This is the great challenge: to maintain passion for the everyday routine and the endlessly repeated act, to derive deep gratification from the mundane.

We go through our careers and things happen to us. Those experiences made me what I am.

I believe Fernand Point is one of the last true gourmands of the 20th century. His ruminations are extraordinary and thought-provoking. He has been an inspiration for legions of chefs.

A kaiseki meal is like that, very small courses over a long period of time.

Any job worth doing is worth doing well. But to be able to do that, you have to do it over and over again.

You don't know when inspiration is going to come. But you have to be aware of what's going on around you, so that at any moment, when inspiration happens, you're ready for it and you interpret it.

I think if you can take one or two things from a cookbook, it's successful.