I am honored to receive the James Beard award and so incredibly proud of my entire team at Eleven Madison Park.
The perfect ham and cheese sandwich is all about focusing on quality ingredients and about simple techniques. You start with great bread, a well-cured ham and a sharp local cheese, and the rest is easy. A little butter in a pan and a little patience - in the end you'll have a sandwich that is at once comforting and delicious.
I just really, really love food, so I don't have a favourite. But if I had to pick one to eat every day, it would be Italian. But I also love Chinese and Japanese food.
What I love about Thanksgiving is that it's purely about getting together with friends or family and enjoying food. It's really for everybody, and it doesn't matter where you're from.
I have fallen in love with granola, in life and at work. I exercise every morning, and then I have a monstrous day in front of me. Granola gives me energy. It's quick, tasty, and healthy.
As people move further away from a meat-based diet, I think the focus will shift to using grains as the central focus of our food supply.
Just as food is a craft, great service is, too. It can take years to perfect the technical aspects of clearing a plate, carving tableside, or pouring wine, and a lifetime to master the emotional elements of service.
As I mature as a chef, I no longer aim to pack multiple techniques and ingredients into a single dish. Realizing that restraint is more difficult, I find it often renders incredibly beautiful results.
At home, I warm milk, stir in two teaspoons of honey, and drink it in a teacup. It's so basic yet pure; I love it.
At Eleven Madison Park, instead of brioche or chocolates, we give our guests a jar of breakfast granola as a gift at the end of a meal. We also make savory granolas.
When you look at a kitchen, you tend to see that the people who are doing really well are those who have worked with the same chef or stayed in one restaurant for a significant amount of time.
Amuse-bouches are an opportunity to push boundaries.
When I moved to the United States, I first went to California to be the chef at Campton Place. As much as I loved California, I really missed the seasons. So when I moved to New York, I had that again.
Almonds can be used in sweet and savory dishes very easily.
H. Schwarzenbach is a very traditional place. The store opened in the late 1800s, importing specialty items from all over the world. It was curated before we even used that word.
It is essential for me to work with tools that are reliable and offer complete functionality, which is why I feel so confident about representing the Victorinox brand.
No tablecloths, silver cutlery, fine porcelain, sommeliers, or deep wine lists - that's fine. But no service or hospitality? That's going too far.
We use many expressions of fennel: blended with potato, it's an earthy, rich puree; the raw fronds add a fresh, green note; and the braised version gives it a luscious, home-cooked feel, something people can connect to - you need that in any dish.
Biking takes so much time. You need three hours to get in a good ride. In one hour, you can get in a good run.
I can't hide where I grew up or the flavors I grew up on.
