The older I get, and the more I travel in particular, the less I care about what exactly is in the dish than who's cooking it and why.

The cookbooks I value the most in my collection are the ones where you hear the author's voice and point-of-view in every recipe.

Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom...is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go. -Anthony Bourdain

Being on television, being recognizable, this is unnatural.

I don't think people should be encouraged to look like Kate Moss; I think that's unreasonable. I think the normal human body should be glorified. By the same token, if you need a stick to wash yourself, you're not healthy.

In America, there might be better gastronomic destinations than New Orleans, but there is no place more uniquely wonderful.

If people are working only rice and beans for much of their diet, it says something.