If you want to become a great chef, you have to work with great chefs. And that’s exactly what I did.

My mom had Julia Child and ‚The Fannie Farmer Cookbook‘ on top of the refrigerator, and she had a small repertoire of French dishes.

Writing’s just as natural to me as getting up and cooking breakfast.

Over the years, all my coaches and my teammates have contributed a lot to shape my career. I can never forget their contribution and help.

When I figured out how to work my grill, it was quite a moment. I discovered that summer is a completely different experience when you know how to grill.

Anyone who’s a chef, who loves food, ultimately knows that all that matters is: ‚Is it good? Does it give pleasure?‘

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.

I’m just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression.

The vulgar boil, the learned roast, an egg.

No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.

Every bit of me is devoted to love and art. And I aspire to try to be a teacher to my young fans who feel just like I felt when I was younger. I just felt like a freak. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m trying to liberate them, I want to free them of their fears and make them feel that they can make their own space in the world.

An employer of mine back in the ’80s was kind enough to take me on after a rough patch, and it made a big difference in my life that I knew I was the sort of person who showed up on time. It’s a basic tell of character.

I just want to be a great example to younger kids.

A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords. There are two distinct styles requisite: I intend, in the course of my career, if I have time, to give a specimen of both.

You know, from age 17 on, my paycheck was coming from cooking and working in kitchens.

I like chicken a lot because chicken is generous – that is to say, it’s obedient. It will do whatever you tell it to do.

I think every chef, not just in America, but across the world, has a double-edged sword – two jackets, one that’s driven, a self-confessed perfectionist, thoroughbred, hate incompetence and switch off the stove, take off the jacket and become a family man.

While still working for others, your goal at some point must be to carve out little areas that you can operate on your own, cultivating entrepreneurial skills.

I am a chef who happens to appear on the telly, that’s it.

Cooking today is a young man’s game, I don’t give a bollocks what anyone says.

I’ve been my mom’s kitchen helper since I was a little kid.

I hate interviews – but you have to do them.

When I’m home, I spend Sunday with my husband. If we’re not cooking, we travel around in our camper, stop at fast-food restaurants, and picnic. We love that stuff that will harden your arteries in a hurry.

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn’t allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.

I’d like to think I’m a great teacher.

Later on they send me to Hollywood. To make movies. It was all new to me. I was only 21 years old.

I want people to follow their dreams, yes… but I’m not interested in telling young black kids how to be rappers… I want to show them that there’s so many other paths you can take, besides a rapper or basketball player.

Chefs are fond of hyperbole, so they can certainly talk that way. But on the whole, I think they probably have a more open mind than most people.

What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?

The goal for me is always to have the opportunity to work in different genres. This is a great and exciting time in my career, where I can have the opportunity to work in different genres, and also I recognize there’s not a lot of actors who have that opportunity and I’m grateful for it.

Cooking is about passion, so it may look slightly temperamental in a way that it’s too assertive to the naked eye.

I’ve taken so many kids out of Pittsburgh and onto the great white way in New York City right into a Broadway show.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

I was a journeyman chef of middling abilities. Whatever authority I have as a commenter on this world comes from the sheer weight of 28 years in the business. I kicked around for 28 years and came out the other end alive and able to form a sentence.

You have to look for teachers. If you want to be a mechanic, go hang out with mechanics.

Those places I don’t understand, just doing bad food. It takes some doing. Making good pasta is so much easier than making bad stuff. It actually takes quite an effort to make poor linguine pomodora.

Talking to a player helps, but in our sport the majority of learning happens from watching another player. You pick up things like being punctual, being nice to everyone, making sure you give your 100 per cent even in training.

The woman who can create her own job is the woman who will win fame and fortune.

Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.

I don’t need a successor, only willing hands to accept the torch for a new generation.

When you’re older you want to learn from other people.

You don’t come into cooking to get rich.

Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish – too much handling will spoil it.

In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.

I worked with Lawrence Olivier some years ago. He was a great mentor.

Kitchens are hard environments and they form incredibly strong characters.

I built a label at the same time I built a career.

Every chef I know, their cholesterol is through the roof. And mine’s not so great.

I love Velveeta cheese.

Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.

I’m not trying to take New York by storm. I just want to sneak in there, keep my head down, batten down the hatches and cook.

I’m a mentor to anybody who’s interested.

Working with a guy like Ice Cube on ‚Ride Along,‘ you learn so much. He’s a guy who produces, writes, and directs, so you watch and learn and ask questions. As you go, you learn and figure out what you should and shouldn’t do. I do nothing but soak up information.

I’m just wanting to make the proper breakfast and keep the house. That’s my passion. At the request of my kids, I’m taking cooking classes. As I go to sleep at night, I think, ‚Did I do a great job as a mom, or was that an average day?‘

My dinners at home are startlingly simple. Every night, I stop at the market near my hotel and pick up a steak, lamb chops or some liver, which I broil in the electric oven in my room. I usually eat four or five raw carrots with my meat, and that is all. I must be part rabbit; I never get bored with raw carrots.

My sisters like cooking at my place. It has a bit more room, and the food tastes a little bit better. A big pot of spaghetti and sauce, some warm French bread – works all the time. I think I’ve been eating pasta for 26 years.

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.

Once you get a spice in your home, you have it forever. Women never throw out spices. The Egyptians were buried with their spices. I know which one I’m taking with me when I go.

There is a saying in Baltimore that crabs may be prepared in fifty ways and that all of them are good.

When I cook for my family on Christmas, I make feijoada, a South American dish of roasted and smoked meats like ham, pork, beef, lamb, and bacon – all served with black beans and rice. It’s festive but different.

Older and wiser voices can help you find the right path, if you are only willing to listen.