112 Quotes by David Chang

"Shouldn't a three-course meal be 90 minutes? Do you know how hard you have to edit your menu to pull that off? Twenty-seven minutes. That's the average meal at Jiro's in Tokyo."

"I love chicken. I love chicken products: fried chicken, roasted chicken, chicken nuggets - whatever. And going to Japan, I would see that these chicken were smoked and then grilled and then have this amazing crispy skin."

"New York gives us a wide colour palette to cook from. We have cuisines from around the world, and that lets us pick and choose."

"Fine dining teaches you how to cook many different things, and it gives you the basic fundamentals, but these specialty restaurants, theyre not teaching you the broad foundation you need to become a well-rounded cook."

"My dad was in the restaurant business, but I didn't really think about following him. Had I done better at school, I don't know if I would have been a chef."

"Cooking and gardening involve so many disciplines: math, chemistry, reading, history."

"The process and organization leading up to cooking the egg can tell you a lot about the cook."

"Lifes too short to just breeze on by."

"Growing up, my dad owned a restaurant in Washington, DC, and food was something I was passionate about. But when I finally got into it, I felt like it was so late in the game; that's why I worked seven days a week at Craft and Mercer Kitchen. I wanted to see how far I could take it."

"The Momofuku Culinary Lab started as a space where we could focus on creating and innovating. I didn't want us to worry about working on projects in a restaurant; there are just too many distractions in service and running a kitchen to be able to focus on creating your dishes."