Jean-Georges Vongerichten Quotes

My parents owned a soul food diner. It inspired me to go to culinary school.

It's very hard to be an innovator at the highest level in any discipline. For some chefs it's merely about combining ingredients, but that's something you can do with your eyes closed.

I do a lot of recipe creation. Translation: cooking tempting dishes that must be eaten.

I ended up wanting to be a cook and hold my own in a restaurant.

Cooking is an art form, a creative thing.

I started waiting tables in college and realized how much I loved the business and loved to cook. I decided to go to culinary school and never looked back.

A chef and a restaurateur are different jobs: One is about pleasing people with what's on the plate; the other is about understanding the market. I'm a chef, but I think I'm a savvy businessperson, too.

I always liked the stress, the real high-stakes, get-the-orders-out line-cook job, as well as the ordering of the produce and everything - it's really similar to making music for a show like 'Hannibal.' It's like cooking; it's just like owning a restaurant.

When you do a menu at a restaurant, you have to be the engineer of that menu. It has to be a crowd-pleaser.

I like that talented chefs are able to keep coming up with new ways of preparing food - it really is an art form.

As if a cookbook had anything to do with writing.

Recipes are overrated.

Cooks are an undervalued, awesome profession.

A chef is a mixture maybe of artistry and craft. You have to learn the craft really to get there.

I write in the morning - and then I'm always experimenting and tasting recipes for the books.

I kind of think of engineering like the chefs at a restaurant. Nobody's going to deny chefs are integrally important, but there's also so many other people who contribute to a great meal.

First and foremost I am a chef, whether behind the stove at one of my Northern California restaurants or for the past 15 years in front of the camera on my Food Network cooking shows. Creating new dishes and flavor combinations that bring cooks and our restaurant guests pleasure is my job and I love it.

I watch cooking change the cook, just as it transforms the food.

I know my way around the kitchen. I like to cook, so I can fry an egg. I guess I could be a fry cook at Bob's Big Boy or something, or maybe a sous chef somewhere a little nicer. I would like to do that. I think I can probably pick that up pretty quickly.

I will pursue my passion of cooking every day until my hands fall off and I lose all sense of smell and taste.

I think the most wonderful thing in the world is another chef. I'm always excited about learning new things about food.

I'm obsessed with cooking! I want a degree in the culinary arts!

I would still like to own and run a restaurant serving Indian food with a good dollop of Parsi cooking - which you can't seem to get anywhere.

I cook, I create, I'm incredibly excited by what I do, I've still got a lot to achieve.

My cousin owns restaurants, and I used to work in his restaurants with his chef. I've always liked food, and I've always been interested in cooking and stuff like that.