Top 60 John Torode Quotes

As an Aussie, my favourite holidays are skiing ones.

Yes, I am a judge on ‘MasterChef,’ where I taste thousands of dishes, and yes I am a trained chef which has had me commanding some of the biggest brigands a kitchen has ever seen. Yes, I have travelled the world and cooked on television and at food shows up and down the country, but in my heart I am a home cook.

I’m a culture person when I’m working, so my downtime is beach time: sand, surf and a barbecue.

Cooking is a great leveller. You can be a sports star, an actor, an entrepreneur, anything, but cooking strips it all away.

I always gauge the deliciousness of the food in markets by the number of ‘people eating and waiting – the more the better.

The inspiration to cook came from my grandmother and my father who were both wonderful home cooks. But I would say I taught myself. You travel, you discover the world, you explore books – it is these things that make a great cook.

I have no qualms with people who want to be vegetarians; it’s just foolish. They are missing out on the best things in life: meat, cheese, proper Christmas pudding.

Men and women are not the same in the kitchen. Women tend to be uninhibited and instinctive. Men are inconsistent, egotistical show-offs.

As I’d travelled, I’d seen more and more people drinking rose. Given the amount of grapes we grow in Australia, I just said, ‘Why wouldn’t we be making rose?’

People sometimes forget that Sydney is a harbour and it’s the ferries that make it unique.

You have to control your own destiny and make your own choices.

For the children it will always be a lemonade float at the Christmas table as a special treat.

My kind of cooking is not a single style – French, Asian, Australasian or British – it’s not modern, old-fashioned or classic; it’s a mix of all these things. And at its core is a boy who loved to cook with his Nanna.

I already have my fantasy job. I run a restaurant and film ‘MasterChef,’ both of which mean I get to cook and eat – and get paid for it.

I’m pretty conscious of what I eat because of my age.

I don’t worry about the camera adding pounds, I am who I am.

My grandmother would let me stand on a stool stirring gravy in a large roasting dish in front of a wood-fired stove at the age of six. She wasn’t worried about the whole health and safety stuff.

Markets have long been at the centre of communities, not just somewhere to drop in and grab a bag of groceries, but a hub, a meeting place, and always a place to stop and eat.

Sydney-siders don’t drive.

I like to introduce people to new things without scaring them.

I cooked, which was pretty un-Australian. And I didn’t really like Australian music… I preferred the New Romantics and punk and stuff like that.

The most important ingredient of Sunday lunch is the conversation. Without that, it’s dead and gone.

Under-mature beef with no fat through the meat will be a dry and tasteless disappointment and you will get little yield from it.

Sunday morning is time to slob around and perhaps go swimming.

My food hero would be someone like Elizabeth David, because I think what she did for Britain was amazing. Also David Thompson, an Australian chef who does Thai food and really understands the basis of it, has always been very inspiring.

There are three types of palate. There’s the palate that can’t taste anything, there’s the normal palate, and there’s the Super Palate. I don’t think I’ve got a Super Palate, but it’s pretty good.

I like to reactivate my body after a long journey by getting the sun in my eyes.

Marriage is a very difficult thing and sometimes everyone can be a bit stubborn; it is what it is.

Street stalls, be they in Korea, Thailand or anywhere else in Asia, in a covered market or simply on a street corner with a few brightly coloured plastic stools and tables, are my favourite places in the world to eat.

In winter I love a pasty.

I like all my jackets to be on wooden coat hangers, all facing the same direction.

Sunday lunch should be about sociability, about conversation, about general stimulation and the education of the youth.

Growing up in Australia, we didn’t really go on holiday. We lived beside the beach, so when I walked out of the back gate I was on the sand.

My earliest memory of cooking is my grandmother showing me how to make chicken gravy on the big combustion stove in her kitchen. I still use Nana’s gravy recipe.

I don’t mind cooking at home, I find it relaxing.

Vegetarian’ is just another word for ‘bad hunter.’

Fish and chips by nature are greasy, so we put vinegar on it and we like it because it helps our digestive system. The vinegar breaks down the fat.

I love the island of Majorca. I love the beach at Cala Ratjada, which is on the far side of the island where not many Britons go.

I think that most things, if you want to use them properly, take quite a lot of time and I don’t necessarily have the patience to sit down and read the instructions and follow the first bits to actually get the starting point.

My affinity for beef extends into my home life, so you’ll notice canvas prints of cows, a cowhide rug and prints of Smithfield meat market.

There’s nothing worse than a sterile house.

Beaches are really important to me, and I love Sennen Cove and Perranporth Beach.

My second marriage to Jessica just fell apart. It was nothing to do with restaurants.

I think a robot butler would be a great idea for certain things. But the idea of anybody coming into my bedroom and doing stuff for me, besides my wife and I – such as giving you tea in the morning – I just find a bit irksome.

Pumpkin and nutmeg tarts are a small, sweet version of the classic tart, a combination that is a particular favourite of mine.

I want people to throw on a hat, head out into the outback and see the real Australia. You can do it how you want – independently in a 4WD, camping under the stars, or being treated like a king in a luxury homestead or on a cruise.

Few people think about the Top End of Australia as a travel destination.

Cutting out meat or fish I could maybe just about manage – living without either? I can’t see myself doing that ever, ever, ever.

The most used thing I have is my wok. I prefer it to a pan or pot. It is my wonder. They’re really easy to clean, I am a lazy cook like that, so it appeals.

Australia is an extraordinary country full of people who eat extraordinary food. There are Greeks, Italians, Vietnamese, Koreans, Chinese, Brits. It’s so varied.

Restaurant kitchens are highly pressurised environments, with lots of young men, and that means one thing: testosterone. It’s not brutal – it’s military. It is regimented, tough. People are put into compartments and have to do exactly what they’re told or the whole thing falls apart.

My worst flight was with the Indonesian carrier Garuda from Australia to Bali, which was just awful.

I think the ‘Great British Bake-Off’ is great.

It seems that the more we travel, the more we want flavour and variation in our food – and the bolder it is, the more addictive those flavours will be.

If you go to a restaurant and you go with people you like, your food will always taste really good.

MasterChef’s’ about real people and for real people. It’s aspirational and inspirational. There’s nothing snobbish about it.

When I’m on holiday I want to clear my head and I found Marrakech too ‘in your face’ and busy.

Cooking is what I do professionally and it is my way of life, but it is also the way I relax. It is the thing I dream about the most; it makes me smile.

I absolutely love jumping on a plane. I find it to be one of the most wonderful, releasing experiences in the world. Nobody can call me and I have my own space where I can do whatever I want. For some people a long-haul flight is an ordeal, but I love every bit of it.

The most important aspect of a home is that it’s a retreat, a place where you can laugh and cry.