Nobu Matsuhisa Quotes

It is great to add some glamour to the food industry, like television shows have done for the food world and inspiring people to work in the industry. The flip side of that is unfortunately people think that after they get their qualifications, they get their invitation to compete on 'Top Chef.'

I was a very good cook, and I knew I could build a business.

Although the skills aren't hard to learn, finding the happiness and finding the satisfaction and finding fulfillment in continuously serving somebody else something good to eat, is what makes a really good restaurant.

All my jobs have been with food in one way or another since 1948. My parents were in the hotel business, and I just loved the warm hearted people who worked so hard with such good humor.

In 1981, we opened Felidia, and the newspapers, the city papers, the big timers came, and I got invited on the 'Today Show' and so on. A lot of food luminaries would come to Felidia - Julia Child, James Beard, they all came.

When I was growing up, Chef Charlie Trotter inspired me a lot.

There are some things that I like, like education, wine, and I'd like to be a good cook, although I'm a pretty good eater now.

If my daughter wants to get into this business, I would support that decision. She's going to have a hard time not being in it. She loves food and she's around it all the time.

When chefs like Wolfgang Puck became household names, that became a compelling reason for an intelligent young person to go into the cooking profession. There have been no waiters who have turned into household names. The service and hospitality aspects have clearly lagged behind the kitchen.

The puppet characters were combinations of people I had known and to some degree aspects of my own personality. Weird was based on someone I knew in Chicago. Dirty Dragon was based on a good friend I had in Indianapolis.

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'm not a TV guy. I'm a restaurant chef and a businessman.

When I'm in L.A., I go to Spago because the chef is a friend of mine.

Whether it's books or TV, or whatever the case may be, the backbone of what I do is my restaurants.

During one of his uncannily well-timed impromptu visits to my restaurant, Union Square Cafe, Pat Cetta taught me how to manage people. Pat was the owner of a storied New York City steakhouse called Sparks, and by that time, he was an old pro at running a fine restaurant.

I'm not sure I'd write a good cookbook, but I might make a good cooking show.

I live in New York and I'm in New York basically all the time. I spend a lot of my time in my restaurants, and I feel like that's why they're successful.

The C student starts a restaurant. The A student writes restaurant reviews.

It's tough, you know: I'm a chef first, and a restaurant owner, way before I was ever on Food Network, and it's a tough business.

As an outsider to and observer of the restaurant business, one of the things I most admire about it is the risks people are willing to take.

After attending The Dalton School and then Vassar College, I began cooking in New York City restaurants helmed by Anne Rosenzweig, Joachim Splichal and Thomas Keller.

Did I ever think about TV stardom? I don't watch a lot of TV. I wasn't even aware of the phenomenon of what was going on in food television, what you started with the Food Network.

Truth to be told, yes, it does feel very strange to be in the Spain setup without Xavi. Ever since I broke through for Barca and Spain he's always been around. We've always had a great relationship and he's always set an example in every way, when it comes to camaraderie, how much help he's given me and, above all, in footballing terms.

I watched the first week of 'Hell's Kitchen'. It was fascinating to see Marco Pierre White because I've only ever seen him in moody photographs.

There are so many things you can do with a culinary degree.