John Lanchester Quotes

I was always inspired by restaurants like La Tulipe in Manhattan. You'd walk right by and say, 'Oh what a lovely house.' You didn't realize there was a restaurant behind the door.

The only kind of restaurant I could imagine doing would be the extraordinarily snooty restaurant with three or four tables, and I would cook what I felt like cooking. And you could eat it or not.

I have experienced some amazing food! Yet when I think about the most luxurious and exquisite meals I have had, visions of simple food made from a few natural ingredients are what most excite me.

When I go out, I love steak and caviar.

I've actually eaten in The Ivy in London. I love their shepherd's pie.

I think that in our part of the world, Scandinavia, we are one of the pioneers of showing that gastronomy can be something - high gastronomy can be something very, very present and doesn't have to involve, you know, what is perceived as the normal luxury items that belong in a high gastronomy restaurant.

Roberto Donna is a great Italian chef.

In Paris we have bistros, then we have fine dining. In London, you have a very contemporary scene with mixed influences.

Fine dining is an occasional treat for most people.

One of my great teachers was the late Jean-Claude Vrinat of Taillevent in Paris.

A tuna steak and a salad? Seventy bucks. Welcome to Los Angeles.

In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.

In London, there is no need for 25 high-end gastronomic restaurants. That would be too much.

I still feel that French cooking is the most important in the world, one of the few that has rules. If you follow the rules, you can do pretty well.

I think fine dining is dying out everywhere... but I think there will be - and there has to always be - room for at least a small number of really fine, old-school fine-dining restaurants.

Sushi is something very exclusive. It is not like a McDonald's, not like a hot dog, not like a French fry. It's very high-class cooking in Japan.

Here's the irony in what I do: When I go out to eat, I like classic French food. I like amazing Japanese food that has such a history that it goes back hundreds of years. And I also like really innovative food as well.

Balthazar has a great New York vibe with the accent of a Parisian brasserie. I usually have the corned beef hash with a fried egg on top and wash it all down with Krug Champagne.

When I am up in Paris then the restaurant which has remained my favourite for the past decade is Guy Savoy. The menu is huge, sophisticated and very creative but I keep to simple choices.

I love the intensity of the fine-dining kitchen, but loathe the fine-dining experience.

One of my favorites to order in fancy restaurants is escargot.

We are thrilled with the response we are getting to Le Cirque at The Leela Palace New Delhi. Our goal is to bring a luxury dining experience consistent with international standards of excellence to the expanding and discerning clientele in India.

Sometimes the buzz of reading about others eating comes from the voyeuristic thrill of seeing how the other half lives: the gold leaf and truffles or - in the case of Trimalchio's feast in Petronius' 'Satyricon' - the dormice and honey.

I discovered that the world of the finest restaurants was something akin to the world of the Mafia.

If you ever need a good steak, Stringfellows is the place to go in London.