When you acknowledge, as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear: to make people happy, that is what cooking is all about.

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.

I wanted to write about what we were doing at the French Laundry, the recipes and the stories.

Even the most astute chefs seek out the assistance of Celine Labaune, owner of Gourmet Attitude, because they know they can rely on her keen senses and deep understanding of the truffle trade.

For me, thats one of the important things about cooking. What was good enough yesterday may not be good enough today.

I like to drink young wines, wines which are robust and have a lot of forward fruit to them.

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