The early-'80s recession was good for good restaurants, not least because it put bad ones out of business.
Hopefully, imparting what's important to me, respect for the food and that information about the purveyors, people will realize that for a restaurant to be good, so many pieces have to come together.
Occasionally, if I am very confident in the establishment, I'll risk an egg salad on Dutch crunch, but I must be very confident indeed.
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.
I can judge a restaurant by its bread: it winds me up that a lot of places buy pre-packed ones in and don't bother putting them in the oven to crisp them up again. And you shouldn't put bread on a side-plate: it needs to be pushed back into the centre of the table.
The one thing I always talk about in terms of restaurants is consistency. I think that's what we love about the vodka, is that it's consistent. It's consistent in its pureness and that's how I tie it to restaurants. When I think of a good restaurant, it's where the food has been consistent; there's always a consistency.
When a restaurant is too popular, it starts to harm the reason you are there.
A plate of food hits the table, lands right in front of you. One of two things happens. Either you sit up and look at it and react to it, or nothing happens. If nothing happens then that restaurant is stuck in mediocrity forever.
I used to eat Danny Kaye's food. I had his Chinese and Italian meals, and that was as good as it gets.
I love your cooking, honey, but sometimes I need some real food.
I learned from McDonald's that we can do great things from a marketing and advertising perspective, but if the experience at the restaurant isn't superior, it might not matter.
There's always room to improve in a restaurant. A restaurant is better or worse every day than it was the day before. It's impossible not to be, because it's human.
Restaurants in Chicago are seldom disappointing.
When we eat something at a restaurant, however simple it may look, there's something in it that makes you think, 'Well, I couldn't quite do this from home.'
I want to take Chinese cooking to the next level and bury the takeaway mentality.
I can tell everything about a restaurant through their mussels. You have to work so hard to keep them perfect.
I think the best restaurants in America should be in California.
Don't you worry about that, Mr. Adamsson. Why don't you head back to Reykjavik and spend some of that extortionate fee you charged me for a couple of hours' usage of your frankly third-rate restaurant and perhaps find a friendless tree stump to listen to your woes?
A great restaurant doesn't distinguish itself by how few mistakes it makes but by how well they handle those mistakes.
Here's the thing, I've been cooking more and more and I'm pretty good; the problem is I can only go out to restaurants that cook better than I do, therefore, it's expensive.
I would love to go on 'MasterChef'. But while I really like cooking, I'm doubtful anyone would ever want to pay for what I'd cooked.
I find that often, room service menus are highly condensed. They tend to be a little bit fast food-oriented, even at the finest hotels.
I'd like to have the first restaurant that can deliver incredible quality food to your table at your house at any time-right where you live.
One of the things that happens to you if you write about restaurants - one of the reasons restaurant critics are the real heroes - is that whenever anyone has a grievance about any aspect of the business, they tell you about it.
If people ask me, 'What do you think could improve in Toronto dining,' I'd say there's nothing to improve on.
