I started to change. It was sort of a restaurant mid-life crisis, you could say. I lost a lot of confidence, not so much as a father or as a friend, but as a boss, as a chef that's to make decisions throughout the day all the time. I just slowly started burning out. Once you lose your confidence like that, you start being angry in the kitchen. I couldn't recognize myself anymore. I started writing the journal. It was never meant to be a book, but the editor at Phaidon read parts of it. As editors do, I guess.

When you get close to the raw materials and taste them at the moment they let go of the soil, you learn to respect them.

I know every movement of my kitchen.

There is no conflict between a better meal and a better world.

The restaurant industry is brutal.

There's no media training. In cooking school, there's not even manager training. You learn the fundamentals of cooking. Everything else is learning by doing.

My last meal on Earth, I would love it to be a bowl of blueberries with cold cream.