Alice Waters Quotes

I would try doing a dish 30 different ways.

I don't have any specialties. Anything I cook, I just make it special.

It's very hard to be an innovator at the highest level in any discipline. For some chefs it's merely about combining ingredients, but that's something you can do with your eyes closed.

A recipe is not an exact formula, but it does need a certain structure. When the bones are right, you can dress it in many ways.

Recipes are overrated.

I'm just an entertainer, man. I don't like to pigeonhole myself to anything. I love to do it all.

Beans are such a nice, neutral canvas, you can make a big, basic pot of them and then play around with them differently every day.

I'm fortunately not, like, typecast. I don't have to just do one kind of thing; I can do all kinds of things that reflect different parts of me.

I think focusing limits you. As long as nothing that I'm doing suffers from my ADD in wanting to do everything, then I want to just keep doing everything. It keeps it fresh and fun.

I'm surprised by the talent I find all over. There are always new chefs who propose many interesting new ideas, new ways of looking at ingredients.

I just love doing different things, which is what being a working author is like.

Ideas any one can mould as he wishes.

If you're cooking and not making mistakes, you're not playing outside your safety zone. I don't expect it all to be good. I have fat dogs because I scrap that stuff out the back door.

I can put together a pretty decent meal from whatever happens to be in the refrigerator and the pantry. I like the challenge of this sort of improvisation, the rigor of limitation and sometimes having to take a risk.

I never want to be just one thing - I want to be multidimensional.

Everybody thinks if you do one thing, you can't do something else. So I like the fact that I can be versatile if I want to.

Don't be afraid to adapt new ingredients into your own techniques, and traditional ingredients into new recipes.

I like going everywhere. And I love starting new things.

It's much easier to work with an unknown.

Once you have mastered a technique, you hardly need look at a recipe again and can take off on your own.

Your idea of that dish has evolved, and if you're a cook, you can start thinking in different ways about it, maybe even a different way than I think about it.

I'm always changing my work, as there are endless ways to think about food.

Don't limit yourself to one thing.

I hate being pigeon-holed into anything. To me, the best thing is when the next job comes and is completely different to the one that I just had.

I don't have a set way of dressing or a uniform, though I kind of wish I did. But then again, I also love that I can be any sort of character I want - that's a little bit of the actress coming out of me.