If you want the meaning of families and life and religion and philosophy rolled into one package, all you need to read is 'The Brothers Karamazov.'
You can't be afraid to not have everything figured out. There's too much pressure on young people today to have it all figured out when they're in college.
If you go around the kitchen and ask my employees what they want to be doing in three to five years, most of them, if they're being honest, will tell you that they don't want to be working for me. They want to have their own place. And I think that's great.
My father was a successful entrepreneur.
Cooking is exactly like making music.
If people give me a year or two of their best effort, then I am their friend for life.
I love faltering. I love, in a sense, coming up short. Because you learn nothing from success. You learn so much from failing.
I would always be embarrassed to read out loud in class because I would transpose words and letters and things.
You've got to give away what you love.
I timed my previous wife's pregnancy to the moment to have my son born on Bob Dylan's 50th birthday. There is no bigger Bob Dylan fan than me. You don't just time the day and impregnate your wife to get your kid to be born on Bob Dylan's 50th birthday.
I was always inspired by restaurants like La Tulipe in Manhattan. You'd walk right by and say, 'Oh what a lovely house.' You didn't realize there was a restaurant behind the door.
I don't know how to put this gently, but I'm trying to tackle the biggest question of all, which is the God question.
I don't want to turn 50 and say, 'Gosh, I wish I'd lived in that part of the world for a time. I wish I'd read that book by Faulkner.' I want time to delve back into Thoreau and Kafka.
The idea that you have to pursue greatness... it's up to you; it's your life.
My plan is to work on a master's in philosophy.
I believe in focusing on details.
Ultimately, I want to prepare food that will be recognized equally in Tokyo, London, and Paris. I am after that universality, that transcendence.
I have a goal so lofty it's almost embarrassing to talk about. And that's to be the best restaurant in the world.
It's a challenge to demonstrate that you can prepare some really interesting food with humble ingredients.
It's a lot harder to get people to 'ooh' and 'aah' over beets and carrots than it is to get them to 'ooh' and 'aah' over artichokes or asparagus, and I enjoy being able to take these humble, 'lowbrow' foodstuffs up a few notches and serve them with great exuberance.
