Wylie Dufresne

“I would like to, at some point, do a cookbook.”

“The East Village is where I cut my teeth as a kid. I ran around here on a skateboard.”

“Neighborhoods change. In some ways, it's part of the beauty of New York City. It's in a constant state of flux.”

“As a pure source of reference, 'Modernist Cuisine' is incredibly helpful. It's like a modern-day encyclopedia, except for a single subject. It's not always the answer, but it's always a starting point. I feel honored to have been able to contribute to it.”

“It's a funny thing, but it's often overlooked that I'm a huge devout lover of French cooking. I have the utmost respect for them, though they have lost their respect for me because they think the way I cook is nutty.”

“Whether it be cereal technology or candy technology or snack technology, puff snacks, I'm always curious to know how those things are made and how we can take that technology, those ingredients, and apply it to a stand-alone restaurant.”

“My job has changed over the years, 22 years roughly I've been cooking professionally. When I was younger, I aspired to be the star player. Now, it's more I like to sit in the dugout and make sure the team wins the game.”

“It's been a struggle to get people to come eat for fun. You know, the way they listen to music. You can do all kinds of things with music. But food - it's something people need, and that changes everything. You start playing with it, people have all sorts of reactions.”

“American cheese is the perfect soft taco.”

“We have fried things in cubes, historically. We tried bars of Hollandaise, we tried different shapes, but it ultimately seemed like the cube was the right shape.”

“It turns out that life in the kitchen is very similar to life on a team. Sports and kitchens are about teams. I found my alternate team sport in the kitchen.”

“I can fry hollandaise, I can fry ketchup, I can fry mustard.”

“I have no interest in vegetarians whatsoever. Zero. Less than zero.”

“Okay, a lot of people think that I'm someone known for a love of eggs and egg cookery. Being asked to endorse an egg yolk separator, I mean, I understood where it came from, but it didn't seem necessarily like something that was ultimately worth pursuing.”

“Eggs are one of my all-time favorite foods, and making the over-easy egg is a test of skill.”

“Whites cook at a lower temperature, set at a lower temperature than yolks. That, to me, is very interesting. That has opened up - as an egg lover, that has opened up sort of a world of possibilities, of applications.”

“I've seen cookbooks from lots of great chefs that have been disappointing. A book, to me, it has to have a story. Some of these people, they open a restaurant, and one year later, there's a cookbook. There's not much of a story yet.”

“I've always had fond memories of cooking Thanksgiving.”

“When ramps are in season, we pickle a bunch of ramps and fold that into soup. Pickled pearl onions are great chopped up or pureed.”

“I present classics in an unfamiliar way or unfamiliar ingredients and preparations in a classical way.”