Jose Andres Puerta quotes:

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  • Everyone should wake up and have a fresh-squeezed orange every day. By having a fresh glass of orange juice with American oranges, you are supporting the local economy, you have all the vitamin C you need in a day, and you support the environment because you don't use any plastic from bottles or bags.

  • I am from Spain, but my family and I have made America our home. For the last 17 years, I have been cooking Spanish food in Washington, D.C.

  • The Christmas market at the Barcelona Cathedral sells all kinds of things for your Nativity scene. It will also give you a good idea of Catalan culture.

  • I started culinary school at a very young age, and really I wanted to be out working, cooking, more than I wanted to be in a classroom. You could say I wasn't a very good student - I wanted to be a student of life and experience.

  • I've been a cook all my life, but I am still learning to be a good chef. I'm always learning new techniques and improving beyond my own knowledge because there is always something new to learn and new horizons to discover.

  • I think every chef should have a food truck. It's a good way to test the markets, to invest in meeting the future restaurant goers.

  • Like many parents after a long family holiday, I usually welcome the moment when my kids head back to school.

  • My mother and I were born in Mieres, Asturias, the most beautiful region you'll ever see in Europe and the home of Cabrales, a great blue cheese made in the Asturian mountains. When I was young, we moved to Barcelona. Whenever my mother was homesick for Asturias, she'd eat a little piece of Cabrales to bring her closer to Mieres.

  • Tapas is a celebration of life.

  • Without a doubt, one of my favorite American ingredients is blue crabs, a true delicacy! And a great value, I think.

  • As a chef and father, it kills me that children are fed processed foods, fast food clones, foods loaded with preservatives and high-fructose corn syrup.

  • I love Ozomatli, this L.A. band that makes great coffee. They are half American, half Mexican, their coffee's great, and they're very good friends.

  • As a chef and as a father, I am very upset by what's on the menu at most schools: chicken nuggets and tater tots and ketchup and pizza.

  • I cannot wait to see the day that one day we will have a chef that will become the secretary of food of the United States of America.

  • Even today with the public's growing interest in food and diet issues, politicians rarely include food as part of their political platforms.

  • I remember being a young boy in Spain and watching my parents cook. We didn't go to a lot of restaurants because we didn't always have the money, so cooking at home was just what we did.

  • Let me tell you a story about when I was growing up in Spain. Many Sundays, we would invite 30, 40, 50 people to the countryside, and my father would make a big paella. He put me in charge of the fire and the 'stove' - the rocks that hold the pan. But he wouldn't let me cook. I got so unbelievably upset.

  • Anyone who knows me knows that I have never been shy about how important Ferran Adria has been in my life; he is a friend, a mentor, an inspiration.

  • Food and the way we grow it and produce it are a major cause of environmental degradation.

  • One thing that makes me very happy is to see the growing activism among chefs in America. Chefs like Tom Colicchio, Bill Telepan, and Rachel Ray and food writers like Michael Pollan have gone to Congress, indeed sometimes even have testified before Congress, have lent this support to Mrs. Obama's effort to combat childhood obesity.

  • I don't believe in traditional company structures because the best ideas do not always come from the top.

  • The history of cooking is my passion, and cooking is my passion.

  • With their bright color and fantastic balance of acidity and sweetness, tomatoes are a natural refresher and the perfect element for meals on warm and sultry days.

  • A lot of people prefer to be alone. They would rather be a palm tree on an island. I don't get it.

  • I remember that at the beginning of the month, the kind of menus my mom and father would prepare for us would have fish, chicken. But at the end of the month - because my father would be waiting for paycheck - the refrigerator would get empty. I remember that without a lot of food left, some of the best meals happened right there.

  • I have an amazing wife and three daughters that always keep me motivated.

  • Everyting starts to happen at my home at 7 A. M., 7:20, when you hear the orange juicer. That means my daughters are already making the fresh Clementine juice.

  • People ask me in Europe, when they do interviews... they ask me, 'Well, how does it feel to be a cook in a country that doesn't know how to eat?' It always touches a nerve, because Europe and the world think that America is no more than bad hot dogs and bad burgers.

  • I don't think anybody can claim success at any part of our lives, private or professional, if there are others that don't enjoy the same opportunities.

  • For food to be romantic, it should be light. Too many times people plan a romantic meal, and the food is too heavy.

  • If you want to keep your side dishes warmer than room temperature, consider buying a small steam table for the home, with the Sterno cans underneath.

  • I guess that from the moment we are fed by our mothers, without even knowing it, we are caught in a net that brings us comfort, something we always feel when a special woman cooks for us. It is something unique and personal - it is something we want to keep for ourselves.

  • America gave me the opportunity to open successful restaurants, start a TV show, and write books. I can even fill an auditorium when I give a speech, which in America is rare for a chef.

  • I believe in tradition and innovation, authenticity and passion.

  • The modernity of yesterday is the tradition of today, and the modernity of today will be tradition tomorrow.

  • My love for artichokes comes from when I was very young. My mother and father would slice the hearts and fry them, and they would be crispy around the leaves and tender at the base.

  • Dorado Beach's rich history provided amazing inspiration to put forward a bold menu celebrating the legacy of the people and cuisine that shaped this unique destination and to push me to share some of my own stories.

  • Cotton candy is the most amazing form of caramelization ever invented by man.

  • Look at our farmers' markets today, bursting with heritage breeds and heirloom varieties, foods that were once abundant when we were an agricultural nation, but that we have lost touch with. Bringing all these back helps us connect to our roots, our communities and helps us feed America the proper way.

  • The business of feeding people is the most amazing business in the world.

  • Your parents would not be happy if you came home and said you wanted to grow up to be a chef or a rock star.

  • Old cookbooks connect you to your past and explain the history of the world.

  • I love to talk about cooking and recipes, but I love as much talking about how food and cooking can change the world.

  • Spain is a fascinating mix of people, languages, culture and food, but if there is one thing all Spaniards share, it's a love of food and drink.

  • My family and I cook at home almost every day together. The kitchen is the central and most important room in the house; it's a great way for us to connect. We love going to the farmer's market on Sundays as a family and choosing the ingredients together.

  • Education is everything. It's for everyone. We all need to be educated.

  • In America, diner food or roadside barbecue is the best road food, but I am not a fan of eating while driving - too messy.

  • The great-great-grandfather of my mother was probably using gelatins.

  • I love cooking for the sake of understanding how people before me used to feed themselves, used to feed their families.

  • The right use of food can end hunger.

  • In 2010, I created World Central Kitchen as a way to try and help find solutions to many of the food issues we face.

  • Food is national security. Food is craft. Food is everything, when you think about it.

  • I'm sorry for the ducks; I love foie gras.

  • I prefer natural hardwood lump charcoal - the other stuff makes your food taste like Goodyear tires.

  • Vegas is a celebration.

  • I get very upset when people start adding weird things to romesco.

  • As chefs, we cook to please people, to nourish people.

  • The only way to have a better world and end poverty is by closing the gap between the top and the bottom.

  • I don't understand how it's cheaper to buy a whole steak at the Price Club than spinach. How did that happen?

  • One day, we'll have 10, 20 or 50 Jaleos around America or around the world.

  • Simple ingredients prepared in a simple way - that's the best way to take your everyday cooking to a higher level.

  • When we are trying to come up with new health laws, you bring doctors, you bring experts in medicine. In urban planning, you bring the best architects. How it is possible that when we are talking about the way we are going to feed America, no chef shows up in the room?

  • Don't skimp on the ice. Bags from the grocery store melt so fast and water down your drinks. I prefer beautiful, big squares for my cocktails.

  • Who needs one more chef in one more building with four walls and a kitchen?

  • For me, summer hasn't really started until tomatoes reappear in local farmers' markets.

  • Our brain, our body, craves fat. We cannot help it. That's why a kid will eat a hot dog quicker than a piece of broccoli.

  • Standing around the grill is fine, but I like to have my friends come in and out of the house. Movement makes the party more exciting.

  • The time has come to recognize that food, how we produce it, process it, package it, sell it, cook it and eat it, is as important as any other issue.

  • We should all be involved in the avant-garde as long as we look toward the past.

  • I'm always looking to the future and what will next be on the horizon.

  • I love going to Rodeo Drive with my wife.

  • I realized very early the power of food to evoke memory, to bring people together, to transport you to other places, and I wanted to be a part of that.

  • Puerto Rico is the perfect meeting place between Spain, the country I come from, and America, the country where I now belong. The meeting point of two worlds where magic can happen.

  • In this game of politics, it's always kind of blame.

  • IBM has research and development; so do Microsoft and Nike and even Jose Andres. But there hasn't been enough R&D on feeding people in the Third World. This has to be part of the process; if not, we'll keep throwing money at the problem instead of investing in true solutions.

  • All my life, I've had restaurants that were affordable.

  • I work with companies like Audiostiles to put together mixes for my restaurants. I even created a soundtrack for my television show.

  • Let me ask you: Who do you prefer, a clown organizing your menu - with all due respect to Mr. McDonald - or a chef? I do believe it's a very simple answer.

  • As legal residents, immigrants would contribute more in taxes, spend more at our businesses, start companies of their own and create more jobs. Immigration is not a problem for us to solve but an opportunity for America to seize.

  • If you ask me about Napoleon, I'll tell you about his relationship with sugar. And canning - thanks to Napoleon, we have canning.

  • My whole life, I have been trying to cook an egg in the right way.

  • When you go to watch a baseball game, when you go to watch an NBA game, when you watch an NFL game, when you go to watch movies, the offering that those arenas are doing foodwise is 'all the hot dogs you can eat'; all the French fries you can eat; for $20 you can eat 20 hot dogs.

  • It is time to embrace and celebrate ketchup, not be ashamed of it.

  • Steakhouses serve these big steaks. The first piece is hot, and the last piece is cold. The way I like to eat is to try three or four cuts of meat. People should actually be eating less meat, and the meat they eat should be special.

  • Music is always on. Not at work. But at home, everything always has to have a soundtrack.

  • I was very impressed with the street food of Singapore. I was very impressed with the dishes that they did.

  • There is nothing better than picking up sun-warmed tomatoes and smelling them, feeling them and scrutinizing their shiny skins for imperfections, dreaming of ways to serve them.

  • For me, Romesco is one of the greatest sauces in the world.

  • If what I have to do is share a sandwich to lift someone's spirits, put a smile on their face - the worst thing that happens is I go broke!

  • Roberto Donna is a great Italian chef.

  • In Spain, we mainly use red plum tomatoes, but it is always fun to experiment. Try using a mix of colors or substitute green tomatoes for plum next time you make a tomato dish.

  • As chefs, we work with organizations like Oxfam to enrich their projects with culinary tools, recipes and ideas.

  • Romesco with asparagus is simple and brilliant.

  • A cocktail can be made by the bartender. But the cocktail also can be made by the chef.

  • We still have to keep betting on markets like America that are full of opportunities to grow, even if we have to work our heads off to do it.

  • When I came to El Bulli, right away I knew I was becoming part of something incredible. It was like watching the Big Bang happening right in front of me.

  • Women's cooking has always had a big influence on me personally.

  • Pimenton gets its intense flavor because it is dried over wood smoke. You can try hot, sweet or bittersweet, though sweet is probably the most commonly used.

  • I mix mayonnaise, ketchup and brandy and a little bit of mustard. This is a heck of a good sauce for seafood.

  • If you have some potatoes, green beans and cauliflower, you have a heck of a dish that can feed an entire family.

  • The cheapest gadget - and you don't even have to spend a dime - is chopsticks from a Chinese restaurant. I use them for everything: to toss salads, to turn a piece of meat in the pan, to flip croquettes in the Fryolator, to whisk eggs for omelets, to stir eggs into fried rice when I make that for my daughters.

  • I believe no chef becomes what he becomes without having many people influence him.

  • Soy sauce and seaweed go really well with potato chips.

  • When you use a simple gelatin like collagen, you can get flavor that is 100 percent pure, maybe event 150 percent.

  • Meat, to me, it's slightly boring. Hold on, I love meat too, but only once in a while. You get a piece of meat, and you put it in your mouth, you chew, the first five seconds, all the juices flow around your mouth, they're gone, and then you are 20 more seconds chewing something that is tasteless at this point.

  • Everyone else in the world still thinks of American food as ketchup.

  • In Hong Kong, 'wonton' means swallowing a cloud.

  • I don't know any group of professionals that mobilize as fast and as often as chefs do when there are people who are in need.

  • Today we take New England clam chowder as something traditional that makes our roots as American cooking very solid, with a lot of foundation. But the first person who decided to mix potatoes and clams and bacon and cream, in his own way 100 to 200 years ago, was a modernist.

  • Most people only use their griddles for pancakes, but you can sear vegetables like sliced zucchini or mushrooms, thinly sliced meats like chicken or pork, or thinly sliced fish or squid.

  • The first time I saw America was from my perch on the mast of a Spanish naval ship, where I could spot the Statue of Liberty reaching proudly into the open, endless American sky.

  • As immigrants, we understand better than most that to be an American is a privilege that conveys not just rights but responsibilities.

  • Behind Chipotle is not a corporation; behind Chipotle is a man that is one of the great cooks, that created a great concept.

  • American cooking is one of the unknown cuisines in America.

  • Simple ingredients, treated with respect... put them together and you will always have a great dish.

  • Me, I'm an encyclopedia. I'm not a very smart guy, but I'm an encyclopedia. You can ask me about anything you want. Probably I have the book; probably I have a first edition.

  • I eventually settled in Washington, where my partners and I have been fortunate to build a restaurant business that now employs thousands of Americans across the country.

  • Chefs are at the end of a long chain of individuals who work hard to feed people. Farmers, beekeepers, bakers, scientists, fishermen, grocers, we are all part of that chain, all food people, all dedicated to feeding the world.

  • I believe the future is vegetables and fruits. They are so much more sexier than a piece of chicken.

  • I get bored of vacation.

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