Food can be expressive and therefore food can be art.
My life has been such a blur since I was 18, 19 years old. I haven't even had time to contemplate my own life. By forcing yourself to write your life story you learn a great deal about yourself.
The most luxurious thing to me is having an hour of my day, which rarely happens, to listen to my iPod and sit on my couch. That's how I unwind.
My personality was always such that I always look straight forward, never behind or to the side.
I don't care if you're doing haute cuisine or burgers and pizza, just do it right.
We all eat two to six times a day. Why? Because we are supposed to, we are programmed to, we want to.
Whatever it is you're doing, whether it's your career or a particular focus, if you're trying to be the best you can possibly be, then you'll be putting that pressure on yourself.
Alinea is not the type of restaurant where you go if you're in a hurry. Really, it's about enjoying that three-hour block of time and reflecting on the food, having great conversation with your dining companion.
There are about 700 flavors that you can smell, but only five you can taste. A lot of times what you're perceiving as flavor has nothing to do with palette, but it's more to do with scents.
I had D minuses in chemistry and all of the sciences, and now I'm known as a molecular gastronomist.
Whenever people are faced with any sort of adversity... they tend to gravitate toward things that make them comfortable, and things that they feel are important.
I always knew I wanted to be a chef.
My home kitchen is airy, with a gas stove, a stainless-steel island table in the center and granite countertops. It's very modest but there's tons of counter space, so you can slap down three or four cutting boards.
It's not really the life of cooking that's hard - it's what you make of it and what level you push yourself to.
Anything that could ever prevent me from achieving a goal, I put in a box, tape it up, throw it over my shoulder. You aim for a goal and attain it. Then you look to the next one.
Most smoked salts are made with liquid smoke, which is a condensate, but really, really good smoked salt is literally smoked.
What makes the food that we do at Alinea so interesting on the outside is that we really don't let ourselves say no to an idea.
In a lot of ways, a lot of smells that aren't necessarily edible smell good, and they remind you of certain aspects of food. So making those associations with what smells good or smells a certain way and pairing that with actual edible ingredients is one avenue that we take creatively.
I lived my whole life in the kitchen. Not only that, but it's the passion, it's the love for cooking and food. It's dictated my entire life - every aspect of it.
Part of becoming a little bit older and having the opportunities that I have, you want to start giving back to people who have been influential and helped you along the way.
