Michael Symon Quotes

'Kitchen Wars' makes 'MasterChef' look like a walk in the park!

I like to add something unusual to a dish.

It's a challenge to demonstrate that you can prepare some really interesting food with humble ingredients.

Everybody has to put purees underneath everything now. It's like people think we need the steak, and then we need some baby food with it.

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.

What has impressed me the most about the Italians whose tables we've sat at is that they are traditional cooks but also outrageously innovative. These people are wild improvisers.

I'll read a recipe but then decide, 'Well, it's sort of like this, then.' Or I'll go to the fridge and think, 'I'll see what I can put together,' and I'll combine beetroot and sausage and prawns with goat's cheese sprinkled on top and think, 'I like that they're all slightly pink. It looks fine and... actually, it is fine.'

On 'Sweet Genius,' you have to be tough with the chefs, but my goal was to guide them and choose the genius who will win $10,000 - not a bad sum at all for one day's work.

Give the composer time to experiment, time to try out ideas. Also, the time to fail. When the composer has very little time, the temptation is to reach for stock ideas - ideas they know will work and have worked in the past.

I enjoy experimenting with food and dish out innovative food items as well.

My recipes aren't classic recipes; they're all fusion recipes inspired by all the places I've been to.

A whole new thing. A forging of the humble parts of bread and cheese into a greater whole. I call it...a cheese-trap.

I just love food and the art of it. There's such an art to being a good chef and the way you present food and the different ingredients you use. It's like music - you get inspiration from different genres. It's the same with art, too.

A cookery book should be there for inspiration. Recipes should be a guideline, and they shouldn't be cast in stone.

Leaders who can push themselves beyond their comfort zones and understand how to harness the power of reverse innovation have the chance to become the next great visionaries.

I'm all about creating fun, new ways to enjoy the delicious dishes left in my refrigerator.

Finding exciting ways to use leftovers is what we all struggle with. There's one simple thing that you can do to transform them: Stock your pantry.

As a kid, I remember my mother always experimenting with bizarre combinations of food such as gulab jamun and pickle! Surprisingly, many years down the line, I have adapted the same.

I attempted to beat a Michelin-starred master chopper at prepping vegetables and making stuffing. He was doing it by hand, I was using a blender. It was bloody close too, he just beat me.

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

It is not difficult now to make good food because we have sophisticated equipment and refined ingredients. Being innovative also helps you. It sets you apart from other chefs. But taste is king.

What makes me laugh is 'Masterchef,' with that ridiculous thing they always say, 'cooking doesn't get any tougher than this!.'

I love a good challenge of looking with new eyes at a tried and true recipe in my recipe Rolodex.

Cuisine Nouvelle was just a concept, and one which, crucially, the English managed to get wrong. I mean, if you run a restaurant, you've got to feed people, not make pretty little pictures on plates to make up for your lack of ability.

After opening my first restaurant in 1969, one of the regular customers suggested I write a cookbook, so I did. Then another. After my 12th one, I started to feel stale.