David Chang Quotes

I like eggs. My favorite way of cooking eggs is old school French.

Running a business anywhere isn’t easy.

When I was in Japan, everyone wanted to work for Pierre Gagnaire, and they wouldn’t miss a beat.

I doubt I’d ever do television to the extent that, say, Gordon Ramsay has.

I’m always criticizing and only see the mistakes.

Don’t even get me started. I’m not against all vegetarians. But if you‘re a vegetarian for ethical reasons, you may be causing more harm.

I appreciate people who are happy.

I learned so much more prepping vegetables than I ever did in cooking school.

For everyday diners in Manhattan, cracking the waiting list at Nobu is said to be harder than getting courtside tickets for the Knicks.

Everyone tries to compare cooks to rock stars. I see more comparisons to the fashion world.

Cooking and gardening involve so many disciplines: math, chemistry, reading, history.

People are getting famous now for serving food out of a truck, or for, well, pork buns. I don’t know if I’m really pleased to be a part of that. I’m somewhat terrified of what the future holds, especially in America.

I feel like I’m losing my ability to understand reality; like when someone loses their hearing, they can still speak English, but their speech eventually becomes distorted because they can’t hear themselves.

I find that there are a lot of similarities between French and Japanese food. I think they’re two countries that have really systemized their cuisine and codified it.

I’m a big sports fan.

Contemporary ramen is totally different than what most Americans think ramen should be. Ramen is not one thing; there are many, many different types.

I work so hard that I forget to take care of myself.

New York gives us a wide colour palette to cook from. We have cuisines from around the world, and that lets us pick and choose.

I want to make simple food new.

Why can’t it be awesome to work for a food company? Why can’t we create an environment where people are trying to push each other to do great things, and we’re not trying to steal from anybody – we’re trying to be good to our farmers and run an honorable business, if there is such a thing anymore?

Yes, natural is good and healthy, and whole foods are important. However, experimentation is important, too.

The Momofuku Culinary Lab started as a space where we could focus on creating and innovating. I didn’t want us to worry about working on projects in a restaurant; there are just too many distractions in service and running a kitchen to be able to focus on creating your dishes.

People are trying to figure out what American food is; it’s certainly an amalgamation.

I wanted to disprove the notion that you couldn’t open a great restaurant in a casino.

As a child, I didn’t see my dad that much because he was always working at the restaurant. He became pretty jaded after working at the restaurant for so long.

I constantly think I’m a fraud – that this success is not warranted or justified.

I really don’t care for the proper chef coat.

I’ve never bribed my way into a restaurant. I’ve never slipped a C-note or greased a palm. In truth, I’ve never even considered it. I’ve assumed, of course, that people do such things.

I think the best restaurants in America should be in California.

I’m grasping with how you do something on a large scale with multiple operations and not have quality decrease.

I lived across the street from Noodle Bar. I could barely stand it, because you’re there all the time; you can’t get away.

If I have a really bad cook or a bad manager or bad sous-chef, I previously would have fired them or lost my temper. But now I realize that if I’m so right, then I should be able to communicate it so clearly that they get it.

I’m not trying to bring New York to Toronto. I want to understand Toronto better.

America is a country of abundance, but our food culture is sad – based on huge portions and fast food. Let’s stop with the excuses and start creating something better.

My dad was in the restaurant business, but I didn’t really think about following him. Had I done better at school, I don’t know if I would have been a chef.

To eat well, I always disagree with critics who say that all restaurants should be fine dining. You can get a Michelin star if you serve the best hamburger in the world.

I think that the Japanese – and I do love Japanese cuisine and adore Japanese food culture – I think that they’re going to plow through the entire world‘s fishing. They’re going to eat everything anyways.

Any processed chicken from any place – I’ll order it in a heartbeat. I’m very picky about my pork, though.

Shouldn’t a three-course meal be 90 minutes? Do you know how hard you have to edit your menu to pull that off? Twenty-seven minutes. That’s the average meal at Jiro’s in Tokyo.

I look forward to the spring vegetables because the season is so short. Mushrooms, edible foraged herbs, wild leeks, early season asparagus.

Food, to me, is always about cooking and eating with those you love and care for.

Growing up, my dad owned a restaurant in Washington, DC, and food was something I was passionate about. But when I finally got into it, I felt like it was so late in the game; that’s why I worked seven days a week at Craft and Mercer Kitchen. I wanted to see how far I could take it.

There are many things to admire about Japan but this is the one thing I love the most and probably the only time I eat breakfast. Fish, eggs, soup, salad, veggies; all in the tiniest bites. It’s a full meal, but it’s so refreshing.

I love chicken. I love chicken products: fried chicken, roasted chicken, chicken nuggets – whatever. And going to Japan, I would see that these chicken were smoked and then grilled and then have this amazing crispy skin.

The process and organization leading up to cooking the egg can tell you a lot about the cook.

Momofuku is not me. It’s everyone. I’m just the facade. We have to exceed expectations and be our harshest critics.

I think the basic thing that home cooks can learn how to do is just season properly… If the home cook realized how little salt they use compared to what’s needed, it would make their food taste better.

When I first started to cook, I would cook these elaborate meals, but I rarely cook at home now.

Be careful what you wish for – getting to be a successful business and maintaining it is so hard. Anyone can be good one night; being good over several years is incredibly difficult.

I don’t like eating in restaurants.

The livelihood of the restaurant is dependent upon getting the word out.

‘Tampopo’s amazing. I think it’s an absolutely fantastic movie, but I don’t think it captures for me the meaning of food.

If people ask me, ‘What do you think could improve in Toronto dining,’ I’d say there’s nothing to improve on.

One of the benefits to ordering food in New York is that you can get food 24/7.

Say a child raises this beautiful beet. It’s going to give her a sense of ownership, and that changes everything. You stop taking things for granted; you become less wasteful.