Quote

You have to know the classics if you want to cook modern food.

Tom Colicchio

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Tom Colicchio
Age: 62
Born: 1962
Born: August 15
Chef
Restaurateur
Elizabeth
New Jersey
Cooks
Food
Modern
Classics
Cook

More quotes by Tom Colicchio

Image
'Chef' doesn't mean that you're the best cook, it simply means 'boss.'
Tom Colicchio
Image
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
Image
Every chef should have an understanding of pastries or desserts.
Tom Colicchio
Image
Too often, chefs just want to experiment - they want to use liquid nitrogen before they know how to use heat.
Tom Colicchio
Image
I know how to make sausage, and now that I've seen how laws are made, I'll stick with sausage.
Tom Colicchio
Image
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
Image
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
Image
One of the first jobs I ever had was opening clams in a seafood restaurant, so I'm pretty quick at it.
Tom Colicchio
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
A lot of professions happen to be male-dominated because women drop out at a certain point. It's unfortunate.
Tom Colicchio
Image
A steak needs fat to taste great.
Tom Colicchio
Image
Mushrooms can be very fancy. It's the closest you can get to eating dirt.
Tom Colicchio
Image
I can't deliver lines, but I can talk about food all night long.
Tom Colicchio
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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