Its not about passion. Passion is something that we tend to overemphasize, that we certainly place too much importance on. Passion ebbs and flows. To me, it's about desire. If you have constant, unwavering desire to be a cook, then u'll be a great cook.

Whether it's destiny or fate or whatever, I don't think I could do a French Laundry anywhere else.

Vegetables to me are - I don't want to say the most exciting part of cooking, but certainly a very exciting part of cooking, because they continue to change. They come into season and they go through different phases.

With passion, if you see the first asparagus of the springtime and you become passionate about it, so much the better, but three weeks later, when you’ve seen that asparagus every day now, passions have subsided. What’s going to make you treat the asparagus the same? It’s the desire.

In any restaurant of this caliber, the chefs are in the same position, building relationships.

You're getting to know who the great chefs are through their books.

A cookbook must have recipes, but it shouldn't be a blueprint. It should be more inspirational; it should be a guide.