David Chang Quotes

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.

- David Chang

I lived across the street from Noodle Bar. I could barely stand it, because you're there all the time; you can't get away.

- David Chang

There are many things to admire about Japan but this is the one thing I love the most and probably the only time I eat breakfast. Fish, eggs, soup, salad, veggies; all in the tiniest bites. It's a full meal, but it's so refreshing.

- David Chang

People don't think that bread is part of Asian culture or Asian food culture, but it's quite prevalent in Northern China, and you see it throughout Japan and as you go to Taiwan.

- David Chang

I like eggs. My favorite way of cooking eggs is old school French.

- David Chang

For everyday diners in Manhattan, cracking the waiting list at Nobu is said to be harder than getting courtside tickets for the Knicks.

- David Chang

The livelihood of the restaurant is dependent upon getting the word out.

- David Chang

Momofuku is not me. It's everyone. I'm just the facade. We have to exceed expectations and be our harshest critics.

- David Chang

Open your refrigerator, your freezer, your kitchen cupboards, and look at the labels on your food. You'll find 'natural flavor' or 'artificial flavor' in just about every list of ingredients. The similarities between these two broad categories are far more significant than the differences.

- David Chang

I was quite cocky, but having been hailed as this great young golfer, I couldn't even make the high school golf team once I got there. I had a big dose of humble pie then, and ever since, I've always known that there is always someone out there better than you, more talented. Always.

- David Chang

Everyone tries to compare cooks to rock stars. I see more comparisons to the fashion world.

- David Chang

Why can't it be awesome to work for a food company? Why can't we create an environment where people are trying to push each other to do great things, and we're not trying to steal from anybody - we're trying to be good to our farmers and run an honorable business, if there is such a thing anymore?

- David Chang

There's the common misconception that restaurants make a lot of money. It's not true. If you look at maybe the top chef in the world, or at least monetarily, it's like Wolfgang Puck, but he makes as much money as an average crappy investment banker.

- David Chang

I doubt I'd ever do television to the extent that, say, Gordon Ramsay has.

- David Chang

I'm grasping with how you do something on a large scale with multiple operations and not have quality decrease.

- David Chang

In New York, we're always confined with spaces. Our restaurants are difficult to navigate as cooks and to operate. We fight against the buildings we run in New York.

- David Chang

Be careful what you wish for - getting to be a successful business and maintaining it is so hard. Anyone can be good one night; being good over several years is incredibly difficult.

- David Chang

'Tampopo's amazing. I think it's an absolutely fantastic movie, but I don't think it captures for me the meaning of food.

- David Chang

I love to eat sushi, and, you know, those flavors and wasabi and really eating spoonfuls of it... I would just mix it and put it on everything, literally.

- David Chang

I look forward to the spring vegetables because the season is so short. Mushrooms, edible foraged herbs, wild leeks, early season asparagus.

- David Chang

I think the basic thing that home cooks can learn how to do is just season properly... If the home cook realized how little salt they use compared to what's needed, it would make their food taste better.

- David Chang

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

- David Chang

Don't even get me started. I'm not against all vegetarians. But if you're a vegetarian for ethical reasons, you may be causing more harm.

- David Chang

I hate to say 'chain restaurant,' but we're sort of a corporation now. How do we defy that concept, where people assume each restaurant can't be good?

- David Chang

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.

- David Chang

Before I had my own restaurant, I was never top dog in the kitchen. I've always had a low opinion of myself as a cook.

- David Chang

I love the intensity of the fine-dining kitchen, but loathe the fine-dining experience.

- David Chang

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.

- David Chang

As a child, I didn't see my dad that much because he was always working at the restaurant. He became pretty jaded after working at the restaurant for so long.

- David Chang

I wanted to disprove the notion that you couldn't open a great restaurant in a casino.

- David Chang

I find that there are a lot of similarities between French and Japanese food. I think they're two countries that have really systemized their cuisine and codified it.

- David Chang

America is a country of abundance, but our food culture is sad - based on huge portions and fast food. Let's stop with the excuses and start creating something better.

- 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.

- David Chang

I feel like I'm losing my ability to understand reality; like when someone loses their hearing, they can still speak English, but their speech eventually becomes distorted because they can't hear themselves.

- David Chang

I was terrible at desk jobs.

- David Chang

Say a child raises this beautiful beet. It's going to give her a sense of ownership, and that changes everything. You stop taking things for granted; you become less wasteful.

- David Chang

Chef Thomas Keller was an inspiration to me and many, many young cooks like me. He told us that the role of the new, modern chef is different.

- David Chang

People are getting famous now for serving food out of a truck, or for, well, pork buns. I don't know if I'm really pleased to be a part of that. I'm somewhat terrified of what the future holds, especially in America.

- David Chang

When you meet the farmers and go to the farms, you see that they treat their animals like they're family. It makes a big difference.

- David Chang

If I have a really bad cook or a bad manager or bad sous-chef, I previously would have fired them or lost my temper. But now I realize that if I'm so right, then I should be able to communicate it so clearly that they get it.

- David Chang

Waiting tables has never paid my bills, a fact which I prefer to hide from my colleagues with deep sighs about the price of just about everything.

- David Chang

I think being Shaquille O'Neal would be the most amazing thing. There's nothing I would have done differently in his life. Everything he's done I think is pretty spot on, even, like, the bad rap videos, the shoes, the movies, everything.

- David Chang

To eat well, I always disagree with critics who say that all restaurants should be fine dining. You can get a Michelin star if you serve the best hamburger in the world.

- David Chang

I think the best restaurants in America should be in California.

- David Chang

I don't like eating in restaurants.

- David Chang

Contemporary ramen is totally different than what most Americans think ramen should be. Ramen is not one thing; there are many, many different types.

- David Chang

Fear is a driving force for most of the things that I do. I don't know if that's healthy.

- David Chang

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.

- David Chang

I think that the Japanese - and I do love Japanese cuisine and adore Japanese food culture - I think that they're going to plow through the entire world's fishing. They're going to eat everything anyways.

- David Chang

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

- David Chang

I'm not cooking every day anymore, and that's the biggest withdrawal. Cooking is honest work. Now I don't know how to measure myself.

- David Chang

When I first started to cook, I would cook these elaborate meals, but I rarely cook at home now.

- David Chang

Any processed chicken from any place - I'll order it in a heartbeat. I'm very picky about my pork, though.

- David Chang

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.

- David Chang

Food, to me, is always about cooking and eating with those you love and care for.

- David Chang

Yes, natural is good and healthy, and whole foods are important. However, experimentation is important, too.

- David Chang

I really don't care for the proper chef coat.

- David Chang

I've never bribed my way into a restaurant. I've never slipped a C-note or greased a palm. In truth, I've never even considered it. I've assumed, of course, that people do such things.

- David Chang

When I was in Japan, everyone wanted to work for Pierre Gagnaire, and they wouldn't miss a beat.

- David Chang

I'm not trying to bring New York to Toronto. I want to understand Toronto better.

- David Chang

One of the benefits to ordering food in New York is that you can get food 24/7.

- David Chang

I'm always criticizing and only see the mistakes.

- David Chang

If you ask what people say what American cuisine is, they cannot really do it. I don't know what it is.

- David Chang

If people ask me, 'What do you think could improve in Toronto dining,' I'd say there's nothing to improve on.

- David Chang

Life's too short to just breeze on by.

- David Chang

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

- David Chang

I'm a big sports fan.

- David Chang

I learned so much more prepping vegetables than I ever did in cooking school.

- David Chang

I constantly think I'm a fraud - that this success is not warranted or justified.

- David Chang

If you're going to be a vegetarian, limit yourself to food from a place you can go to in two hours and just eat that.

- David Chang

To me, there are two types of celebrity: there's good celebrity - people that are attracted to the food and working and trying to create something great - and then there's bad celebrity - those who are working on being a celebrity.

- David Chang

The one reason why I got into cooking was because I wasn't good at anything else - not that I was good at it, but it was considered honest work.

- David Chang

Just because something's been good in the past doesn't mean it will continue to be good.

- David Chang

People are trying to figure out what American food is; it's certainly an amalgamation.

- David Chang

Running a business anywhere isn't easy.

- David Chang

I appreciate people who are happy.

- David Chang

I work so hard that I forget to take care of myself.

- David Chang