Local Ingredients Quotes

If you ask what people say what American cuisine is, they cannot really do it. I don't know what it is.

Italy itself has 21 different micro-regions. You go within each of those regions, there's even super-micro-regions; and the beauty is that when you go from place to place, although there's a common thread of pasta and joie de vivre - in the way that they approach their meals and the simplicity of cooking, celebrating more the product than the chef - there's still so much variety that as you go, it's always an exciting moment.

Just because something is English does not necessarily mean it is good. We make the best cheddar; we make great pasties. But we can't make very good brie or baguettes - and the French can't make pork pies.

As a chef, I feel that it is my duty to make the most of what the earth gives us.

Everywhere I go, I always look for creative entrepreneurs, whether it's artisans and craftsmen, small farmers and gardeners, or restaurateurs who use fresh, locally sourced ingredients.

When you grow up close to poultry and fields and gardens and open-air markets, you can't help but develop an instinct for quality food.

I spent a college semester in a small town in Italy - and that is where I truly tasted food for the first time.

When I grew up in Italy in the 1950s, it was still very agricultural. Food was very important; produce was very important. Everyone made their own olive oil. It took me a long time after I moved here to understand that Americans are much further away from their food.

The youthful vibe Nashville exudes is intoxicating and contagious, especially amongst the culinary scene, which lures so many great young chefs to places like City House and Rolf and Daughters.

Around the time I opened my second restaurant, Etta's, I had just finished judging at the Jack Daniels World Invitational BBQ Championship in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Back home in Seattle, my goal was to recreate the sweet and smoky taste of that BBQ using our local wild king salmon instead of pig.

The beauty of Rome is that you can wander into a pizzeria just about anywhere and get a real Italian pizza that's thankfully worlds away from the Super Supreme I used to order at Pizza Hut as a kid.

Something I learned when I was very young: with cooking, it doesn't matter where you are; you can always cook. You can end up in small village in Peru where somebody's cooking, take a spoon and taste it, and you might not be too sure what you're eating, but you can taste the soul in the food. That's what is beautiful with food.

Sri Lanka's interpretation of western cuisine is pretty diabolical. Sri Lankan food itself is ace, however, and they bloody love a buffet. Even if you go to a basic-looking cafe, they can knock up four or five different curries for you very quickly.

If I'm in Italy at a certain time of year, I'll make sure to try fresh porcini mushrooms in risotto, or puntarelle, a sort of curled chicory leaf that's only available for a few weeks in May.

I'm not a great beer drinker, but I do like Butcombe, probably because it's made of good Somerset water.

You have to respect the culture you are cooking in, yes, but you have to respect the palate you are cooking for, too, and you have to adjust to that palate.

Italian food is all about ingredients and it's not fussy and it's not fancy.

American cooking is one of the unknown cuisines in America.

Growing up in the north of Holland, I had a healthy and balanced diet.

To have 95% of the ingredients sourced, food and wine, within 100 miles radius, that's a dream come true for any chef.

Polenta is to northern Italy what bread is to Tuscany, what pasta is to Emilia-Romagna and what rice is to the Veneto: easy to make, hungry to absorb other flavours, and hugely versatile.

We need to reinvent food at Starbucks. Less could be more.

Anywhere in the world, there is royal food, and there is commoner food. Essentially, eat at the restaurant or eat on the street. But Indian food evolved in three spaces. Home kitchens were a big space for food evolution, and we have never given them enough credit.

People are trying to figure out what American food is; it's certainly an amalgamation.

I was possibly the first to showcase Chinese ingredients. So I was one of the first to say, 'Hey, you do not have to use imported vegetables to make it good.'