50 Quotes by Wylie Dufresne

I think I can poach a pretty mean egg the old-fashioned way.

When ramps are in season, we pickle a bunch of ramps and fold that into soup. Pickled pearl onions are great chopped up or pureed.

Extremely ripe things are not ideal for pickling. If you pour a hot liquid over super ripe strawberries, you're going to have strawberry soup.

The most important thing with turkey is to let it rest - most people don't let it rest long enough. It will get juicier the longer you let it rest.

My job has changed over the years, 22 years roughly I've been cooking professionally. When I was younger, I aspired to be the star player. Now, it's more I like to sit in the dugout and make sure the team wins the game.

We have a funny sort of love/hate relationship with critics because, unfortunately, in the art/commerce dance that we do, they drive people to the restaurant. Regardless of sometimes how well we prepare the food, if people don't know that we're out there, if someone isn't talking about us, you guys aren't coming.

It's a funny thing, but it's often overlooked that I'm a huge devout lover of French cooking. I have the utmost respect for them, though they have lost their respect for me because they think the way I cook is nutty.

It's just about asking why. We as cooks historically have been very, very technically proficient but not technically informed as to why we do what we do. Modernist cuisine is about that knowledge.

There will never be a right or wrong way to cook something, but there will always be a more informed way.