Top 33 Joe Bastianich Quotes

In Italy, food is an expression of love. It is how you show those around you that you care for them. Having a love for food means you also have a love for those you are preparing it for and for yourself.

Frankly, Milan kind of sucks as a restaurant city. It’s so fashion-obsessed that people don’t pay that much attention to the food.

I’m a baritone. Baritones don’t mature until late.

Most people who open restaurants will fail, because they lack the fundamental understanding of restaurant math. Either they think they’re superstar cooks or they think they’re superstar hosts.

The best pastas are cut with bronze dies that give them a rough texture and allow the sauce to cling.

The pressure, the heat, the almost impossibly fast pace at which you need work – this is the reality of working in the culinary industry. This is what professional chefs do night after night.

No matter what it is you are cooking, buy the best ingredients you can afford. I don’t care if it’s a simple salad or Beef Wellington. A quality product stands alone and won’t need any dressing up.

Your pantry is your first line of defense against food-borne illness and things like high blood pressure and cholesterol.

I believe that ‘MasterChef’ brings something more to the table, so to speak, than simply being another reality food TV show. My hope is that it will inspire America to get more involved in the food they eat, how it is prepared.

You can enjoy a $15 bottle of wine as much as you can enjoy a $100 bottle of wine.

I think a lot of people overlook the importance of the menu as a marketing tool and a way of communicating to the customer what the ambition of their restaurant is. Not only the typeface and the design, but what is it printed on? Is it cheap-looking? Is it the right kind of paper for that restaurant?

At Babbo, each dish grew out of a conversation, trying to put something forth that was new and different. It was a combination of culinary adventurism and the dining-room experience with respect for the classic but with an eye toward innovation. And it was about eating locally, whether produce or fish or meat.

There are many things I’m looking forward to in 2013, both personally and professionally. Plans for new restaurants in the U.S., including Eataly Chicago, are underway, and I’m gearing up for the 2013 Ironman world championships in Hawaii – if I’m lucky enough to get a spot!

Working in a restaurant means being part of a family, albeit usually a slightly dysfunctional one. Nothing is accomplished independently.

With four-appetizer, four-entree menus, it’s like, give me a break. That’s not a restaurant, that’s a dinner party.

There are certain things that make restaurants work and a certain kind of DNA that people who excel in restaurants need. But it’s a lot like life, in the sense that you get out of it what you put into it.

I eat a lot of whole grains for breakfast, a lot of dried fruit. And my big thing is pasta. I do a lot of simple pasta, with great ingredients.

Beans are a real go-to for me.

I think that, by comparison with $2,000 bottles of grand cru Burgundies, first-rate barolos, which sell for under $100, are undervalued ten-fold.

Maitre d’s are at the financial spigot of the restaurant, meaning they control who gets in and who doesn’t, but aside from that, they don’t do anything. And yet they get paid as much as the highest-paid people in the place.

Being a cook doesn’t necessarily mean you are a competitor.

I come from a family that loves to eat, not exercise. Being fat made even walking hard.

Being frugal, conscious of making money, is not a negative thing. That sensibility of creating value and finding value and reinvesting in those customers is what separates great restaurants from the average ones.

After World War II, a lot of people moved to the cities for work and abandoned the old vineyards. Then in the 1950s and 1960s, wineries were paid to produce volume at a cheap price. That’s when the Lambruscos and bad Chianti were popular.

Classics can be phenomenal when done right. A simple roast chicken dish could be the best thing you ever eat.

I was brought up to believe I could achieve anything. My mother instilled in me the belief that there was always something great coming. For example, even though I’m afraid of flying, I always think the plane can’t crash because there are so many better things still to come.

I definitely invented the everything bagel. There’s no doubt. It’s undeniable truth. It’s one of those things that’s 100% true, 50% of the time.

I’m one of three judges on ‘MasterChef’ with Gordon Ramsay, but I don’t want my own show. I’m kind of used to the sidekick gig.

Cooking for my family is always a pleasure when I’m able to do it. My favorite thing to make is really whatever my kids ask for on any given day. It’s more about being with them and doing something together.

The stories of wine lords who trade wine on intimidation or food critics who trade free meals for reviews… those are the stories of my life. I am telling the stories of my life in a true way.

It’s kind of like a midlife crisis kind of thing. When you turn 40, you have to run the marathon, while all the parts still work properly.

When I stopped looking at food as a reward or a celebration and began looking at food as energy to fuel my athletic ambitions, that really kind of changed the whole world for me. That was the real ‘aha!’ moment.

New York is the best food city in the world.