Tom Colicchio

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.

I know from personal experience, if a chef yelled at me in a kitchen, the first thing I'd want to do is hit them with a pot.

A lot of professions happen to be male-dominated because women drop out at a certain point. It's unfortunate.

I get angry when I think that people are blatantly incorrect on matters of fact.

I think the most effective way to run a kitchen is to teach, not to just yell.

I remember at The Quilted Giraffe, when I was when working there to try out for the sous-chef position. I really wanted it, and the woman working the line next to me kept messing up and making me look bad. The last day of my kitchen trail, I just said to her very quietly, 'Do me a favor and get out of my way, because I want this job.'

You want to be the baddest guy in the kitchen and you want the person next to you to know it.

There's the issue of hunger, and there's an issue of if you're going to cut out food programs. We should be focusing on healthy food. Right now, fruits and vegetables are very expensive. So what can we do on the policy side to bring the cost of fruits and vegetables down?

Recipes tell you nothing. Learning techniques is the key.

A steak needs fat to taste great.

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.

I think steak is the ultimate comfort food, and if you're going out for one, that isn't the time to scrimp on calories or quality.

'Chef' doesn't mean that you're the best cook, it simply means 'boss.'