Everybody has their role in the food world and what they choose to appreciate. I'm not a fine dining chef. I appreciate it. I think Thomas Keller is amazing. But I really like where I'm at; I like what I do. I like how it makes people feel.
As a chef I’m not your dietitian or your ethicist, I’m in the pleasure business.
The role of a chef isn't to reinvent dishes but to tweak.
My role as a chef is respecting the produce. Why should I change and mask the original flavors of the produce that I'm utilizing?
Mother Nature is the true artist and our job as cooks is to allow her to shine.
You walk into a restaurant when chefs are not there and it's different. The magic isn't there. Why pay top pounds when the chef is not in the house? I feel cheated. I don't mind paying big money for food but if I go to Paul Bocuse's restaurant I want Paul in the house.
It's a very naive idea to think that the chef is cooking everything, and, on top of it, is irreplaceable. That would mean that basically he is the only genius, and there are idiots all around him, which doesn't make sense.
I'm in the kitchen five days a week, no matter what, and one or two of those days I'm on the line. Not because I have to be, but because I want to be.
