Menu Design Quotes

No one's born a good cook. You have to learn and practice.

Every time I open a new restaurant, I wake up in the middle of the night moaning about bread and water. I dream I am in the middle of the dining room, and I am panicked.

When you do a menu at a restaurant, you have to be the engineer of that menu. It has to be a crowd-pleaser.

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

I look at each one of my restaurants, and I want my personality to come out. Some are serious, some are intense when it comes to food and wines, some are meat masters supreme. I enjoy all my guests.

There has been no great surprise, no sudden revelation. I knew pretty much what I was getting into. What I've learned is that a restaurant can be as much of an art as you want it to be, but it has to be a successful business first.

If I wasn't an actress, I'd be a chef. I'd love to open a restaurant.

As a chef, I like to be totally prepared. I'm so big on lists. I love lists.

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

The Momofuku Culinary Lab started as a space where we could focus on creating and innovating. I didn't want us to worry about working on projects in a restaurant; there are just too many distractions in service and running a kitchen to be able to focus on creating your dishes.

Some of the best fiction writers got their start writing airline menus.

I told the caterer I'd work for nothing if he'd teach me about catering. I lasted one week full-time. It was exhausting.

I've never been a great cook.

As a chef, I got into this because I love the creative energy and I love the science, but I also love to feed people and make them happy.

Every restaurant needs to have a point of view.

When I'm hiring a cook for one of my restaurants, and I want to see what they can do, I usually ask them to make me an omelette.

The menu should be part of the entertainment, part of the dining experience. It's kind of like reading the 'Playbill' when you go to the theater. It should be an alluring and interactive document. Does it have burn marks on it from the candle? If you ever get a greasy menu with food stains on it, it's time to run like hell.

Essentially, for me, the whole point of being a chef is to have your own restaurant.

I feel like I can teach anyone to cook a dinner.

I think what you got to do is to create an environment which people wish to sit in. You have to create a menu which is interesting to people. You have to create food which is delicious and affordable. I think that's what's important.

The same intelligence is required to marshal an army in battle and to order a good dinner. The first must be as formidable as possible, the second as pleasant as possible, to the participants.

I think a lot of people overlook the importance of the menu as a marketing tool and a way of communicating to the customer what the ambition of their restaurant is. Not only the typeface and the design, but what is it printed on? Is it cheap-looking? Is it the right kind of paper for that restaurant?

I am not very convinced with having a signature dish. The whole point of being a chef is going to a new place, adapting and curating a new menu as per the culture and community.

If you only design menus that are essentially junk or fast food, the whole infrastructure supports junk.

I worked on the line, I've been an executive chef, I've worked for the Mets, I've worked for various steakhouses, vegetarian restaurants, a lot of Middle Eastern stuff. I've worked my fair share of a lot of different things. I've worked at festivals and street fairs, you know? I've been through it all.