"A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe."
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Quote collection
Thomas Keller quotes (page 1 of 3)
59 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"When you acknowledge, as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear: to make people happy, that is what cooking is all about."
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"Its not about passion. Passion is something that we tend to overemphasize, that we certainly place too much importance on. Passion ebbs and flows. To me, it's about desire. If you have constant, unwavering desire to be a cook, then u'll be a great cook."
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"This is the great challenge: to maintain passion for the everyday routine and the endlessly repeated act, to derive deep gratification from the mundane."
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"The law of diminishing returns is something I really believe in."
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"Any job worth doing is worth doing well. But to be able to do that, you have to do it over and over again."
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"Food is such an important part of our lives, and sometimes we tend to diminish the importance of that, because we rely on conveniences or because our lives are so complicated. We forget about those moments that we can actually share around the table with our family, with our friends, with our loved ones."
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"Success is measured by the memories you create."
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"It's not about perfection; it's about the joy of striving."
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"Cooking is not about convenience and it's not about shortcuts. Our hunger for the twenty-minute gourmet meal, for one-pot ease and prewashed, precut ingredients has severed our lifeline to the satisfactions of cooking. Take your time. Take a long time. Move slowly and deliberately and with great attention."
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"A cookbook must have recipes, but it shouldn't be a blueprint. It should be more inspirational; it should be a guide."
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"Respect for food is respect for life, for who we are and what we do."
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"Let's face it: if you and I have the same capabilities, the same energy, the same staff, if the only thing that's different between you and me is the products we can get, and I can get a better product than you, I'm going to be a better chef."
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"For me, thats one of the important things about cooking. What was good enough yesterday may not be good enough today."
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"Repetition is the mother of perfection. If there is true perfection, it's about doing something over and over again. I truly think that if somebody does a recipe they've never done before and gets it right, they're probably more lucky than they are talented."
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"You have to be driven. You have to be focused. You have to be aware."
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"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"
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"You're getting to know who the great chefs are through their books."
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"We go through our careers and things happen to us. Those experiences made me what I am."
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"We rely on our purveyors to tell us what's available and what's good."
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