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" Don't touch my napkin. I do not want the server to pick up the napkin and put it on my lap. I know it belongs there; maybe I don't choose to put it there. "
Tom Colicchio
Touch
Know
Choose
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" If I'm doing an event, if it's a charity event, where it's a walk-around event, where I gotta put a thousand small plates out in the course of a four-hour event, I gotta make sure I can do something that I know I can produce, that's going to be consistent and good all night long. "
Tom Colicchio
Know
Good
Charity
" If you're dining with someone who wants the same cut, it's always better to get a 16-ounce steak and split it than to order two eight-ounce steaks. The longer something cooks, the more flavor it develops, so you'll get a better taste with a bigger piece of meat. "
Tom Colicchio
You
Always
Better
" A steak needs fat to taste great. "
Tom Colicchio
Great
Steak
Taste
" I can't deliver lines, but I can talk about food all night long. "
Tom Colicchio
I Can
Food
Talk
" I know from personal experience, if a chef yelled at me in a kitchen, the first thing I'd want to do is hit them with a pot. "
Tom Colicchio
Experience
Pot
Chef
" Most cooks try to learn by making dishes. Doesn't mean you can cook. It means you can make that dish. When you can cook is when you can go to a farmers market, buy a bunch of stuff, then go home and make something without looking at a recipe. Now you're cooking. "
Tom Colicchio
Try
Looking
Cooking
" Buy the best you can find or afford and don't over manipulate it. If I cook a scallop, the best praise you can give me is that it tastes like a scallop. "
Tom Colicchio
Me
Best
You
" Recipes tell you nothing. Learning techniques is the key. "
Tom Colicchio
Learning
Nothing
You
" Making ribs in Texas isn't that unusual a choice for 'Top Chef'. We played the stereotypes everywhere we go. It's not only in Texas. We do it in New York; we did it in San Francisco. Listen if we shoot it in Seattle you know we're going to be throwing salmon somewhere. "
Tom Colicchio
Chef
Stereotypes
New York
" There's a food revolution going on throughout the country. And it doesn't matter if you're down south, up north in Maine, if you're out west in Portland or Seattle. "
Tom Colicchio
You
Country
Down
" I can't deal with a lot of spice but I have to eat it. I pay the price - I'm on medication for heartburn, so that's how I deal with it. "
Tom Colicchio
Pay
Spice
Deal
" Even cooking at home, the difference between my wife cooking and me cooking is major. When my wife cooks, the kitchen looks like a disaster. When I cook it's completely clean and organized and it doesn't look like anyone has been cooking in there. "
Tom Colicchio
Kitchen
Look
Me
" Hunger is a political issue, and there are several things politically that are keeping people hungry - not funding food stamps adequately, not funding school lunches adequately. So there is a political solution to the problem of hunger. "
Tom Colicchio
People
Problem
School
" Right now I am kicking around an idea to do a web talk show on a boat. Guests would come on and go fishing with me. I would like to take people who have never fished: You get them out on the water and they really open up. "
Tom Colicchio
People
Me
I Am
" One of the first jobs I ever had was opening clams in a seafood restaurant, so I'm pretty quick at it. "
Tom Colicchio
Opening
Jobs
Restaurant
" Asian food is very easy to like because it hits your mouth very differently than European food does. In European food, there may be two things to hit - maybe sweet and salty, maybe salty-savory, but Asian kind of works around, plus you have that distinct flavor that's usually working in Asian food. "
Tom Colicchio
Mouth
Kind
You
" You can buy a box of low-fat macaroni and cheese made with powdered nonsense. I'm not worried if I'm using four different cheeses and it's high in fat. It's real food. That's what's more important. "
Tom Colicchio
Real
You
Important
" I think steak is the ultimate comfort food, and if you're going out for one, that isn't the time to scrimp on calories or quality. "
Tom Colicchio
Think
Time
Comfort
" My chefs don't apply for 'Top Chef'. They all know that there is no way. At the end of the process I look at the resumes of the last 25 options just to make sure they've never worked for me before. "
Tom Colicchio
Me
Process
Look
" So you can say, 'Get Big Government out of here, and don't tell me what to eat,' but when kids are going to school, and they're being fed junk, we're pretty much telling them what to eat, and we're telling them junk is OK. "
Tom Colicchio
You
Eat
Government
" 'Chef' doesn't mean that you're the best cook, it simply means 'boss.' "
Tom Colicchio
Cook
Boss
Chef
" You hit a certain age and - especially because of TV - the young cooks coming up say, 'You're a sellout, because you're doing something other than what you should be doing.' 'Top Chef' is a double-edged sword for me: There's a whole group of people who will not come to the restaurants because they assume I'm not in them anymore, all I do is TV. "
Tom Colicchio
Chef
Age
People
" I don't know too many parents that want to feed their kids soda, but high-fructose corn syrup is cheap. The price of soda in 20 years has gone down 40 percent while the price of whole foods, fruits and vegetables, has gone up 40 percent and obesity goes up right along that curve. "
Tom Colicchio
Down
Want
Corn
" Every chef should have an understanding of pastries or desserts. "
Tom Colicchio
Should
Every
Chef
" This is what people don't understand: obesity is a symptom of poverty. It's not a lifestyle choice where people are just eating and not exercising. It's because kids - and this is the problem with school lunch right now - are getting sugar, fat, empty calories - lots of calories - but no nutrition. "
Tom Colicchio
People
School
Problem
" I'm not a fan of grilling meat, since that tends to dry it out, and I find grill marks leave a bitter taste. A good steak house will offer different options for preparation, and I would ask them to broil or pan-roast the steak and finish it with butter. It ends up a dark chocolate color and stays very juicy. "
Tom Colicchio
Chocolate
Color
Good
" I have kind of a weird technique with zucchini. I cut it into small cubes; sweat it in olive oil, adding just a little oil at time so it crisps. Then I cover it with boiling water, not stock, which really brings out the flavor of the zucchini, add lemon, thyme, and serve it with burrata and a fried zucchini flower. "
Tom Colicchio
Flower
Weird
Water
" I want to feed my kid something that is real and not processed. It's hard to do. People are working and busy. The question is: Is it worth it? Is it worth stopping at the farm stand or supermarket to buy fresh ingredients? "
Tom Colicchio
Farm
Stand
People
" I know how to make sausage, and now that I've seen how laws are made, I'll stick with sausage. "
Tom Colicchio
Stick
Laws
Now
" I started cooking in kitchens right out of high school, and I was lucky to work with a lot of great people, but I had no idea it would turn into this. Of course no one should go into this business because they want to be the next Emeril. "
Tom Colicchio
Work
School
Great