Tom Junod Quotes

I learned the first night that IHOP's not the place to order fish.

A lot of Americans say the food in England sucks. I don't think the food in England sucks - the food is great - but I've got to say, the Americans have got the dining out experience nailed down.

Even in fine-dining restaurants, you have people that say 'I want to be out in half hour', 'I want to be out in 45 minutes.' It happens.

Many people see the chance to eat something for nothing, without the need to cook or wash up, as the great consolation of going out to dinner. But they forget quite how difficult it is to talk to a stranger and eat at the same time.

People complain that chefs aren't at their restaurants anymore, but I don't think that's the case at all. You see them on TV and you assume they're not working but they are.

Walt's idea was that - as soon as the people who were dining got through their main course. They were supposed to all be seated, served at the same time, when they got into the dessert.

'Fine casual' means taking the cultural priorities that fine dining, at its best, believes in.

Often for hors d'oeuvres, I serve room temperature vegetables, something like that, so that the main course might be quite rich but the first course has balanced it out.

If a D.C. event doesn't have crab cakes, it's low-rent and you need to flee.

It's not always possible to sit down and eat at home in this day and age of fast-paced living, but if you are going to eat out, do so as a family and support all the great local places in your areas. I'll still eat at the same diner I did as a kid with my parents.

The Cheesecake Factory's not that bad.

I would love to eat a really great burger, but it doesn't exist in our part of the world.

Rarely do pens go dry in restaurants.

The average housewife goes to the restaurant to relax and enjoy the food. But when Eva walks in, she becomes the center of attention.

The phrase 'blue plate special' has always been one of the homiest, coziest, most sweetly nostalgic phrases in the English language for me.

I don't like the term 'dinner as theater,' because that implies something thespian that I don't want to tie into this, but there are plenty of times that people go out to dinner because they want to have an experience. There are, however, probably many more times that people go out to eat because it's 7 o'clock and it's time to eat.

No one knows restaurants like a New Yorker - they're incredibly discerning and restaurant savvy.

I love The Cheesecake Factory, especially the chicken marsala. I almost always pick that dish; it tastes unbelievable.

God, Americans know how to cook.

I used to have a bit of a thing against starting a meal with soup. I'd find they were often too heavy, filling you up rather than igniting the appetite. Plus, I'd end up mopping it up with scoops of baguette.

I am not a fish fanatic unless it is made in a certain way. Most of the time, my parents and I would eat very light vegetarian food.

I love to eat and go out to dinner with friends and family and order all kinds of things. I love dessert.

Savoury food is for main course, and fruit is for pudding.

Restaurants should be democratic; you shouldn't be made to feel privileged for getting a table or being lectured by the waiter.

I absolutely love the restaurant industry.