Daniel Humm Quotes

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.

Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.

Sometimes I think albums are so ambitious, they don't stand as bodies of work because you try to achieve so much, and sometimes we need to do less. Say less.

When all is said and done, monotony may after all be the best condition for creation.

One of the biggest problems with young chefs is too much addition to the plate. You put cilantro and then tarragon and then olive oil and then walnut oil or whatever. It's too much.

Take the complications, rules, shoulds, musts, have tos, and so on out of your life. By uncomplicating your life and removing the trivial pursuits that occupy so much of it, you open a channel for the genius within you to emerge.

Food to me, in one word, is 'creativity' or 'expression.' It's simply, 'This is who I am at this point in time, and this is what I want to cook for you.'

You can only do so many things great, and you should cast aside everything else.

It's not what you play but what you leave out that makes the difference.

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

In art economy is always beauty.

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

I like my surroundings to be pretty spare and severe. It helps me to concentrate on my work. All I ever do here is go from my studio to my bedroom. Everything else is extraneous. I never entertain, because to me, New York is about meeting people in public spaces, absorbing a little bit of their energy.

Elegance is elimination.

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.

Appealing workplaces are to be avoided. One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark.

My workspace is defined by books, ephemera, quiet and light. I don't have a computer, telephone or a fax machine there.

The best artists know what to leave out.

'Chef' is a dish of arroz con pollo served with a smile but not much style. The critic in the film would give it a low grade, for agreeability without ambition.

So much of artistic creation is just exclusion. It's not creating things; it's just excluding things that really aren't going to be helpful.

One of your jobs as a writer is to cut out the noise. All you have is your instincts and your process.

Cooking is one of the most zen things - you have to be there.

From the time I start prep to serving the food at the table, I like for the whole thing to be beautiful.

I do better in life when my world seems a little smaller.

I don't have any specialties. Anything I cook, I just make it special.