86 Quotes by Charlie Trotter

For over 20 years, I have been saying that Chicago is by far one of the greatest food cities in the world.

When I graduated I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn't want a conventional career.

Excellence is about fighting and pursuing something diligently, with a strict and determined approach to doing it right. It's okay if there are flaws in the process - it makes it more interesting.

I took the obligatory economics classes in school, but I've long been a fan of the Milton Friedman philosophy and its libertarian bent: One must be free to do what one wants to do, as long as you don't harm another. This is the seminal treatise on free-market economics.

I timed my previous wife's pregnancy to the moment to have my son born on Bob Dylan's 50th birthday. There is no bigger Bob Dylan fan than me. You don't just time the day and impregnate your wife to get your kid to be born on Bob Dylan's 50th birthday.

You can't be afraid to not have everything figured out. There's too much pressure on young people today to have it all figured out when they're in college.

In my case, vertical food was less about standing things up than layering things: more an attempt to gain texture by weaving things together.

It's a challenge to demonstrate that you can prepare some really interesting food with humble ingredients.

If you ever want to get anywhere in life, you're going to have to push it, and somebody's going to push you to get there. End of story.