90 Quotes by Joe Bastianich

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

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.

Babbo’s menu is only four pages, but it’s overwhelming – there are 20 different pastas in there, a lot of stuff. There is nothing I hate more than a useless, lazy menu with only three appetizers and four entrees.

Wine pricing is an art – like painting.

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.

Finding specialty food items was a bit of a challenge in Asia in the early days of getting the Mozza’s up and running. Everything is built on relationships, and when you start somewhere new, it takes time to develop that. Staffing can also present challenges.

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.

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

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.