Jean Reno Quotes

I was always inspired by restaurants like La Tulipe in Manhattan. You'd walk right by and say, 'Oh what a lovely house.' You didn't realize there was a restaurant behind the door.

Here's the irony in what I do: When I go out to eat, I like classic French food. I like amazing Japanese food that has such a history that it goes back hundreds of years. And I also like really innovative food as well.

I have experienced some amazing food! Yet when I think about the most luxurious and exquisite meals I have had, visions of simple food made from a few natural ingredients are what most excite me.

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

In Paris we have bistros, then we have fine dining. In London, you have a very contemporary scene with mixed influences.

One of my great teachers was the late Jean-Claude Vrinat of Taillevent in Paris.

The disparity between a restaurant's price and food quality rises in direct proportion to the size of the pepper mill.

In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.

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 still feel that French cooking is the most important in the world, one of the few that has rules. If you follow the rules, you can do pretty well.

I could probably die happy with a cheeseboard and a glass of French red wine - that's my idea of a perfect dinner.

My most memorable meal was with my parents at Joel Robuchon's Restaurant Jamin in Paris. It was Christmas 1982, and the flavors - from cauliflower and caviar to crab and tomato - astounded me. It was the first time I remember thinking that I would like to really learn how to cook.

Many a Gallic treat is based on a hearty dose of butter.

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

I like using iconic things. What fine dining restaurant can get you to eat a breakfast sandwich that's like baby food?

I've actually eaten in The Ivy in London. I love their shepherd's pie.

I don't go to fancy Michelin-starred restaurants often.

I used to not be into the fancy ones. I used to eat goo balls all the time.

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.

No one raps about food like I do. I rap about fine dishes - like, all kinds of things that only real chefs and real foodies are going to know about.

I love the intensity of the fine-dining kitchen, but loathe the fine-dining experience.

I have eaten very well in Los Angeles. Marvelously!

When I first went to Paris in 1965, I fell in love with the small, family-owned restaurants that existed everywhere then, as well as the markets and the French obsession with buying fresh food, often twice a day.

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

I've had the privilege of having a lot of amazing people cook for me.