Risk is to do something that 99 percent of the time would be a failure.

Innovation, being avant garde, is always polemic.

I cant live without activity; I cant be sedentary.

You may say, "Oh, no. You can't touch a traditional recipe." But we ask: why can't you? Back in 1350, a vinaigrette was a stew, so we ask, why not? This can be applied to any kind of cooking, and that's the shocking part of it. It kind of bends all the traditions. It's a good thing.

I don't have a favorite cooking tool. In the kitchen, I always have my pencil and notebook in my hand. I cook more theoretically than I do practically. My job is creative, and in the kitchen, the biggest part of my creativity is theoretical. The pencil has a symbolic meaning for me. The type of person who carries a pencil around is the type of person who's open to change. Someone who walks around with a pen isn't; he's the opposite.

When I go to a fine dining restaurant, I'm excited and I do expect to find proposals to wake my senses.

You cannot get an influence from the cuisine of a country if you don't understand it. You've got to study it.