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One of the first jobs I ever had was opening clams in a seafood restaurant, so I'm pretty quick at it.

Tom Colicchio

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Tom Colicchio
Age: 62
Born: 1962
Born: August 15
Chef
Restaurateur
Elizabeth
New Jersey
Quick
Opening
Pretty
Jobs
Ever
Clams
Firsts
Seafood
First
Restaurant
Restaurants

More quotes by 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.
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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.
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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.
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Mushrooms can be very fancy. It's the closest you can get to eating dirt.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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'Chef' doesn't mean that you're the best cook, it simply means 'boss.'
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A steak needs fat to taste great.
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I can't deliver lines, but I can talk about food all night long.
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Men with shaved heads are always better. Just ask my wife.
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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.
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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!'
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You have to know the classics if you want to cook modern food.
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Every chef should have an understanding of pastries or desserts.
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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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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.
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Too often, chefs just want to experiment - they want to use liquid nitrogen before they know how to use heat.
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Recipes tell you nothing. Learning techniques is the key.
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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