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" You want to be the baddest guy in the kitchen and you want the person next to you to know it. "
Tom Colicchio
Guy
Kitchen
Person
Related Quotes:
" It's funny how I use social media because I don't use it to promote my restaurants that much. I use it for social issues and I think that's what it's for. I do a few things - I mess around with music a lot because that's a passion of mine. If something strikes me and I want to share it, I do. "
Tom Colicchio
Social Media
Music
Me
" 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
" As a chef, I had started working with groups like Share Our Strength and various local food banks in New York, raising money for hunger-related issues. And not only me, but the entire restaurant industry has been very focused on this issue. "
Tom Colicchio
Money
New York
Chef
" In New York, I'll walk down the street and someone will say, 'Nice show,' and that's it. If I'm at a food festival, it's open season. "
Tom Colicchio
Food
New York
Walk
" 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
" I have very good knife skills. I learned to butcher on my second job - I was 18 years old. Every other day we would break down six legs of veal. "
Tom Colicchio
Good
Down
Day
" 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
" 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
" It's my belief that cooking is a craft. I think that you can push it into the realm of art, but it starts with craft. It starts with an understanding of materials. It starts with an understanding of where foods are grown. "
Tom Colicchio
You
Art
Understanding
" 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
" 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
" 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
" A couple of months ago, I was down in Florida for the Food and Wine Festival. And this journalist grabbed me and said, 'How does it feel to be a TV guy? You're no longer in the restaurant business.' And I laughed. I asked him, 'How long do you think it takes me to do a season?' He said, 'Well, 200 days.' And I was like, '200 days? Try 20!' "
Tom Colicchio
Think
Long
Food
" My son, before he went to school, he'd eat pretty much everything. Then as soon as he went to school, he got some peer pressure, and other kids would say, 'Oh, you're gonna eat that. That's horrible. That's disgusting.' "
Tom Colicchio
Eat
You
School
" 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
" 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 remember at The Quilted Giraffe, when I was when working there to try out for the sous-chef position. I really wanted it, and the woman working the line next to me kept messing up and making me look bad. The last day of my kitchen trail, I just said to her very quietly, 'Do me a favor and get out of my way, because I want this job.' "
Tom Colicchio
Day
Remember
Me
" A steak needs fat to taste great. "
Tom Colicchio
Great
Steak
Taste
" My feeling is, if you're going to be called a celebrity, you might as well use it for some good. It's better to testify for school lunches in front of Congress than get drunk in a bar somewhere and misbehave. "
Tom Colicchio
Good
You
School
" 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
" 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
" I get angry when I think that people are blatantly incorrect on matters of fact. "
Tom Colicchio
Think
Get
Angry
" Every chef should have an understanding of pastries or desserts. "
Tom Colicchio
Should
Every
Chef
" I think the most effective way to run a kitchen is to teach, not to just yell. "
Tom Colicchio
Think
Way
Teach
" I travel around and hear from so many kids. Their parents say they were always very picky but they watch the show and they want to try stuff. The show is entertainment, but I think it has done so much for the public perception of what food can be. "
Tom Colicchio
Think
Travel
Parents
" You have to know the classics if you want to cook modern food. "
Tom Colicchio
Cook
Food
Know
" A lot of professions happen to be male-dominated because women drop out at a certain point. It's unfortunate. "
Tom Colicchio
Drop
Happen
Out
" I know nothing about hip-hop... There's only so many times you can grab your crotch and prance around stage. I'm gonna get slammed now for this. "
Tom Colicchio
You
Hip-Hop
Now
" Sometimes these challenges naturally select more chefs that can think on their feet very quickly. There are chefs I know who won't put things on the menu unless they've tried it four or five times. So you just naturally select a certain kind of chef, people who maybe don't win a bunch of challenges but they hang around. "
Tom Colicchio
People
Win
Chef
" 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