Charlie Trotter Quotes

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.

As tough as I've been on anybody, as hard as I've ever been on anybody, I have been harder on myself. By far.

The most successful food, I think, is food that both appeals to the super-sophisticated diner or foodie and to the lay diner at the same time.

I never considered Miles Davis a perfectionist; I always considered him as an excellence-ist, where deviation is actually kind of cool.

I took the obligatory economics classes in school, but I've long been a fan of the Milton Friedman philosophy and its libertarian bent: One must be free to do what one wants to do, as long as you don't harm another. This is the seminal treatise on free-market economics.

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.

Excellence is about fighting and pursuing something diligently, with a strict and determined approach to doing it right. It's okay if there are flaws in the process - it makes it more interesting.

To me, searching for perfection isn't anywhere near as interesting as trying to find your own voice.

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.

One must know combinations, one must have a true knowledge of food to be in the moment.

A quarter century of running a restaurant - that's a long time to do one thing.

All four elements were happening in equal measure - the cuisine, the wine, the service, and the overall ambience. It taught me that dining could happen at a spiritual level.

I got on a Dostoyevsky kick right after college. I started with 'Crime and Punishment,' went on to 'The Possessed' and then 'The Brothers Karamazov' and 'The Idiot.'

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.

I have always considered desserts to be of equal importance to the savory food.

I love faltering. I love, in a sense, coming up short. Because you learn nothing from success. You learn so much from failing.

It's a challenge to demonstrate that you can prepare some really interesting food with humble ingredients.

I have a certain point of view, a certain way to plate food, certain ingredients that I like to use.

I'm all about making money. It's the greatest thing, because it means you get money to spend.

In my case, vertical food was less about standing things up than layering things: more an attempt to gain texture by weaving things together.

Life's too short. You may be on this planet for 80 years at best or who knows, but you can't just pedal around and do the same thing forever.

Any fool can be happy. What I'm interested in is satisfaction. There's got to be more to life than just being happy. You've got to be fulfilled. You've got to be satisfied; philosophically satisfied is what I mean.

I would always be embarrassed to read out loud in class because I would transpose words and letters and things.

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.

I believe in focusing on details.

Cuisine is only about making foods taste the way they are supposed to taste.

If people give me a year or two of their best effort, then I am their friend for life.

Ultimately, I want to prepare food that will be recognized equally in Tokyo, London, and Paris. I am after that universality, that transcendence.

What I was reading was already part of my psyche, but finally someone else was saying it's okay to walk alone.

Cooking is exactly like making music.

Chefs, as a whole, say yes to any project, fundraiser, or tasting because they have such a generous spirit.

I've always been a little crazy.

My parents couldn't be looser. It was the ultimate laissez faire upbringing.

At home, a man is entitled to raise his voice maybe once a year, if something really gets under his skin. At work, it's different. I raise my voice all the time. Not out of malice, but to get things right. It's never personal.

If you ever want to get anywhere in life, you're going to have to push it, and somebody's going to push you to get there. End of story.

The body cannot produce enzymes in perfect combinations to metabolize your foods as completely as the food enzymes created by nature do. This results in partially digested fats, proteins, and starches that can clog your body's intestinal tract and arteries.

I am actually a very gentle person.

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.

Always make stock in a large quantity and freeze it in plastic bags. That way, when you want to make a nice soup or boil veggies, you can simply pull the bag out of the freezer.

I worked in 40 restaurants over a five-year period.

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.

For over 20 years, I have been saying that Chicago is by far one of the greatest food cities in the world.

The art of cooking is among the most intimate things that we can do for another.

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.

If you want the meaning of families and life and religion and philosophy rolled into one package, all you need to read is 'The Brothers Karamazov.'