WOLFGANG PUCK

For me, cooking is an expression of the land where you are and the culture of that place.

Acting is a very artistic profession and there are thousands of people out there who think they are actors but there are very few who have real talent.

A chef is a mixture maybe of artistry and craft. You have to learn the craft really to get there.

A good chef has to be a manager, a businessman and a great cook. To marry all three together is sometimes difficult.

If you're cooking for a woman, make a good risotto and a salad. If you don't have time to make desert you can go and buy some macaroons to have afterwards.

I learned more from the one restaurant that didn't work than from all the ones that were successes.

I think the time of the formal dinners is over.

The most important thing for me is to really buy the best ingredient.

Everybody has to put purees underneath everything now. It's like people think we need the steak, and then we need some baby food with it.

I tell everybody the same thing: You have to make every dish so when you taste it, you should remember it when you go home.

What I don't like is breakfast in the morning. I have a double-espresso cappuccino, but no food.

When I'm in Los Angeles, my wife and I go to the farmers' market with the kids every Sunday.

I grew up so poor in Austria that we never took a vacation with my family.

Now everybody thinks that once you do Top Chef, then 13 weeks later you're a chef. Nobody wants to learn to cook anymore.

I think it's really important to keep on staying motivated.

Television in the '80s was very limited. There was no Food Network.

I believe that London is the most exciting food city in Europe.

When you meet someone, ask about what hobby they have, not what they do. People always ask me about cooking, but I prefer to talk about tennis or boxing.

Restaurants are like having children: it's fun to make them, maybe, but then you have them for good and bad. You are going to have to raise them and if something goes wrong when they are 30 years old, they will still be your little boy.

In L.A. you live in a big city, but you feel like you're in the countryside. For example, I can be at home in the swimming pool and be five minutes from everything.

New Yorkers think they have everything, all the best art and music. But really L.A. is a better place.

There's a lot of processed food in America and I know that can make some tourists who're used to fresh food feel sick.

It's very important in a restaurant to really do the right hiring because there's no restaurant that you have one cook and one chef and nobody else in the kitchen. Generally you have five, ten, 15 people with you. So that's really important is to train them right, but first you have to hire the right people.

I like to be firm. But it is easier to be nice than to be nasty.

When I was 27, if I didn't put 15 things in one dish I wasn't happy.