as having that much of a temper. But it's true that I can't stand it when things are not done properly. When that happens, I cannot control my reaction.
I never try to marry more than three flavors in one dish.
When a dish works, it works for everyone, whether you're Asian, European, African, American or anybody else.
In France today, people no longer eat as much heavy food and fat as they did 15 or 20 years ago. These days, French cooking, through the influence of 'grande cuisine,' has become a bit lighter. And we are beginning to discover the original flavors of our produce.
I've never followed a vegan or vegetarian diet in the past, but I think I could do it. It would not be easy. I have worked with nutritionists who have said a vegan diet is not necessarily all positive for your health, because you need nutrients you only find in meats. I believe in a balanced diet.
Vegas represents the idea of America I had as a kid. The big cars, the pretty girls; everything is possible in Vegas.
One should eat cumin every day!
I am very honored for all the distinctions and accolades, but what I am most sensitive to is my clientele and the fact they are pleased with my food and my restaurants.
When I used to have a show on French TV, people would ask me how my jacket stayed spotless while cooking. Your whole area has to be clean - and you have to keep it that way.
I like a well-roasted rotisserie chicken and eggs cooked various ways, like sunny-side up or scrambled. It's comfort food for me.
