Fine dining is an occasional treat for most people.

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.

A gastronomical supermeal didn't necessarily have to involve the things I had brought from other top kitchens.

I never cooked at home - my father was the chef.

I only have the restaurant. If I do other things, it's only to do with the restaurant.

I've never had anything but the freedom to do what I wanted just as long as it made me happy.

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.