Quotes from Thomas Keller

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.

We rely on our purveyors to tell us what's available and what's good.

No, it's funny, when I eat out it's not typically in the kind of restaurants people might imagine.

The book is there for inspiration and as a foundation, the fundamentals on which to build.

I have no formal culinary training, right.

Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore.

It's one thing you aspire to: someday, you'll be able to write a book.

My childhood wasn't full of wonderful culinary memories.

I wanted to learn everything I could about what it takes to be a great chef. It was a turning point for me.

When I go out to eat, it's usually something moderate in style.

They know what my standards are. They know what I need and how to get it to me, and they know how to communicate with me if for some reason they can't get it.

I hope the cooks who are working for me now are getting that kind of experience so they can use what they're learning now as a foundation for a great career.

Food should be fun.

But once in a while you might see me at In and Out Burger they make the best fast food hamburgers around.

I wanted to learn everything I could about what it takes to be a great chef. It was a turning point for me.

A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.

Now the restaurants have begun to catch up with the wine-making there are numerous great restaurants in Napa Valley, and it's wonderful because the people are there for just that: great food and great wine.

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.

I think that you've got to make something that pleases you and hope that other people feel the same way.

Cooking is not about convenience and it's not about shortcuts. Our hunger for the twenty-minute gourmet meal, for one-pot ease and prewashed, precut ingredients has severed our lifeline to the satisfactions of cooking. Take your time. Take a long time. Move slowly and deliberately and with great attention.

When we eat together, when we set out to do so deliberately, life is better, no matter what your circumstances.

When you acknowledge, as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear: to make people happy, that is what cooking is all about.

Even the most astute chefs seek out the assistance of Celine Labaune, owner of Gourmet Attitude, because they know they can rely on her keen senses and deep understanding of the truffle trade.

Whether it's destiny or fate or whatever, I don't think I could do a French Laundry anywhere else.