“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay.”
“Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.”
“I think food, culture, people, and landscape are all absolutely inseparable.”
“I’m a big believer in winging it. I’m a big believer that you’ll never find perfect city travel conditions.”
“I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.”
“Without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, and moribund.”
“I, personally, think there is a real danger of taking food too seriously.”
“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.”
“If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river.”
“You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.”
“Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.”
“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.”
“The journey is part of the experience — an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent.”
“If I can do it, you can do it. And you’ll probably do it better.”
“Skills can be taught. Character you either have or you don’t have.”
“To be treated well in places where you don’t expect to be treated well, to find things in common with people you had no reason to think you’d be able to find anything in common with, is incredibly thrilling.”
“Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start.”
“I’ve long believed that good food, good eating, is all about risk.”
“I am not a fan of people who believe in rules.”
“Cooking is a craft, I like to think, and a good cook is a craftsman—not an artist.”
“People are generally proud of their food. A willingness to eat and enjoy what they eat is often an invitation to open their lives to you.”
“I wanted kicks—the kind of melodramatic thrills and chills I yearned for since childhood.”
“I’m not afraid to look like an idiot.”
“Sometimes the greatest meals on vacations are the ones you find when Plan A falls through.”
“The life of a chef is a life of intense and often physical work.”
“Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life.”
“I don’t eat in fancy restaurants. I eat in places where there’s a soul.”
“The best meals occur in a context that frequently has very little to do with the food itself.”
“Life is complicated. It’s filled with nuance. It’s unsatisfying.”
“To me, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time.”
“As you move through this life and this world, you change things slightly; you leave marks behind, however small.”
“I could do my job and not make a complete ass of myself. I think that’s what separates a good cook from a great one.”
“We’re all human. We’re all in this together.”
“There’s something wonderful about drinking in the afternoon. A not-too-cold pint, absolutely alone at the bar.”
“The great thing about a chef’s knife is that it inspires confidence.”
“I wanted my own experience. I wanted to understand and learn about different cultures.”
“The more I become aware of, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
“I don’t believe in a higher power, but I respect people who do.”
“If you’re not afraid of a little bit of heat, get out of the kitchen.”
“I’ve seen how much can be accomplished when it’s done with heart.”
“Do we really want to live in a world where a person’s worth is defined by the status of their neighborhood?”
“Your best opportunities are at the edge of what you know and what you’re comfortable with.”
“Don’t lie about it. You made a mistake. Admit it and move on.”
“It’s very rarely a good career move to walk into a place you know nothing about.”
“We learn as much from failure as we do from success.”
“I think the job of a chef is to be at the center of the kitchen but invisible.”
“Sometimes I get lucky and have what I think are wonderful ideas.”
“The more you know, the more you realize how little you know.”
“I find myself around the world looking for good things to eat.”
“Travel changes you. As you move through this life, you leave marks behind, however small.”
“The most dangerous person in the world is the one with nothing to lose.”
“There’s a strange satisfaction to be had in being able to survive and make it through.”
“The best way to know a city is to eat it.”
“I’m just as happy eating tacos on a street corner.”
“For me, the cooking life has been a long love affair.”
“Sometimes I feel like I’ve taken a pretty big bite out of the world.”
“It’s good manners to try a little bit of everything.”
“Assume the worst. About everybody. But don’t let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance.”
“To be honest, I am actually happier cooking in a dive.”
“Most of the time, your life will be easier if you just don’t ask for too much.”
“I like to eat and I like to travel.”
“The best journeys answer questions that in the beginning you didn’t even think to ask.”
“There is no better feeling than seeing how food can connect people.”
“When I’m eating, I’m thinking about what I could be eating next.”
“I think it’s important to maintain perspective.”
“The kitchen is the place where people from all backgrounds can come together.”
“Let things happen. You learn the most from the things you didn’t plan.”
“Do what you love, because it will lead you to places you can’t even imagine.”
“Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of our lives and cultures.”
“Don’t aspire to mediocrity.”