I was lucky enough to have great mentors both in the culinary world and in the world of chefs who became celebrities. Bobby Flay is one of my dearest friends and a tremendous mentor for me. Mario Batali is the same way. They began doing TV a little before me and they showed me the way.
At Babbo, each dish grew out of a conversation, trying to put something forth that was new and different. It was a combination of culinary adventurism and the dining-room experience with respect for the classic but with an eye toward innovation. And it was about eating locally, whether produce or fish or meat.
So I quit my job and went to the New England Culinary Institute for the full two years and worked in the restaurant industry after that until finally I thought I had a grasp on what I needed to do what I do.
Culinary tradition is not always based on fact. Sometimes it’s based on history, on habits that come out of a time when kitchens were fueled by charcoal.
My aunt was a chef and she inspired me deeply so she was a huge motivator but more than anything it was a quest for independence and freedom that lead me to an L.A. Culinary School.
Molecular gastronomy is not bad… but without sound, basic culinary technique, it is useless.
The pressure, the heat, the almost impossibly fast pace at which you need work – this is the reality of working in the culinary industry. This is what professional chefs do night after night.
Every year since culinary school I have made a Buche de Noel, or Yule Log.
If I have committed any culinary atrocities, please forgive me.
I will eat disgusting things, but only those with long established culinary traditions.
The culinary world is a fascinating place that has been influenced over the centuries by culture, religion, fashion, war, art, science and, more recently, globalisation.
I’m more likely to give you a cuddle than a punch in the face. I have a soft side, especially with my girlfriend. I send her flowers and use my culinary skills to pull off romantic meals. I do great Thai dishes.
Shows like ‘Top Chef,’ ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ have helped bring attention to the culinary world on a whole, but you have to be cautious it doesn’t get out of hand.
I started waiting tables in college and realized how much I loved the business and loved to cook. I decided to go to culinary school and never looked back.
Australians do love a good food festival. From regional gems like The Taste of Tasmania to Margaret River Gourmet Escape, diehard eaters have a litany of opportunities to revel in Australia’s great produce and chow down on food made by some of the brightest culinary talent from here and abroad.
I needed a break, and going to culinary school turned a lightbulb on that I didn’t have to make music. The people in the music business forget that not only is there an entire world of people out there who do not care what we do, we are not creating the wheel.
I make a lot of soups, and I love stews. My mother’s a big foodie. She went to culinary school in New Orleans and has an oyster-artichoke soup recipe that has no cream in it but it tastes so creamy.
You should just feel comfortable with food and your own culinary culture, whatever your mother and grandmother know.
Even just a few spices or ethnic condiments that you can keep in your pantry can turn your mundane dishes into a culinary masterpiece.
In Singapore, there is this life and locals and restaurants and then big casinos and an array of chefs, and even Miami is almost close to Vegas when it comes to an amazing presentation of chefs. But they don’t have these massive hotels that have become their own culinary villages.
I come from a musical family as well as a culinary family.
I’m the culinary and creative consultant for The Water Club.
I look at making records like you make a dish. A culinary experience. The way you throw in a tambourine, it’s like spices or herbs. The main part of the song is the stock.
I wanted to write a food book, but I’m not a chef or an expert on culinary matters, to put it mildly.
For ‘Around the World in 80 Plates’ we got to travel all over, having what was like a cross between a culinary competition and races. And in each country we had a chef Ambassador. We went to London, Barcelona, Bologna, Hong Kong, Thailand, Morocco… It was amazing.
I wanted to help my sister, Latoya, because she’s an awesome cook. She’s one of the best culinary people I’ve ever met. She makes awesome cakes, so I was thinking about starting a little coffee shop cafe where she could sell them. I want to open a little, small, mom-and-pop place, but she can also do catering, too.
I live on a lonely culinary island, built on (very thin) bedrock consisting of things I know, or believe, my family will eat. It is a small island. Fortunately, nachos are on that island with me, and nothing gets my family fired up like nachos for lunch.
My office in New York is overflowing with all kinds of cookbooks, and in New Orleans we have a huge culinary library. So yeah, I guess I’m a little bit obsessed.
Speaking as someone who didn’t go through the U.K. school system, with all the culinary baggage that entails, I am inordinately fond of custard in any shape or form.
I don’t come from any great culinary tradition – I’m from London!
I’m obsessed with cooking! I want a degree in the culinary arts!
My childhood wasn’t full of wonderful culinary memories.
Being Italian, I have a very special relationship with the culinary arts. One my projects was to share Italian cultural food with my colleagues.
While we Brits love a curry, the French get their spicy kicks from the culinary traditions bestowed by their North African population.
I’m a culinary gangsta with a very spiritual side, so when I was introduced to the ‘spiritual gangster’ line, I had to have it.
I was doing auditions and meetings during the day and going to culinary school at night. And then ‘NCIS’ happened. So I dropped out of culinary school.
Out of culinary school, I worked as a pastry cook in amazing restaurants for years. I ended up leaving the pastry cook scene because, though I loved the industry, the restaurants and the chefs I worked for so much, I had to be honest with myself. I was never going to be them.
I’m a passionate Welshman. I have a culinary relationship with language: I taste what I say because I have two languages, and each informs the other.
I have been using Victorinox Cutlery since I was a young man, when my parents gave me a block set to properly equip me for my culinary apprenticeship.
I made my first Yule Log as a culinary student in Paris, complete with the traditional chestnut filling, silky chocolate buttercream, and almost-too-adorable mushrooms. Since then, I’ve tweaked and updated both the recipe and the process – and I’ve definitely learned tips and tricks to make it easier.
One summer, when I was on break from architecture school in Tijuana, my aunt gave me a summer job cleaning up and peeling garlic, and I got to see her in her element. She was so passionate and such a good teacher, I decided to quit architecture school and go to culinary school in Los Angeles.
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