If my cuisine were to be defined by just one taste, it would be that of subtle, aromatic, extra-virgin olive oil.
Failure is enriching. It's also important to accept that you'll make mistakes - it's how you build your expertise. The trick is to learn a positive lesson from all of life's negative moments.
If I had the choice to travel to two places in Europe, it would be Paris and London.
TV is a deformed vision, an excessive caricature. A chef has to stay an artisan, not become a star.
The most classic French dessert around the holidays is the Christmas log, with butter cream. Two flavors. Chocolate and coconut. My first job in the kitchen when I was a boy was to make these Christmas logs.
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.
The Mediterranean is in my DNA. I'm fine inland for about a week, but then I yearn for a limitless view of the sea, for the colours and smells of the Italian and French Riviera.
My grandmother did all the cooking at Christmas. We ate fattened chicken. We would feed it even more so it would be big and fat.
I'm surprised by the talent I find all over. There are always new chefs who propose many interesting new ideas, new ways of looking at ingredients.
Our milk chocolate is very chocolaty. In fact, we don't call it milk chocolate - we call it milky chocolate.
The proportion of ingredients is important, but the final result is also a matter of how you put them together. Equilibrium is key.
The world of wine is more creative than the world of cooking.
In France, I am the fifth artisan to produce his own chocolate, and the others have been doing it for a long time.
The relentless pursuit of being different is very French.
I have an obsession for quality. I work for my guests, not to obtain Michelin stars.
I love any excuse to work with a mortar and pestle.
In London, there is no need for 25 high-end gastronomic restaurants. That would be too much.
If you don't treat an ingredient and its flavors with respect - if you drown it in oil, for instance - you'll spoil it.
To make my meal, I go to the market and to the garden, and then I decide what I'm going to do. That's a great pleasure.
When I started cooking the meal at home, after I had started cooking in restaurants, I usually would prepare bay scallops or lobster.
