Quotes from Johnny Iuzzini

The biggest fear in my life is being mediocre.

As kids, my mom would always let us help bake, and if we behaved, we got to lick the beaters clean.

I am not a shock jock pastry chef. I don't create desserts using strange ingredients just for the sake of doing so, like so many of my colleagues in the industry.

A pastry chef's lifespan in a restaurant is limited. You have to open a bakery or pastry shop. There's only so far you can go in a restaurant.

When you think about French pastry, one of the most classic traditional pastries is the eclair. An eclair is like a blank canvas that can be easily adapted to any environment. Ingredients are the most important aspect of a perfect eclair, and they need to be used at their peak.

I am a sugar freak.

Plain sugar cookies, no matter how well they are made, are a bit boring to me.

You can tell a lot about your cooks' personalities by their music collection. I personally have such an eclectic collection, partly due to the combining of music libraries with girlfriends past.

I prefer dark chocolate. I like French over Belgian... Valrhona is the best.

The true mark of professionalism is the ability to respect everyone else for their styles and always find something positive in every dining experience and highlight it in your thoughts and words.

Cooking is about imbibing different cultures and putting them in a plate on the table.

First and foremost, food needs to be delicious. It should pop and explode with flavor. Food should please all the senses.

I like the Rockabilly look. My background is half Italian, half French. I wear cowboy boots and jeans.

My dad said, 'If you want to go out with girls and go out with your friends, get a job.' I found one at the local country club as a pot washer in the kitchen.

I'm very much half city and half country boy.

I fell in love with pastry because I felt I could be much more creative. It's precise, and you don't have to kill anything.

Baking is about multi-tasking. If you are organized and prepared, that's half the battle.

There's always time to date.

Desserts are last, but don't let them be least.

Everyone has a different impression of what they are eating; not everyone tastes the same things, and definitely, not everyone has the same food memories.

I dislike cloyingly sweet desserts - sweet is not a flavor - so I suggest dialing back the sweetness and focusing on what the dessert is about, whether it is a ripe fruit, chocolate, etc.

Both my parents worked. So it wasn't like the previous generation where we learned how to cook and bake from our mothers and grandmothers.

Just because you love to cook and you are good at in your home environment doesn't necessarily mean that you are cut out for competition. It is a different animal and requires you to approach cooking in a very different way.

If you take everything personally and to heart, it will tear you apart. Take criticism, learn, adjust, and move on.