90 Quotes by Joe Bastianich

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.

After World War II, a lot of people moved to the cities for work and abandoned the old vineyards. Then in the 1950s and 1960s, wineries were paid to produce volume at a cheap price. That’s when the Lambruscos and bad Chianti were popular.

Cooking for my family is always a pleasure when I’m able to do it. My favorite thing to make is really whatever my kids ask for on any given day. It’s more about being with them and doing something together.

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.

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.

Maitre d’s are at the financial spigot of the restaurant, meaning they control who gets in and who doesn’t, but aside from that, they don’t do anything. And yet they get paid as much as the highest-paid people in the place.

When I stopped looking at food as a reward or a celebration and began looking at food as energy to fuel my athletic ambitions, that really kind of changed the whole world for me. That was the real ‘aha!’ moment.

Selling wine is all about sizing people up, and it takes a certain amount of chutzpah. The tableside bottle sell is a very funny thing – you take a look at the guy’s blazer, what kind of shoes he’s wearing, what kind of broad he’s with. Is he trying to be a hero?

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