What I bring - my team and I, because it's not only me - is this sense of elegance and casualness, and no pretension. There's also a sense of loyalty - loyalty to my customers, but also loyalty from my staff. Also, I think a sense of perfection; I'm a bit of an obsessed freak with perfection. I think I bring craziness sometimes, because if there is someone who's going to dare do something crazy, it's me.

A lot of young chefs today get carried away by trends, by influences, by movements.

I was at Plaza Athénée, where a jacket and tie was required. Andy Warhol came with his turtleneck, because he was always wearing a turtleneck, with a tie over it, and we gave him a jacket - so he had a jacket and tie over the turtleneck. It was pretty cool.

Young chefs, famous chefs, home cooks, and everyone who loves food and cooking-we all depend on Larousse Gastronomique. It is the only culinary encyclopedia that is always up-to-date.

Remember, it is never the knife's fault.

A beginner cook is going to have to be patient to really learn well. When you start to beat your master, that's when you're really starting to master the thing. But it's going to take a while. After that, you have to define what you want to be, who you want to be, where you want to be.

Bill Blass came in all the time, and I would make him roast chicken with spring potatoes and spring porcini with spring onion. And baby artichokes. And never, ever did he find a better chicken. Norman Parkinson, one of the greatest photographers alive, came every lunch to Le Cirque. And every time he would clean up his plate with his bread and then he would take his marker and write on the plate how much he loved the food. I think at Le Cirque I learned how to make real food, which is what people crave, not just gimmicky things on a plate.