there is a major flaw in severe discipline. It suppresses flair, imagination and talent.

I had not invented the pig’s trotter dish, just like I hadn’t invented the Tagliatelle of Oysters with Caviar. I had refined it.

If you are not extreme, then people will take shortcuts because they don’t fear you.

Although I had spent a career questioning the way I cooked; I had never really questioned why I cooked; I just did it.

“Look, you’re not happy and you haven’t been for some time. If it is all about the pressure of having the stars, then why don’t you get rid of them? No stars, no pressure.”

consistency is the thing that might have taken Raymond from two stars to three.

“Say you take two deciliters of chicken stock in two different pans. You reduce one down quickly, the other slowly. The taste of each stock is completely different because if you reduce something rapidly, you retain the flavor. By reducing it slowly it stews and you lose freshness and sharpness.”

It struck me at the time that while it was good of him to apologize, it was wrong of him to do so in private. If he wanted to bollock me in front of everybody, that was fine. But if he wanted to be correct about it, he should have apologized in public too. When I eventually came to run my own kitchens, I promised myself that if an apology was due,

“Don’t just chuck in some salt and think that you’ve seasoned it,” he’d say. “Taste it, taste it, taste it. Get inside the food.”