Eric Ripert Quotes

At the root of many a woman's failure to become a great cook lies her failure to develop a workmanlike regard for knives.

I have been using Victorinox Cutlery since I was a young man, when my parents gave me a block set to properly equip me for my culinary apprenticeship.

I learned so much more prepping vegetables than I ever did in cooking school.

I need to have better knife skills... for vegetables.

In food, it's really, like, either you're right, or you're wrong. You know, people's taste buds kind of vary, but there's a technique. Either you do it right, or you don't.

All the great chefs I know - Thomas Keller, Jean-Georges Vongerichten - they are technicians first.

A kitchen without a knife is not a kitchen.

I've been making sushi for 38 years, and I'm still learning. You have to consider the size and color of the ingredients, how much salt and vinegar to use and how the seasons affect the fattiness of the fish.

It doesn't matter how precisely the onion is cut as long as the person chewing it is happy.

I probably use my chef's knives more than any other tool in the kitchen. I'm not married to a particular brand, because they all work, they all have sharp blades.

When I diced vegetables, it was painstaking work to make sure that every single piece looked the same: 1/4-inch cubed for small, 3/4-inch cubed for large. It's a matter of practice and precision.

Lame blades can dull relatively quickly, so after slashing several loaves the blade won't slice through the dough with tremendous ease. (When this happens, don't throw it away - it's still sharp enough to score duck or pork skin, or shave paper-thin slices of garlic and chives, like a hot knife through butter).

Eating is the secret to good cooking.

I reveled in the most basic rules and techniques that are the foundation of professional cooking. For example, it is essential to use a sharp knife: the sharper the knife, the more fluid and precise your work and the less likely you are to get hurt. Dull knives are a danger - they slip far more often.

Molecular gastronomy is not bad... but without sound, basic culinary technique, it is useless.

I think baking is an incredible thing; cooking in general is an incredible thing.

Cooking is about presenting flavors and other aspects of food in a way that makes best use of them and makes an engaging, satisfying meal. Taste necessarily comes into it along with technique. Some ingredients require cooking, cleaning or otherwise denaturing them, some are fine as they are.

I might cook occasionally, but I'm not a good cook. That's not my passion.

People have all this interest in food. But for most people, it's a mystery how to prepare food. I wanted the knowledge cooks know: the in-your-fingers knowledge you get by doing it over and over.

The art of the cuisine, when fully mastered, is the one human capability of which only good things can be said.

Eggs are one of my all-time favorite foods, and making the over-easy egg is a test of skill.

I think I can poach a pretty mean egg the old-fashioned way.

The fine art of preparing sushi is something that you watch and learn.

Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors - it's how you combine them that sets you apart.

It helps immerse yourself in what you potentially want to do. Being involved, learning firsthand and observing the craft and absorbing all you can, makes it easier to define what you want. It will also ultimately make you a better Chef. Culinary school, or even a single class, is a great bet too.