Quotes from Dominique Crenn

I'm not trying to be anything other than myself. I appreciate any type of restaurant or cooking, and the main goal is to just be ourselves.

It's rubbish for somebody to say that food is not politics.

I'm not a saint - I'm not saying that - but I was lucky enough to work with people who believed in me, and I want to honor that until the day I die. I'm still learning and still evolving, though.

Of all the restaurants I visited in my childhood and adolescence, it was Michel Bras that I remembered most vividly and it was the chef himself to whom, early on in my cooking, I would make the most references. I don't mean that I tried to cook like him. Rather, that I tried to think like him.

I feel that when you connect something that you do, especially serving food, and connect that together with words - I think it's very important.

I think what we have at Atelier Crenn, which I think is good, is that the basics are very traditional.

When I started to work in the kitchen, there's not a lot of women that were working and I didn't try to pay attention to that.

When you are adopted and you realize that someone gave you a gift, you pay attention to things very clearly. You realize how lucky you are.

When you give someone an award and you tell them that they are the best female chef in the world, you alienate them from their peers.

Every dish is very connected to my own experiences. Perhaps I go deeper in the description and feeling in the dish than a male chef would. But it's difficult to say.

I want people to ask me how I feel about the world, or what is my day about, and ask me a question that's not just related to food, but that's related to me being a person: Someone that's vulnerable, someone that has ideas and someone that wants to learn more.

My family, they come from farmers. I used to spend my summers on the farm instead of in the south of France. I loved the hard work and the earth.

Everyone should watch 'Supersize Me' to realize how much our physical health is connected to the food we eat.

You look at most of these 'best chef' lists, and there are about nine male chefs and one woman chef. The problem is still around.

You're thinking about a dish, you're thinking about an ingredient, and in many ways, you end up becoming a naked chef in front of the customer, because what you put on the plate is you. It's who you are and where you've been.

I'm Dominique Crenn. I'm a chef, entrepreneur, artist, poet, human being. I have three restaurants in San Francisco: Atelier Crenn, Bar Crenn and Petit Crenn.

Surround yourself with people that really care about not just you, but also the world and the things that you believe in.

In the restaurant business, if you break even, you're lucky. It's a really hard business, it's a survival business.

When I interview people that want to work with us, I often disregard their resume, because a piece of paper, it doesn't tell me really who they are. I'm looking for honesty, vulnerability. I'm looking for strength, I'm looking for weakness. I'm looking also for someone that wants to learn and is excited about learning.

I was very fortunate to grow up in France with amazing parents who allowed me to understand the importance of activism. My dad was a politician but he was also an activist, and my mom was a beautiful feminist who took care of others.

I'm keeping positive; I'm a very positive person.

My dad's best friend was a food writer and critic, so I was very lucky to eat in beautiful Michelin-starred restaurants growing up.

If you are a chef, you have an incredible responsibility in this world. Don't just open a restaurant to serve food. Include the community, and make sure that you are not taking advantage of what the planet has given us.

Well, I don't think I'm a chef. I'm just someone that... I found a way of speaking. It was not a pen. It was not a brush. It was food.