Joel Robuchon

“The simpler the food, the harder it is to prepare it well. You want to truly taste what it is you're eating. So that goes back to the trend of fine ingredients. It's very Japanese: Preparing good ingredients very simply, without distractions from the flavor of the ingredient itself.”

“Southeast Asia food uses many different types of spices which are quite new to me, like the curry leaves which I saw at the Kreta Ayer wet market in Chinatown. With such spices used in cooking, this usually imparts a strong aroma to Southeast Asian food, which appeals to the senses.”

“When new cooks come to work for me, they obviously make mistakes at the beginning or there's some messiness to the presentation. What I always say to them is: 'If you were cooking this for your mother or your girlfriend, would you make those mistakes?'”

“When I used to have a show on French TV, people would ask me how my jacket stayed spotless while cooking. Your whole area has to be clean - and you have to keep it that way.”

“I can be much more creative with my menus in the casino cities. In New York, there are certain things I can't make. In Las Vegas, they're much more receptive. Rabbit, some seafoods - they won't necessarily do well in New York, but I'll try them in Las Vegas, and they'll be a success.”

“Cooking is creating emotion.”

“The older I get, the more I realize the truth is the simpler the food, the more exceptional it can be.”

“Once you establish a diet, you can make exceptions once you're able to balance it out.”

“I could move to New York. I love it here.”

“I am a gourmand. I like to eat. When I have something that I like, I tend to have too much of it. That is a guilty pleasure.”

“The worst thing for me is to not taste what I'm eating, to not know what I'm eating. It upsets me to no avail.”

“I'd always been a very competitive boy - I hated coming second.”

“You get a lot of young chefs who have a lot of savoir-faire, a lot of technical knowledge. What's important is to convey to them a cuisine that is made from the heart.”

“The most difficult thing is to make sure the standards remain high in each restaurant.”

“Right now, I am doing the reverse of molecular gastronomy. I'm working with scientists to find ingredients and produce that are proven to be good for you.”

“As a chef, you need to respect your guests and their needs. If they decide that they want to eat certain things and not eat others, if for religious reasons or just decide they don't want to eat certain ingredients, you have to respect that.”

“We the chefs have a responsibility to learn about the chemical makeup of food!”

“I love the sun; I would have trouble living in Canada.”

“Taste is developed by the diversity of the products one can sample. I think our children today may be missing an education about food. We must teach them to know their cuisine and to know the equilibrium of nourishment. That is very important for health.”

“When a dish works, it works for everyone, whether you're Asian, European, African, American or anybody else.”