My grandmother did all the cooking at Christmas. We ate fattened chicken. We would feed it even more so it would be big and fat.

Desserts are like mistresses. They are bad for you. So if you are having one, you might as well have two.

Techniques are not the most difficult to teach. The attitudes chefs take are much more important.

Tasting a dish should be memorable If nothing remains in the memory of a single guest, then I have made a mistake.

Failure is enriching. It's also important to accept that you'll make mistakes - it's how you build your expertise. The trick is to learn a positive lesson from all of life's negative moments.

The proportion of ingredients is important, but the final result is also a matter of how you put them together. Equilibrium is key.

Everywhere in the world there are tensions - economic, political, religious. So we need chocolate.

Nowadays, food needs to be healthy, local, sustainable and not filled with too much fat, salt or sugar. It should be slow-cooked and seasonal. That's my vision.

The planets resources are rare; we must consume more ethically and equitably.

A man obsessed: obsessed with perfection, sharing, aesthetics, taste, savoir-faire, and much more.

I have a very modern way of thinking; the chef is there to lead the team and not just to sit behind the piano.

Bear your pain or it will come back

He sank to his knees, absolutely full of despair and sadness. For a long time, droplets of blood continued to fall into his lap.

In every victory, Let it be said of me...My source of strength, My source of hope... Is Christ alone.

I started out as a lousy actress and have remained one.

The last person to be beatified by Pope John Paul II was Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 2003.

Frankly I don't listen to lyrics (a problem in that I apparently work in musical theatre) I just want a good tune that doesn't require the use of too much grey matter.

The first thing the world does to a genius is to make him lose all his youth.

I trained as a classical guitarist but that was it.

I do think that I have a more flexible view of the interactions between people, and between human and non-human protagonists, humans and their landscapes.

In person I don't have that many friends. I'm a pretty tight-knit guy with the people that I know. Offline, I have no more than four or five friends.