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I love cooking, but I love the business, too. It's important because a lot of chefs forget the business side and have to shut down after six months.
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When you do a menu at a restaurant, you have to be the engineer of that menu. It has to be a crowd-pleaser.
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When I arrived in New York, I was at the Drake hotel for five years; so, yeah, I really miss hotels. It's like having friends stay at your home. Every day you get to treat them, not only to dinner, but for breakfast, and everything throughout the day.
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The role of a chef isn't to reinvent dishes but to tweak.
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You don't do a business for pleasure: You have to make money.
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Spice Market was just a big investment on lots of different levels.
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I think we're always going to be based in New York. So I would say 50 percent New York and the other 50 percent around the world.
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I cook every day for six hours. It's my therapy. My love.
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At lunchtime, our kitchen was like a mini restaurant: my grandmother and mother had to cook for as many as 25 people - extended family plus 10 employees. We ate a lot of cabbage and a lot of potatoes.
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At ABC Cocina and Kitchen, 90 percent of our produce and vegetables come from Union Square, and that's all from upstate New York farmers. We are simply committed to this idea of local, organic food.
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My presence in California will bring a new, inspiring culinary environment to life, and I'm delighted to share my creative techniques and evolving fresh ideas with the Beverly Hills community.
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The Hamptons remind me of my childhood vacations. I love the beach, restaurants, and produce found on the East End.
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Food is important for me, but as a restaurant group, to expand, you know, we have to look where the best market are - where the best markets are.
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For me, the good food starts with good product.
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No one can understand my accent!
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Cooking at home is easier than cooking in the restaurant because you don't have to write a menu or try to please everybody.
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I landed in 1980 in Bangkok, and I stopped to eat ten times between the airport and the hotel. It was all lemongrass and ginger and chilies.
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I'm cooking 42 years, and I didn't know bananas are good for my brain.
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My mother worked in a chocolate factory, so when I came home from school, I had a piece of baguette with dark chocolate in it. I remember her smelling like chocolate.
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For my 16th birthday, my family took me to L'Auberge de L'Ill, which was family-run but had three Michelin stars. It was a revelation. After that meal, I realised this is what I want to do.
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I grew up near Strasbourg in Alsace, where my family were coal merchants.
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For friends, I love to make bruschetta. I grill country bread with Frantoia olive oil and make toppings, like crab, roasted squash, mushrooms, whatever's seasonal.
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A steak is a steak, so I tried to experiment with different side dishes, such as truffle croquettes, and unusual condiments, but I learned that people don't want you to change the steakhouse.
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I arrived in New York in 1986, when I was 28. The market here was nothing. In the Union Square farmers' market, it was a couple of potatoes, everything from California. So the only place I was comfortable shopping was in Chinatown, because it all came from Hong Kong.