Joe Bastianich Quotes

Pasta is the one food I can't live without. It's the food I eat to fuel my running.

Carbs - especially pasta - are the fuel my body needs to maintain an athletic lifestyle.

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.

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.

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

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

At home, I make a large batch of tomato sauce and freeze it in meal-size portions in freezer bags.

Aside from hospitality and delicious food, our [restaurateurs'] job is to entertain people. Restaurants should make people feel special, excited and fulfilled.

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.

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.

America has been conditioned to think of pasta as the never-ending pasta bowl and Olive Garden.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

As a restaurateur, my palate is one of my most important tools.

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.

Restaurant Man is kind of the story, an unabridged story of what happened in my life, the good bad and ugly. Some people might glean some life lessons. It is honest, not written as a press release.

Essentially, wines are fermented grape juice, so I'm trying to make the point that the wine world is about scores and marketing and kind of creating a scarce resource where they don't really exist.

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

Every time I open a new restaurant, I wake up in the middle of the night moaning about bread and water. I dream I am in the middle of the dining room, and I am panicked.

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.

New York is the best food city in the world.

I have a Madonna portrait done in the style of a Russian icon. My mother, the chef Lidia Bastianich, and I bought it together. It reminds me of her.

Frankly, Milan kind of sucks as a restaurant city. Its so fashion-obsessed that people dont pay that much attention to the food.

My wife and I battle over home decor. My style goes from Gothic to Baroque. Hers is minimalist.

If you eliminate the junk food, you don't really run the risk of gaining weight if you've got a good workout routine.

Wine pricing is an art - like painting.

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

Beans are a real go-to for me.

'MasterChef' is the search for America's culinary amateur talent, so this is a search for the best home cook in America, and it's our job to figure out who that is.

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