I love the masochistic aspect of eating seething, real Sichuan food in Sichuan Province.
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.
People's choice to become vegan, from people I've spoken to, seems motivated by fear.
I'm never a reliable narrator, unbiased or objective.
My brain and body and nervous system, they see a plane ride, a long plane trip, as an opportunity to sleep with nothing coming in, nothing to do. I just go offline the minute I'm on the plane.
What nicer thing can you do for somebody than make them breakfast?
I'm sure that at no point in my life could I ever have shown the kind of focus and discipline and commitment necessary to work a station at elBulli or Le Bernardin. No. That ain't me.
The worst, most dangerous person to America is clearly Paula Deen.
If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it's the restaurant business.
Since the very beginning, Emeril's had a sense of humor about me calling him names and poking fun at him.
It would be an egregious mistake to ever refer to me in the same breath as most of the people I write about.
Jiro Ono serves Edo-style traditional sushi, the same 20 or 30 pieces he's been making his whole life, and he's still unsatisfied with the quality and every day wakes up and trains to make the best. And that is as close to a religious experience in food as one is likely to get.
I like telling stories, and I tell stories that interest me. It would be boring to have to go to nothing but the best restaurants. That would be a misery to me.
I'm always secretly the most pleased when a show just really, really looks good and when my camera guys are really happy with the images they got.
Being a vegan is a first-world phenomenon, completely self-indulgent.
I do my very best to avoid shark fin.
People are generally proud of their food. A willingness to eat and drink with people without fear and prejudice... they open up to you in ways that somebody visiting who is driven by a story may not get.