Ann Patchett Quotes

When people arrive at El Bulli, everybody goes through the kitchen. It's a way of making them feel at home. When they leave, the only thing I ask is whether they've been happy. Everything in between, I don't particularly care.

Shouldn't a three-course meal be 90 minutes? Do you know how hard you have to edit your menu to pull that off? Twenty-seven minutes. That's the average meal at Jiro's in Tokyo.

No tablecloths, silver cutlery, fine porcelain, sommeliers, or deep wine lists - that's fine. But no service or hospitality? That's going too far.

I had one of the best nights of my life in a restaurant called Barclay Prime. It was a steak house that mixed modern with tradition.

In Zurich, in a cafe overlooking the Limmat, I ate butter-drenched white asparagus pulled from the ground that morning; it had the aftertaste of champagne. I've been able to appreciate epic meals in San Francisco, New Orleans, Berlin, Paris, Las Vegas.

I love restaurants from top to bottom.

I eat leftover caviar by hand, with baked potato, like peasants.

After failing four times and after working for other people and realizing that nobody paid attention to the food like they should have, we wanted to just pay attention to the food and service.

Get to know the Chef and you will start to enjoy dining out even more.

Chalkboards being used inside the restaurant seem to be a good sign that the proprietors are proud of their food, and that's kind of nice, actually - it's a nice personal touch.

To this day, I love eating steak tacos before going to the red carpets.

I have an impressionable palate. A well-worded menu or beautifully presented dish excites me. I get a great deal of pleasure just thinking about food.

Although the skills aren't hard to learn, finding the happiness and finding the satisfaction and finding fulfillment in continuously serving somebody else something good to eat, is what makes a really good restaurant.

When I go out, I love steak and caviar.

London is the most important city in the world for restaurants.

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 sometimes feel that more lousy dishes are presented under the banner of pate than any other.

I had my first French meal and I never got over it. It was just marvelous. We had oysters and a lovely dry white wine. And then we had one of those lovely scalloped dishes and the lovely, creamery buttery sauce. Then we had a roast duck and I don't know what else.

Indian food is a luxury on tour.

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

Ruth's Chris is my favorite restaurant, and I always order the rib eye, medium-rare.

I've been thanked a lot in Wendy's, Applebee's, and Marriot hotels, I've never been thanked in Le Cirque, for some reason. I try to spend as little time as possible in Le Cirque; that's not because the food isn't good... I'm not the kind of guy who likes to find his food under his parsley.

After many days of grocery store food, sitting down for a deliberate, slow, expensive eating time can be the best.

I consider a perfect hot dog on the street to be as valid a food experience as dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

Even if you're having a snack, enjoying it in a beautiful teacup or on a lovely plate makes it feel like more of an event.