Geoffrey Zakarian Quotes

'Top Chef' is always entertaining - it's hard to stop watching, like a good hockey fight, but no one gets hurt. It's great that the format is so inherently dramatic and can make cooking so entertaining to people who might not ordinarily be interested in a cooking show. Good for the industry all round.

Shows like 'Top Chef,' 'Hell's Kitchen' have helped bring attention to the culinary world on a whole, but you have to be cautious it doesn't get out of hand.

I love 'Top Chef.'

If I want popularity, I go to a chef's convention.

It's wild how chefs have become like rock stars.

You know what, I don't really watch a lot of cooking shows, but what's great about them is that it inspires a lot of the younger generation so, you know, with cooking shows and reality shows and the social media, I think it really makes our industry a hotter industry.

I love 'Top Chef.' I think it rewrote the book on how food shows are presented on TV.

I'm obsessed with 'Top Chef'.

I love cooking shows! I'm not a bad cook myself, but I must say that I admire the creativity of those young chefs. It makes me jealous... and hungry.

Regrettably, people today don't watch many programs that actually teach people how to cook, so I agreed to do a competitive show that I think will provide inspiration.

The first sign that I'd been unknowingly affected by cooking shows occurred on a Sunday morning when I realized I was talking to myself. I'd been making toast. 'First, we cut our bread,' I whispered. 'Do you know why?' I stopped what I was doing and looked up. 'Let me tell you why.'

Now everybody thinks that once you do Top Chef, then 13 weeks later you're a chef. Nobody wants to learn to cook anymore.

My reasons for becoming a chef are somewhat of a cliche. I always loved to eat but it was watching my parents cook that really served as the impetus for my career choice.

I feel fortunate to be part of the cooking community. We learn from each other.

I am so proud of 'Top Chef' - I think it's got great cred.

I'm as surprised as anybody. I never would have thought I'd be here talking about having a cooking show on the Food Network. It wasn't on my list of things, but it's fun, and I'm having a good time.

I'm sick of all these boring cooking shows.

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.

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.

You'll never see me on anything like 'MasterChef.' I'm just not interested.

I love food shows.

I want to be Jacques Pepin. I want to have a nice 50-, 60-year career. I want to be on PBS when I'm 70-something, still kicking it, having a great time, showing up in Aspen to sign cookbooks. I just want to have a nice, big, long career.

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

I don't consider myself a food person. I'm no Bobby Flay. I'm no Emeril or Paula Deen, and I'm certainly not Rachael Ray.