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" I was working for a chef a long time ago who told me to not skip steps or be in a hurry. Success in a kitchen is more like a marathon and less like a sprint. Rising up the ranks too quickly isn't necessarily a good thing. This advice was from a guy who was sorry he had done that and didn't want me to do the same. "

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" Typically, you learn how to cook, but you don't know why. We were looking for a deeper understanding of what was happening to our food as we roasted it, boiled it, grilled it, chopped it, etc. And it turned out, as we began to really say what is cooking, what does it mean to cook, there's a lot of science involved. "

Wylie Dufresne

Know

Looking

Science

" I present classics in an unfamiliar way or unfamiliar ingredients and preparations in a classical way. "

" I have strong feelings about cookbooks because I am a lover of them and student of them and devourer of them and collect them. I find them to be a great source of inspiration. When I was a cook and not making much money, I always used to spend most of what I had on cookbooks. "

" As a pure source of reference, 'Modernist Cuisine' is incredibly helpful. It's like a modern-day encyclopedia, except for a single subject. It's not always the answer, but it's always a starting point. I feel honored to have been able to contribute to it. "

" I really don't do much on the night of Thanksgiving other than bring the wine and carve the turkey. My contribution comes the day after, in the form of breakfast. I usually just forage through the leftovers for things that will go well with eggs. "

Wylie Dufresne

Thanksgiving

Night

" The spirit of pickling is one of adventure and fun. "

" Neighborhoods change. In some ways, it's part of the beauty of New York City. It's in a constant state of flux. "

" I've seen cookbooks from lots of great chefs that have been disappointing. A book, to me, it has to have a story. Some of these people, they open a restaurant, and one year later, there's a cookbook. There's not much of a story yet. "

Wylie Dufresne

Year

Great

" Eggs are one of my all-time favorite foods, and making the over-easy egg is a test of skill. "

" I think I can poach a pretty mean egg the old-fashioned way. "

" Green vegetables are something that fascinate chefs; the ability to keep vegetables green. How do we keep them green? What makes them green? Why are they green? And then that sort of army green. Why do they go from bright vibrant electric green to army green, and how can we avoid that? "

" I have no interest in vegetarians whatsoever. Zero. Less than zero. "

" Extremely ripe things are not ideal for pickling. If you pour a hot liquid over super ripe strawberries, you're going to have strawberry soup. "

" There will never be a right or wrong way to cook something, but there will always be a more informed way. "

" When ramps are in season, we pickle a bunch of ramps and fold that into soup. Pickled pearl onions are great chopped up or pureed. "

Wylie Dufresne

Season

Pearl

" I think it's important for anyone who is artistic to look back on their body of work and be critical. Maybe the Beatles can look back and say everything was perfect, but we've come up with hundreds and hundreds of dishes, and anyone who is honest with themselves has to realize that every single one wasn't an absolute, unequivocal home run. "

" I can fry hollandaise, I can fry ketchup, I can fry mustard. "

" Every dish doesn't have to be showy, and every dish doesn't have to slap you in the face with technique. "

" It's been a struggle to get people to come eat for fun. You know, the way they listen to music. You can do all kinds of things with music. But food - it's something people need, and that changes everything. You start playing with it, people have all sorts of reactions. "

" I would say that molecular gastronomy is a field of science. I would - I would say that it's probably lumped under chemistry, maybe. Because cooking, while it has certainly biology and some physics, it's mostly chemistry. "

" Fish butchering means a lot to me as a chef; I take pride in it and get a lot of joy from filleting fish, working with fish, breaking down fish, trying to understand fish. "

" We have fried things in cubes, historically. We tried bars of Hollandaise, we tried different shapes, but it ultimately seemed like the cube was the right shape. "

Wylie Dufresne

Things

Different

" People have been manipulating food ever since they realized cooking a whole animal was difficult. Cows don't come in hot dog form. "

" I like all cheese, but my guiltiest pleasure is definitely American cheese. "

Wylie Dufresne

Pleasure

American

" 'Top Chef' is always entertaining - it's hard to stop watching, like a good hockey fight, but no one gets hurt. It's great that the format is so inherently dramatic and can make cooking so entertaining to people who might not ordinarily be interested in a cooking show. Good for the industry all round. "

" Whether it be cereal technology or candy technology or snack technology, puff snacks, I'm always curious to know how those things are made and how we can take that technology, those ingredients, and apply it to a stand-alone restaurant. "

" Okay, a lot of people think that I'm someone known for a love of eggs and egg cookery. Being asked to endorse an egg yolk separator, I mean, I understood where it came from, but it didn't seem necessarily like something that was ultimately worth pursuing. "

" My mother made the best scrambled eggs, super-loose and soft. "

" I think things like 'farm to table' are misleading. I think sometimes that becomes a pedestal or a soap box to get people into your restaurant but is not... it's almost empty in a way. I mean, my food comes from a farm, and I serve it on a table. "

" Being a chef isn't the ideal career to intersect with parenting, but I try to be in my kids' lives as much as possible. "