“When you cook under pressure you trade perfection.”

It’s vulgar, coming from where I do, to talk about money.

They say cats have nine lives. I’ve had 12 already and I don’t know how many more I’ll have.

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.

The level of jealousy and insecurity in this industry [restaurant] is far greater than ever before.

I’d like to think I’m a great teacher.

I want my kids to see me as Dad, for God’s sake, not a television personality.

Put your head down and work hard. Never wait for things to happen, make them happen for yourself through hard graft and not giving up.

Chefs are nutters. They’re all self-obsessed, delicate, dainty, insecure little souls and absolute psychopaths. Every last one of them.

I don’t like looking back. I’m always constantly looking forward. I’m not the one to sort of sit and cry over spilt milk. I’m too busy looking for the next cow.

I think pressure’s healthy, and very few can handle it.

Cooking a dish is fine; cooking it under pressure is a completely different ballgame.

I don’t think it’s a good advert for any restaurant, a fat chef, and secondly, who wants to eat a dessert when the chef’s a fat pig.

We’re fragile, fragmented souls who are very sensitive to criticism.

Best to start at the bottom & gradually climb up. It’s much more fun, too.

If I relaxed, if I took my foot off the gas, I would probably die.

Being a chef is the best job in the world.

Male egos require constant stroking. Every task is an achievement, every success epic. That is why women cook, but men are chefs: we make cheese on toast, they produce pain de fromage.

I miss my wife, I miss my home, I miss my dogs, I miss my kitchen, which is something I like to do outside of this is cook.

The French cook; we open tins.

If a cook can’t make soup between two and seven, she can’t make it in a week.

I think baking is an incredible thing; cooking in general is an incredible thing.

Become familiar with your home, but know also about your neighbors. The young man who never went anywhere thinks his mother is the greatest cook.

Do not taste food while you’re cooking. You may lose your nerve to serve it.

My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor.