A biography for Giles Corenhasn’t been written yet.
“In the beginning, we huddled in cities for our own protection. We built walls around them with slits through which to fire arrows at scary, cross-eyed rural people, and brought our food and family inside because they were the safest places to be.”
“The way I write possibly shouldn't be turned on serious things.”
“The world's most competitive man, my dad. Wouldn't let us win at Monopoly... he wouldn't cut any slack for his children. My sister's also very, very competitive but she is more concerned than I am with being liked. So she hides it away. I try to make my competitiveness part of my charm.”
“I'm just a bit frustrated that in London we make such an effort to ape the New York restaurant scene. I have good friends who ape the New York restaurant scene and do it brilliantly. None of them would claim that the primary reason for going to their restaurant was the food.”
“I have a tailor now, I have a doctor, a wine merchant, a jeweller, a gardener, a cleaner, and a nanny. It was clearly ridiculous that I did not have a hairdresser. So I got one.”
“It doesn't matter how much of a hurry you think you are in. Be one of the people for whom ten minutes does not make a difference.”
“World cross-fertilization is fantastic. Immigration across the world has led to all kinds of fantastic new and exciting kinds of food being available. And there's all kinds of different kinds of restaurants.”
“I was 41 when I became a dad. I try to be as much fun as my father was, but I'm at home more - and less of a disciplinarian.”
“When I was 16 my dad taught me to drive too. Furiously. Unable to understand why I couldn't already do it - for driving, to him, was innate in the human. It was what separated us from the apes. And from the French, who weren't much good at it either.”
“I have Gordon Ramsay to thank for my TV career because Channel 4 spent a long time trying to find him a sidekick for 'The F Word', then he suggested me, knowing I'd stand up to him.”
“As drivers desert the city I find myself clinging more and more to my father's belief that a man without a car is not really a man.”
“Mineral water is a preposterous vanity, either bottled in glass which is stupidly heavy to freight, or in plastic that ends up in one of the plastic patches the size of Texas occupying our oceans.”
“I come from a country where there's a reputation for bad press.”
“I used to be a very angry person, I used to throw things and break them. Then I had five years of constant psycho-analysis, and I don't get angry any more.”
“I sleep nine hours every night, I have a little nap after lunch, and, if I'm going out for dinner, I sneak in an extra one before I head out.”
“Personally I ride a bicycle, travel by train and bus and campaign tirelessly for a car taxation system that will hammer ignorant, selfish, petty, fat, spoilt, stupid car abusers into giving up their addiction and walking.”
“Have you ever been to the countryside? It's so small. And there's nothing to do.”
“Being a success in the world, having total control of one's life, is about being able to take or leave things.”
“I had become mean and stupid and deliberately hurtful because that is what is expected of restaurant critics. Of critics in general.”
“I always say what I think to be amusing.”