Charlie Trotter Quotes
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I couldn't really relate to the fraternity or party scene, to the people out in the mall every day protesting one thing or another. I felt like there was no one I could relate to.
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There has been no great surprise, no sudden revelation. I knew pretty much what I was getting into. What I've learned is that a restaurant can be as much of an art as you want it to be, but it has to be a successful business first.
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Cooking is exactly like making music.
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I don't understand people who spend their twenties hanging out in bars and going to football game. That stuff is so boring compared to really applying yourself to what you do.
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I never considered Miles Davis a perfectionist; I always considered him as an excellence-ist, where deviation is actually kind of cool.
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It's a lot harder to get people to 'ooh' and 'aah' over beets and carrots than it is to get them to 'ooh' and 'aah' over artichokes or asparagus, and I enjoy being able to take these humble, 'lowbrow' foodstuffs up a few notches and serve them with great exuberance.
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I don't want to turn 50 and say, 'Gosh, I wish I'd lived in that part of the world for a time. I wish I'd read that book by Faulkner.' I want time to delve back into Thoreau and Kafka.
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Students need to learn how to think critically, how to argue opposing ideas. It is important for them to learn how to think. You can always cook.
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A jazz musician can improvise based on his knowledge of music. He understands how things go together. For a chef, once you have that basis, that's when cuisine is truly exciting.
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I was always inspired by restaurants like La Tulipe in Manhattan. You'd walk right by and say, 'Oh what a lovely house.' You didn't realize there was a restaurant behind the door.
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One must know combinations, one must have a true knowledge of food to be in the moment.
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Maybe it's good to be traumatized in your youth, to make you think differently and step outside the box. Anybody can be comfortable, but if you get your world rocked, shaken as it were, then maybe it causes you to really go to a whole other level in a different way.
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I've always been a little crazy.
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What I was reading was already part of my psyche, but finally someone else was saying it's okay to walk alone.
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I've always liked root vegetables because most of them have a natural sweetness. They have a high fructose content, especially when you cook them and caramelize them in a saute pan. Or you can take a turnip and cook it slowly in the oven until it's browned, and it takes on a kind of sweetness. These vegetables are pretty easy to like.
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For over 20 years, I have been saying that Chicago is by far one of the greatest food cities in the world.
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I am actually a very gentle person.
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My fantasy is to have a restaurant where there are no written menus, but where you just ask people, 'What are you in the mood for? Fish? Meat? White wine?'
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You know the old adage that the customer's always right? Well, I kind of think that the opposite is true. The customer is rarely right.
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If you go around the kitchen and ask my employees what they want to be doing in three to five years, most of them, if they're being honest, will tell you that they don't want to be working for me. They want to have their own place. And I think that's great.
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If people give me a year or two of their best effort, then I am their friend for life.
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I have a certain point of view, a certain way to plate food, certain ingredients that I like to use.
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A quarter century of running a restaurant - that's a long time to do one thing.
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I have a goal so lofty it's almost embarrassing to talk about. And that's to be the best restaurant in the world.