Thomas Keller famous quotes

A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.
-- Thomas Keller

#Food #Soul #Recipes

This is the great challenge: to maintain passion for the everyday routine and the endlessly repeated act, to derive deep gratification from the mundane.
-- Thomas Keller

#Passion #Challenges #Everyday

Its not about passion. Passion is something that we tend to overemphasize, that we certainly place too much importance on. Passion ebbs and flows. To me, it's about desire. If you have constant, unwavering desire to be a cook, then u'll be a great cook.
-- Thomas Keller

#Passion #Ebb And Flow #Desire

Let's face it: if you and I have the same capabilities, the same energy, the same staff, if the only thing that's different between you and me is the products we can get, and I can get a better product than you, I'm going to be a better chef.
-- Thomas Keller

#Different #Faces #Energy

A cookbook must have recipes, but it shouldn't be a blueprint. It should be more inspirational; it should be a guide.
-- Thomas Keller

#Recipes #Should #Guides

For me, thats one of the important things about cooking. What was good enough yesterday may not be good enough today.
-- Thomas Keller

#Yesterday #Cooking #Important

When you acknowledge, as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear: to make people happy, that is what cooking is all about.
-- Thomas Keller

#Real #Ideas #Perfect

It's not about perfection; it's about the joy of striving.
-- Thomas Keller

#Perfection #Joy #Strive

And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!
-- Thomas Keller

#Food #Kitchen #Ingredients

But once in a while you might see me at In and Out Burger; they make the best fast food hamburgers around.
-- Thomas Keller

#Hamburgers #Might #Burgers

Hopefully, imparting what's important to me, respect for the food and that information about the purveyors, people will realize that for a restaurant to be good, so many pieces have to come together.
-- Thomas Keller

#People #Important #Together

You're getting to know who the great chefs are through their books.
-- Thomas Keller

#Book #Chef

I wanted to learn everything I could about what it takes to be a great chef. It was a turning point for me.
-- Thomas Keller

#Chef #Wanted

We rely on our purveyors to tell us what's available and what's good.
-- Thomas Keller

#Rely

We go through our careers and things happen to us. Those experiences made me what I am.
-- Thomas Keller

#Careers #Made #Things Happen

I think that you’ve got to make something that pleases you and hope that other people feel the same way.
-- Thomas Keller

#Thinking #People #Way

I wonder if I love the communal act of eating so much because throughout my childhood, with four older brothers and a mom who worked in the restaurant business, I spent a lot of time fending for myself, eating alone - and recognizing how eating together made all the difference.
-- Thomas Keller

#Mom #Brother #Differences

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

#Attitude #Understanding #Gourmet

I came to understand that the words executive and corporate never belong next to the word chef.
-- Thomas Keller

#Next #Chef #Executives

In any restaurant of this caliber, the chefs are in the same position, building relationships.
-- Thomas Keller

#Fundraising #Chef #Building

Whether it's destiny or fate or whatever, I don't think I could do a French Laundry anywhere else.
-- Thomas Keller

#Fate #Thinking #Destiny

I guess the main source of stress for me is the stress I put on myself.
-- Thomas Keller

#Stress #Source

You have to be driven. You have to be focused. You have to be aware.
-- Thomas Keller

#Ambition #Driven #Focused

One of the problems with writing a cookbook is that recipes exist in the moment.
-- Thomas Keller

#Writing #Recipes #Problem

Some of the recipes in the book have evolved for us. Many haven't.
-- Thomas Keller

#Book #Recipes

Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore.
-- Thomas Keller

#Italian #Cooking #Needs

The media builds you up, and then it tears you down.
-- Thomas Keller

#Media #Tears #Critics

I wanted to write about what we were doing at the French Laundry, the recipes and the stories.
-- Thomas Keller

#Writing #Recipes #Stories

When I go out to eat, it's usually something moderate in style.
-- Thomas Keller

#Style

It wasn't about mechanics; it was about a feeling, wanting to give someone something, which in turn was really gratifying. That really resonated for me.
-- Thomas Keller

#Giving #Feelings #Mechanic

The law of diminishing returns is something I really believe in.
-- Thomas Keller

#Believe #Law #Return

The book is there for inspiration and as a foundation, the fundamentals on which to build.
-- Thomas Keller

#Book #Inspiration #Foundation

A kaiseki meal is like that, very small courses over a long period of time.
-- Thomas Keller

#Long #Meals #Periods

I didnt want to be encumbered by what anyone elses abilities were, their equipment or environment or their ability to get certain products.
-- Thomas Keller

#Want #Environment #Equipment

I drank more wine when I wasn't working as much, to be honest.
-- Thomas Keller

#Wine #Honest #Being Honest

I think every young cook wants to write a book.
-- Thomas Keller

#Book #Writing #Thinking

With passion, if you see the first asparagus of the springtime and you become passionate about it, so much the better, but three weeks later, when you’ve seen that asparagus every day now, passions have subsided. What’s going to make you treat the asparagus the same?  It’s the desire.
-- Thomas Keller

#Passion #Desire #Three

I believe Fernand Point is one of the last true gourmands of the 20th century. His ruminations are extraordinary and thought-provoking. He has been an inspiration for legions of chefs.
-- Thomas Keller

#Believe #Inspiration #Thought Provoking

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

#Moving #Long #Cooking

Historically in restaurants, the service staff is awarded significantly higher wages than cooks and other staff who prepare the food on which a restaurant's reputation is based. The gap in pay is so great that it is becoming increasingly difficult for young cooks to pursue their passion at the rate of pay restaurants are able to afford.
-- Thomas Keller

#Passion #Cooking #Wages

My favorite wines are Zinfandels.
-- Thomas Keller

#Wine #My Favorite

I like to drink young wines, wines which are robust and have a lot of forward fruit to them.
-- Thomas Keller

#Wine #Fruit #Drink

I have no formal culinary training, right.
-- Thomas Keller

#Training #Culinary #Formal

They know what my standards are. They know what I need and how to get it to me, and they know how to communicate with me if for some reason they can't get it.
-- Thomas Keller

#Talking #Needs #Reason

My childhood wasn't full of wonderful culinary memories.
-- Thomas Keller

#Memories #Childhood #Wonderful