Unlicensed hooch from a stranger in a parking lot. Good idea? Yes, of course it is.
When dealing with complex transportation issues, the best thing to do is pull up with a cold beer and let somebody else figure it out.
I need the anesthetic qualities of the local fire water.
Always entertain the possibility that something, no matter how squiggly and scary looking, might just be good.
I look at Guy Fieri and I just think, ‘Jesus, I’m glad that’s not me.’
There are very sophisticated, very time-consuming dishes to prepare; always from scratch, and always in excess of what you could possibly need. You tend to kill your guests with kindness around here.
Cream rises. Excellence does have its rewards.
I’m not going anywhere. I hope. It’s been an adventure. We took some casualties over the years. Things got broken. Things got lost. But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
There are people with otherwise chaotic and disorganized lives, a certain type of person that’s always found a home in the restaurant business in much the same way that a lot of people find a home in the military.
I’m never a reliable narrator, unbiased or objective.
I’m a Twitter addict. Jose Andres is a serial tweeter. It’s funny to see which chefs have embraced it, and the different paths they take.
You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.
Sometimes the greatest meals on vacations are the ones you find when Plan A falls through.
I can unload my opinion on anybody at anytime.
When I’m back in New York – and this is a terrible thing to complain about – I eat a lot more really, really good food than perhaps I’d like to. So many of my friends are really good chefs. It’s kind of like being in the Mafia.
I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.
The fact that over 50 per cent of the residents of Toronto are not from Canada, that is always a good thing, creatively, and for food especially. That is easily a city’s biggest strength, and it is Toronto’s unique strength.
What’s the opposite of suck? Un-suck?
Only desperation can account for what the Chinese do in the name of ‘medicine.’ That’s something you might remind your New Age friends who’ve gone gaga over ‘holistic medicine’ and ’alternative Chinese cures.
Get up early and go to the local produce markets. In Latin America and Asia, those are usually great places to find delicious food stalls serving cheap, authentic and fresh specialties.