Top 35 Daniel Boulud Quotes

I love Italian food; it’s soulful like French food. Italian food is original and homey; it’s market-driven, but also can be locally sourced.

I am very concerned about nutrition and always try to be careful about what I eat.

If you’re in a major city, there’s a 25-year cycle. In Vegas, it’s probably 10 or 15 years, except for those landmark places like Spago or Nobu. In Vegas, you have to reinvent yourself once in a while.

When we manage a restaurant, we start making money from the first day. When we own a place, it’s often five years before we earn the first penny that is clean of debt.

25 years ago, when I started in New York, I had the pleasure to cook for Andy Warhol. At the time, I could have traded art for food – I should have done so, because I could get his work for nothing!

For me to go casual is not to go simple. To me, it is to be able to bring back the art of tradition and the soul of French food and my interpretation of that.

I did all of California from north to south. I did Florida from north to south. I went to the Midwest. I spent time discovering the culture because I thought I was going to stay in America for only two years. Then I decided to come to New York.

The biggest thing is education for young chefs and how they should focus on one cuisine rather than trying to imitate too many. It’s like art – you can see the cycles from many past artists and new artists being inspired by past artists.

I think Spain will always remain inspirational, and I think French cuisine will continue to be very French and yet very relevant with its time and keep evolving. But the last thing you want for it is to become too trendy and confusing. It has too much history.

After six years at Le Cirque, I decided to start my own business. I opened Daniel at 76th Street in May ’93.

I think at Le Cirque I learned how to make real food, which is what people crave, not just gimmicky things on a plate.

For me, the food I like to make is the food I can enjoy all the time anytime. It’s not too calculated or technical.

Balthazar has a great New York vibe with the accent of a Parisian brasserie. I usually have the corned beef hash with a fried egg on top and wash it all down with Krug Champagne.

I appreciate the constant evolution in refining food, but not in making food gimmicky.

I usually try to eat in my restaurants before I fly, as I’d rather sleep on the plane and just order a salad with cheese, maybe some ice cream.

If you’re on a budget, Sweetgreen is a new chain of salad bars that are very good but inexpensive. You choose from a menu or customise your own, with some protein, a healthy salad and a great dressing.

I have no pretension that I belong in D.C. I mean, I have to be cautious on how we do our restaurant.

For me, 30 days, it’s already pretty good for ribeye or sirloin on the bone. I like my meat grass-fed and juicy. The French never age their meat more than two or three weeks.

No one knows restaurants like a New Yorker – they’re incredibly discerning and restaurant savvy.

I am very proud of Jim Leiken. He has worked with me for six years and has been patient enough to learn the ropes. He’s now matured into a true chef and is working on building his team.

Le Cirque at first was one of those general French restaurants in town, which were cooking more or less the same food. At Le Cirque, I wanted to do something different while respecting the foundation of the restaurant. I did that through the menu.

From Japan to Thailand, I keep discovering amazing talent, cuisine and food markets.

I love to make a one-pot meal – think stir-fry but in the French Fricassee. I start with what takes the longest to roast and then add vegetables, fresh herbs, and starch until the meal is complete in one shot.

When France was the only reference for chefs to learn, you could go everywhere in the world, and they would copy dishes directly because they didn’t have much expanded imagination or technique or knowledge.

For me, good service is efficient and discreet; it’s that critical balance. As soon as the client sits down, the communication flow has to start. Customers need to feel that the waiters are supervised – that there’s a system in place.

I think there are a lot of chefs in D.C. who have made D.C. what it is today. I am very respectful to them. I’m very admiring of what they’ve done.

I try to pack light with a folding leather suit bag. Anything more than five days, I need to check in my luggage. What takes the most space? Chef jackets, aprons and tools.

In the Bronx, you have the southern Italians; in Queens, the Greeks, Koreans and Chinese; in Brooklyn, the Jewish community; and in Harlem, the Hispanics – all with their own markets.

I think D.C. has always been very, very vibrant for food. Like Boston in a way. Boston and D.C. were really the two cities that were the most active with their local chefs and their local food scene.

I think in France, for example, we can say whatever we want about the French, but going out and dining is more about the intellectual moment to share with the people you dine with than trying to figure out what the chef did with that little piece of salmon or lobster and all that.

There was no Internet, not even many cookbooks except the old reference books. So we would sit down at night, a group of six chefs, and we’d exchange recipes and each talk about how we were doing things. It was the only way to learn new ideas.

If you aren’t born here, to be a real New Yorker, you have to bring your talent, be a successful mentor, and support the New Yorkers who made the city by giving back.

I was 25 years old when I arrived in D.C. It was just myself and two people who worked and helped me in the kitchen. I was only cooking for three people most of the time.

I can’t conceive of cooking in a sunny place like Florida because my motivation comes from the changing seasons. That’s why I decided to live in New York.

That’s what’s interesting about the Lower East Side: It’s New York, but it’s also edgy. It’s not as stuffy as Tribeca or Soho.