Bobby Flay Quotes

I was a very good cook, and I knew I could build a business.

There has been no great surprise, no sudden revelation. I knew pretty much what I was getting into. What I've learned is that a restaurant can be as much of an art as you want it to be, but it has to be a successful business first.

When our folks focus on exactly what is needed to succeed in the restaurants, they should be able to lead themselves to restaurateur level.

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

Growing up as a young kid, I was in a restaurant. So, you know, I always had a very good understanding of the nuances. And in a way, that was a bad thing. Because it kind of programmed me to believe that if you're going have a restaurant, this is what you need to do, and this is the way it's going to be run.

The part that I know I enjoy most is the restaurants. You can't do everything, you know? For me, the priority has been being deeply involved in my restaurants and figuring out different ways to make them run better.

I think, as a chef and restaurateur, that you have to take care of your business. Otherwise, you're only as good as your last meal. You have to watch if your food costs are too high, or you could be out of business in no time.

I love cooking, but I love the business, too. It's important because a lot of chefs forget the business side and have to shut down after six months.

Some of the things I think I learned from that were very educational as far as just paying bills - the basics in dealing with a restaurant like that. It was just life - the education involved in running the organization, even on a small level.

My parents own a restaurant in Albuquerque.

Catering is extremely demanding financially and physically. It's a business.

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

In the restaurant business, there's the concept of pivot. Pivot to the stove, pivot to the refrigerator.

I told the caterer I'd work for nothing if he'd teach me about catering. I lasted one week full-time. It was exhausting.

The restaurant business is something that you have to treat like a baby. You have to constantly be there. You can't trust it to anybody else, because no one's going to love it like you do.

All my jobs have been with food in one way or another since 1948. My parents were in the hotel business, and I just loved the warm hearted people who worked so hard with such good humor.

I don't have any interest in being a chef without being on the business side of things, or vice versa, because if you don't make money at the end of the month, you're going out of business.

I love food, and my girlfriend comes from an architecture background, so we might open up a restaurant.

When I set up my first restaurant, I was so inspired by Wolfgang Puck, who is also based in L.A. and is now a good friend of mine, and the way he would engage with his customers and greet them personally.

The food business is very tough, but there's also a lot of love and very giving.

I'm coming out with a wine... I'm actually a restaurateur. I have Famous Famiglia Pizzeria that has opened up in the Sacramento airport. I'm also working with my business partner on opening up the Linnethia Lounge.

If it doesn't taste good it doesn't go on the menu.

I'm not a TV guy. I'm a restaurant chef and a businessman.

The jewelry business is a very, very tough business - tougher than the computer business. You truly have to understand how to take care of your customers.

We'll serve, on a good Saturday night six or seven thousand people in all the restaurants, and it's like, the percentages are that maybe one person's not going to like what they get. And I can't be there to fix it. I hate that. We're in this business to make things that please people.