A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.

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.

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

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

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.

Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore.