Katie Lee Quotes

A plate of food has to have balance. For example, a mild fish like skate mustn't be overwhelmed by the side dishes. They should have personality and color, but they also have to be subtle.

With food, you're the artist; you put the colour in it, you present it to the table and it has the ability to knock out the senses. It can look fabulous, be beautifully presented and smell great and taste good as well.

Desserts are all about form and function, about warm and hot and cold. I want every component to hit your palate on different levels at different times.

I don't like food that's too carefully arranged; it makes me think that the chef is spending too much time arranging and not enough time cooking. If I wanted a picture I'd buy a painting.

When you talk about avant-garde cuisine, the surprise factor is really important. For example, I love looking at blogs and the photos, but I'm not that keen on other people taking photos of my dishes.

Sometimes, early in their careers, chefs make the mistake of adding one too many things to a plate to get attention. If a chef is just coming up with wiz-bang gimmicks on their plate, that has nothing to do with bringing real pleasure to people.

I can cook, but I also want everything to look beautiful on the plate - then I get upset when people eat it. Everyone just tears through it, and that makes me sad. It's not a rewarding experience for me to cook.

I love dishes that feature the various shades of a single colour, making you stop to check what's in there.

Know how to garnish food so that it is more appealing to the eye and even more flavorful than before.

To become a good cook is to know yourself, and I, at this point, know myself. I know myself, and I know the cook I want to be and the cook I am striving to be.

Being a cook doesn't necessarily mean you are a competitor.

I'm into very colorful food. Obviously lots of flavor, but I think we eat with our eyes first, so it has to look great. The presentation has to be great.

There's a battle between what the cook thinks is high art and what the customer just wants to eat.

Preparing food is not just about yourself and others. It is about everything!

I love a nice cooking show. It's as aesthetically pleasing as any other thing that tempts the senses, I suppose.

It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it.

My designs are meant to attract the hand as well as the eye.

The visual aspect of a dish is so important; the shapes and colors and overall design have to strike the right mood and convey the right idea.

Whenever we create dishes, we work very carefully and ask ourselves, 'Is there anything on the dish that really doesn't make the dish better?' Then we eliminate that. We try to stay very focused on really showcasing everything on the plate so nothing gets lost.

I don't know if I am a good cook, but I am a dedicated cook.

Obviously, I like very beautiful food, because I think as delicious as food has to taste, it also has to look very beautiful - the process of presentation is very important.

If you put pesto in a squeeze bottle or just at the end of a spoon and drizzle it, it looks so much better. It's the little things. Plating is actually easy once you learn the little tips.

There is something timeless and beautiful about cooking straight to camera.

I remember loving food tech because of the precision and the creativity, the weights and measures, the tiny glimpses of flavour.

The shape of the meat and the taste of it starting from the top down is a part of me. All of my feelings are coming from inside of the meat down to when I put the salt onto the meat.