CHARLIE TROTTER

I love faltering. I love, in a sense, coming up short. Because you learn nothing from success. You learn so much from failing.

I have always considered desserts to be of equal importance to the savory food.

I've always liked root vegetables because most of them have a natural sweetness. They have a high fructose content, especially when you cook them and caramelize them in a saute pan. Or you can take a turnip and cook it slowly in the oven until it's browned, and it takes on a kind of sweetness. These vegetables are pretty easy to like.

Maybe it's good to be traumatized in your youth, to make you think differently and step outside the box. Anybody can be comfortable, but if you get your world rocked, shaken as it were, then maybe it causes you to really go to a whole other level in a different way.

It's a challenge to demonstrate that you can prepare some really interesting food with humble ingredients.

I couldn't really relate to the fraternity or party scene, to the people out in the mall every day protesting one thing or another. I felt like there was no one I could relate to.

You can't be afraid to not have everything figured out. There's too much pressure on young people today to have it all figured out when they're in college.

In my case, vertical food was less about standing things up than layering things: more an attempt to gain texture by weaving things together.

What I was reading was already part of my psyche, but finally someone else was saying it's okay to walk alone.

I was always inspired by restaurants like La Tulipe in Manhattan. You'd walk right by and say, 'Oh what a lovely house.' You didn't realize there was a restaurant behind the door.

A jazz musician can improvise based on his knowledge of music. He understands how things go together. For a chef, once you have that basis, that's when cuisine is truly exciting.

My father was a successful entrepreneur.

Sometimes I think I should have chosen a line of work where it was just me alone in the room, with the sun coming in, and God, insofar as he or she exists, smiling down upon me. Then I would have never been accused of being a tyrant, other than towards myself.

The body cannot produce enzymes in perfect combinations to metabolize your foods as completely as the food enzymes created by nature do. This results in partially digested fats, proteins, and starches that can clog your body's intestinal tract and arteries.

I'm really not that comfortable with people. I mean, I love individuals, but I'm not very social.

If you know what you're doing, you can make a meal happen with any kitchen knife. But using a top-quality knife versus a low-quality one is the difference between driving a Jaguar and a VW Jetta across the country. They'll both get you there. But the Jaguar will give you a much smoother ride.

You know the old adage that the customer's always right? Well, I kind of think that the opposite is true. The customer is rarely right.

Any fool can be happy. What I'm interested in is satisfaction. There's got to be more to life than just being happy. You've got to be fulfilled. You've got to be satisfied; philosophically satisfied is what I mean.

I believe in focusing on details.

I timed my previous wife's pregnancy to the moment to have my son born on Bob Dylan's 50th birthday. There is no bigger Bob Dylan fan than me. You don't just time the day and impregnate your wife to get your kid to be born on Bob Dylan's 50th birthday.

All four elements were happening in equal measure - the cuisine, the wine, the service, and the overall ambience. It taught me that dining could happen at a spiritual level.

The most successful food, I think, is food that both appeals to the super-sophisticated diner or foodie and to the lay diner at the same time.

You've got to give away what you love.

Excellence is about fighting and pursuing something diligently, with a strict and determined approach to doing it right. It's okay if there are flaws in the process - it makes it more interesting.

If people give me a year or two of their best effort, then I am their friend for life.