Chefs

"Whether you’re a vegan or not, there are endless reasons why we should all be delighted that the movement has grown so fast in the last few years. … Through adapting their diets to make sure they get all the vitamins they need, to pressuring big corporations and governments for more ethical products, vegans are giving food the focus it deserves. They are also doing their bit to reduce food miles and emissions … They’re teaching us a thing or two as well. My vegan and vegetarian friends have cooked me some fantastic meals, many of which I now make regularly. It’s saving me money, encouraging me to eat more vegetables, and reducing my meat intake. While I have no plans to give up meat, I recognise that it shouldn’t be the focus of my diet. I am now vegetarian every other day – not consciously, but because lots of my favourite meals are meat-free. I have also learnt lots of new techniques as I work around the limits of reducing dairy and meat products. I make cakes without eggs, burgers without beef, and pastry without butter. I … refuse to buy any animal product that doesn’t have a guarantee of quality such as Freedom Food, free range or organic status."

"When you cook it should be an act of love. To put a frozen bag in the microwave for your child is an act of hate."

"It's not the microwave that's the problem, it's what people put into them. I know people lead busy lives but they should try to sit their children down at the table once a week and cook them simple food."

"Behind every dish there is death, and people only close their own eyes to it."

"I believe that cuisine is the most important link between nature and culture."

"Most of my reputation is a product of exaggeration and ignorance."

"No, I didn't make Gordon Ramsay cry. He made himself cry. That was his choice to cry."

"To start giving three stars straight away from year one makes you question Michelin and its value – they dish out stars like confetti now."

"Rudeness is not "having fun", and if it is, it's at the expense of another person."

"It's very important to me that I share my story, and my knowledge and my philosophy. A story is more important than a recipe. A recipe can confuse you, but a story can inspire you."

"Cooking is a philosophy, it's not a recipe. Unless it's pastry, then it's chemistry."

"Success is born out of luck. Luck is being given the opportunity, but it's awareness of mind that takes advantage of that opportunity."

"As far as I'm concerned, if someone is paying a huge amount of money to come to your restaurant and eat your food, then you have a duty to be in the kitchen."

"Apply the cook's brain and visualize that fried egg on the plate. Do you want it to be burned around the edges? Do you want to see craters on the egg white? Should the yolk look as if you’d need a hammer to break into it? The answer to all three questions should be no. Yet the majority of people still crack an egg and drop it into searingly hot oil or fat and continue to cook it on high heat. You need to insert earplugs to reduce the horrific volume of the sizzle. And the result, once served up in a pool of oil, is an inedible destruction of that great ingredient—the egg. Maybe that’s how you like it, in which case carry on serving your disgusting food."

"Great chefs have three things in common. The first is the understanding that mother nature is the true artist and they are the cook. The second is that everything they do becomes an extension of them as a person. Third, they give you insight into the world they came from, the world that inspired them. They show that off on their plates."

"Most chefs, unfortunately, cook by numbers. It doesn't come from within. Molecular cuisine is basically branding food. There's nothing new to it. Its foundation is still classical."

"When I made the decision to retire, I had three options. The first option was, I don't retire, I stay in the kitchen, I continue to work six or seven days a week, I kiss my children goodbye in their beds while they're sleeping in the morning and I kiss them goodnight when they're sleeping in their beds, but I retain my status and my position within my industry. My second option was to live a lie, to pretend I cook when I don't cook, question my integrity and everything I've worked for these 22 years, continue to charge high prices. My third option was to pluck up the courage, give back my stars and abdicate my position and reinvent myself as a person. Those were my options, and one Sunday morning I was fishing and it came to me. I was being judged by people who knew less than me. So what was it all worth?"

"Success is born out of arrogance."

"Most cooks when they are young tend to overwork their food to hide their lack of confidence and appreciation for Mother Nature. In time they learn that she is the true artist—we're just the the cooks."

"It is only by growing to know yourself that you do things for the right reasons and maybe have a chance to be really happy and realise your true potential as a person."

"Cooking should be a way of life—an extension of oneself—never a job."

"Diners seek in each bite, the flavor that takes them back to their childhood and the dishes that, with the passage of time, they stopped consuming."

"I feel i started a trend or like I am pretty much a trailblazer because only a trailblazer will start something and other people will want to do it."

"Taking up the challenge has helped shed a positive light on the (culinary) industry."

"Pushing through that means I can conquer things in this life."

"When you are doing what you love, it doesn’t feel like work."

"Not necessarily. I feel that if you have a niche for yourself like your service is good, you still have your client base. I would say people don’t have the desire to eat the same thing 365 days a year. As human beings, we are not static to be eating the same things."

"If I am doing something that I love it has to serve me and pay my bills."

""Of course, it feels great to be awarded, but a kitchen is a universe"."

""What means the most to me is that the efforts of so many people, who work many hours and long days, have now been recognized. After more than a decade of dedication, it gives our team a nice push to keep going"."

"My number one goal has always been to make our guests happy by offering them simple food based in Mexican ingredients"

""We try to be pure and respect the ingredients as much as possible, while always offering loads of pleasure"."

"The more we use different ingredients, people will be more familiar with them"

""And in our approach, the ingredients always shine, with the end flavor always the most important goal"."

""My hope is that all my dishes are balanced. I want people, and their stomachs, to feel good when they eat my food"."

""The menu is based on the timeline and the ingredients that nature gives us. Right now, for example, we have a Manila mango dish that has a short shelf life"."

""When I was training, the truth was that I was often the only woman in the kitchen and the women were almost always in the desserts"."

""I think I’ve seen that cooking is a way of giving love and affection and expressing ourselves. I understood that at a young age"."

""With time comes pleasure: the pleasure of creating but also upholding the legacy that’s been passed down to me".i was lucky it got passed down to me"

"I was very lucky that my father and my mother told me that we eat not only to live but also for pleasure"

""Growing up, I was taught that cuisine is something serious and very precise. But more than that, I was also told that cuisine is source of enjoyment"."

""The perfect meal is about the osmosis between aroma, taste, service, decoration and design, tableware, place and the people that share the moment with you"."

""I have always thought that my food appeals more strongly to women than men"."

""I believe that although my cuisine has powerful flavours, it remains sensitive and delicate – qualities that make it quite feminine in many ways"."

""My cuisine is very delicate and I’m a complete perfectionist, so these tools become an extension of my hand, allowing me to be much more precise"."

"To be a part of this cast was really amazing, because of the wealth of knowledge that was there, and the representation of different cultures was awesome"

"Editing yourself is extremely important, to make sure that you're reminding yourself constantly that less is more"

"And just staying focused and cooking my food. Those are the things I took with me."

"We stood for military discipline and surgical precision in everything that we did, and if you slipped from those standards, you were gone – and somebody else would be waiting to take your job. Kitchen life was testosterone-fuelled, with dozens of chefs jostling for Gordon’s attention."

"It wasn’t for everyone, but I knew it was for me, because I wanted to be the best, and I refused to let anything distract me from that aim. Gordon was, and still is, a brilliant mentor. He was always fair, even if he was very blunt about it – he just wanted perfection."

"This woman is relentless, and in that pursuit of perfection, the exciting thing about Clare’s demeanour is that she carries no passengers – she has a drive that cannot be bought or taught. But more than this, she has an understanding of finesse and style like few others; she cooks with attitude and personality, and that’s rarer than you’d think."

"I loved raising the bar every single day, pushing my team to get better and better with each challenge. Clare was one of the very few chefs who not only met that bar but soared right past it and came back asking for more. It was her hunger that set her apart"

"I’ll never forget the first time I ate at Core, lt was an emotional night. We’d brought some good friends with us, but I couldn’t focus on entertaining them – all I had in my mind was the journey Clare had been on, which I could follow through her food."

"The flavours were rounded, the seasoning was on point and her dishes were so distinct and original. She has a near-unique ability to turn an idea into a plate of food without distorting her original vision, which is where I think her genius lies ( Lieutenant Gordon Ramsay of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay)"

"Shoo! I would say it’s one of my biggest career highlights to grab the attention of the most sort after, prestigious and world-renowned university, Harvard."

"Spent a good two years researching about my life, upbringing, career and entrepreneur journey, and the case study was published and first lectured to their MBA students in November 2020, and is now part of Harvard Business School academic literature."

"... but I think few understand just what it takes to run a restaurant, keep a restaurant and look after 20 staff when you don't know what you're looking at... The conviviality of The Kitchen - I just knew it wasn't going to be the same again."

"I came to business as a creative... As time went on I had to learn how to make business work, that wonderful trifecta of having your systems and your creativity and joy and love connect in some way..."

"You have two layers: you have all the people you're looking after and then you have all the customers coming... There's a joy but also an obligation and a commitment to this life. And ultimately it was quite exhausting! I sometimes had to go home salary-less in December..."

"The most fun is when you're a small operation and you manage people's expectations... There's a joy there of being really clear about what it is that you're offering"

"The real challenge for the future is... how we feed people well and sustainably, and make money for everybody. There is enough"

"It’s always been my goal and vision to take South African food to the world—what an amazing evening & incredible crowd of people to have in one room, definitely one for the books and a very proud moment!"

"There are so many different cuisines in the different regions and in every culture of Africa, If you go to Limpopo National Park to see the big five (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, and Cape buffalo) you’ll also find the biggest mangos and avocados you’ve ever seen, which all get exported to the rest of the world."

"Everyone gets to enjoy our cuisine but needs to celebrate it a little more. I hope to introduce the cuisine of my home more by doing residencies and pop-ups like this. The best thing about African cuisine is the people who make it and the stories behind them."

"You need to have a passion for this career for you to succeed and do the best."

"I believe I have delivered to the best of my ability."

"Planning a good menu demands experience, a certain amount of knowledge and a good deal of thought. I'm only half-joking when I say that learning how to order well in Chinese restaurants is one of my life's proudest achievements."

"But the fact remains that you can't fully appreciate Chinese gastronomy without sharing in the pleasures of the quite, the plain, the qingdan as well as the sweet and sour and spicy. Plain dishes are like the empty space that frames and highlights a work of art, They are the necessary corrective to the wild excitements of flavour, restoring physical balance and mental equanimity."

"Like many Chinese people, particularly those of the older generation, she didn't show her love for me by hugging or soliciting emotional outpourings, but through food and fussing."

"I love cooking not because I want to please or be flattered but because I love the people I am cooking for."

"I did not go to culinary schools nor do I have a cooking diploma. However, I learned close to the Elders how to fry an onion over low heat, because, as they would say, the slower and more delicate an onion is, as fried it turns golden brown, the more delicious the meal will be. I learned that at the end of the cooking process, all meals require patience and perseverance, when over a charcoal fire we wait for the remaining liquids of the food to be absorbed."

"Beauty is not really about the face. It’s really about you — how you see the world, how you give back and how to be kind. That is what beauty is to me."

"Aging is something that we all have to look forward to. It’s inevitable."

"When you plant good seeds and maintain that attitude, when harvest time comes, people will actually respect your decision because you have been a good soldier to them."