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Recipes tell you nothing. Learning techniques is the key.

Tom Colicchio

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Tom Colicchio
Age: 62
Born: 1962
Born: August 15
Chef
Restaurateur
Elizabeth
New Jersey
Tell
Nothing
Recipes
Techniques
Technique
Keys
Learning

More quotes by Tom Colicchio

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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
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I get angry when I think that people are blatantly incorrect on matters of fact.
Tom Colicchio
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A steak needs fat to taste great.
Tom Colicchio
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A lot of professions happen to be male-dominated because women drop out at a certain point. It's unfortunate.
Tom Colicchio
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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
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Every chef should have an understanding of pastries or desserts.
Tom Colicchio
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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
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I'd like to see 'Top Chef: Amateur'. Sometimes we have an amateur chef on the show and they just can't cut it against the pros but there are some great stories there.
Tom Colicchio
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When I was 26, 27 years old I was running a kitchen in New York, and I was a raving lunatic. The older you get, you figure out you don't need to do that. You realize at a certain point, there's a certain gravity to what you say and what you do. If that's not enough, all the yelling in the world is not going to matter.
Tom Colicchio
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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
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'Chef' doesn't mean that you're the best cook, it simply means 'boss.'
Tom Colicchio
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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
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With conglomerates selling companies to liquidators, who close down plants and move to non-union areas, it's about time progressive union leaders step in to stop such job-losing tactics... ESOP should become a part of future bargaining packages!
Tom Colicchio
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I don't really like money - I like the things you can buy with money.
Tom Colicchio
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Im 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
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I think the patterns are set very early when the kids are young. But at the same time, there are some flavors kids just don't like.
Tom Colicchio
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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
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Most cooks try to learn by making dishes. Doesnt 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 youre cooking.
Tom Colicchio
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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
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You have to know the classics if you want to cook modern food.
Tom Colicchio