Charlie Trotter

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“I timed my previous wife's pregnancy to the moment to have my son born on Bob Dylan's 50th birthday. There is no bigger Bob Dylan fan than me. You don't just time the day and impregnate your wife to get your kid to be born on Bob Dylan's 50th birthday.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“My plan is to work on a master's in philosophy.”

“You can't be afraid to not have everything figured out. There's too much pressure on young people today to have it all figured out when they're in college.”

“Cooking is exactly like making music.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“I don't know how to put this gently, but I'm trying to tackle the biggest question of all, which is the God question.”