American chef (1960- )
The more fake and commercialized the world gets, the more people respond to things that have a real core of truth. I believe that every human being is hardwired to recognize that. Whatever you choose to do with your life--whether it's running a company or cooking dinner--stand for something you know is true.
MARIO BATALI
"Life Is Not a Recipe", The Best Advice I Ever Got
If you want your kids to listen to you, don't yell at them. Whisper. Make them lean in. My kids taught me that. And I do it with adults now.
MARIO BATALI
Esquire, Jun. 2004
Michigan is my antidote to Manhattan. This is where I come to relax.
MARIO BATALI
The New York Times, August 17, 2007
My objective as a manager, of course, is to remove the obstacles that prohibit greatness of the people that I’ve hired.
MARIO BATALI
Harvard Business Review, May 2010
I don't change anything for someone unless I know they don't eat something. I don't create dishes that only celebs or friends would get. There's a democracy to the food that goes out in all my restaurants.
MARIO BATALI
Time Magazine, Sep. 25, 2008
Unlike curing cancer or heart disease, we already know how to beat hunger: food.
MARIO BATALI
"Chefs Make Change: Mario Batali", Food & Wine, March 31, 2015
Cookbooks have all become baroque and very predictable. I'm looking for something different. A lot of chefs' cookbooks are food as it's done in the restaurants, but they are dumbed down, and I hate it when they dumb them down.
MARIO BATALI
interview, Food & Wine
I'm adhering to the core of 2000 years of gastronomic history.
MARIO BATALI
Harvard Business Review, May 2010
I can tell in two minutes if I should hire someone in the kitchen. Two minutes. It's his desire. It's that open-eyed, attentive expression. If he doesn't have it ... I mean, I can teach a chimp how to cook dinner. But I cannot teach a chimp how to love it.
MARIO BATALI
Esquire, Jun. 2004
As you cook up your own life, never let anyone else's recipe for success intimidate you or get in your way.
MARIO BATALI
"Life Is Not a Recipe", The Best Advice I Ever Got
The very common error of young or unconfident cooks is to keep putting more of their own personal ideology into a plate until there’s so much noise that you really can’t even hear a tune. You can say more in an empty space than you can in a crowded one.
MARIO BATALI
Harvard Business Review, May 2010
There's a battle between what the cook thinks is high art and what the customer just wants to eat.
MARIO BATALI
Humanities, 2004
You have to live life to its full chorizo.
MARIO BATALI
"Spanish Road Trip with Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow", Food & Wine, March 31, 2015
Recipes are just descriptions of one person's take on one moment in time. They're not rules. People think they are. They look as if they are. They say, "Do this, not this. Add this, not that." But, really, recipes are just suggestions that got written down.
MARIO BATALI
"Life Is Not a Recipe", The Best Advice I Ever Got
You know, when you get your first asparagus, or your first acorn squash, or your first really good tomato of the season, those are the moments that define the cook's year. I get more excited by that than anything else.
MARIO BATALI
attributed, Healthiest You Ever
There have been as many disasters as there have been successes. What usually goes wrong is not anything technical. It's my misunderstanding of my clientele's basic trust for me. We did a pig's-ear salad that I found delightful and provocative, but it was a loser.
MARIO BATALI
Time Magazine, Sep. 25, 2008
Time was, you were pretty sure that the best food was the kind that was the easiest to find. Or the kind you consume at a stadium, with a game going on in front of you. This was before everyone watched the Food Network and Top Chef and the sadistic reality shows hosted by that angry British chef who screams at his "cheftestants" until the veins in his neck bulge and his shrinking victims either cry or go to the hospital with heart troubles. Well, my friend, the game has changed.
MARIO BATALI
"A Rallying Cry", The Eat Like a Man Guide to Feeding a Crowd
I love simple food. I like to serve the entire animal, not only because it somehow provokes a customer to think about it, but also because to honor of the animal that has been killed for us to eat, you have to eat the whole thing. It would be silly to just eat the chops and throw everything else away.
MARIO BATALI
Harvard Business Review, May 2010
One of the problems with growing up for me with liver was that mom always dredged in nice flour and then cooked it until it screamed and begged for mercy.
MARIO BATALI
"Making a Meal with Mario Batali", NPR, October 15, 2005
Working at the Food Bank with my kids is an eye-opener. The face of hunger isn't the bum on the street drinking Sterno; it's the working poor. They don't look any different, they don't behave any differently, they're not really any less educated. They are incredibly less privileged, and that's it. And they have to work a lot longer and harder than more privileged people do.
MARIO BATALI
"Chefs Make Change: Mario Batali", Food & Wine, March 31, 2015