I arrived in New York in 1986, when I was 28. The market here was nothing. In the Union Square farmers' market, it was a couple of potatoes, everything from California. So the only place I was comfortable shopping was in Chinatown, because it all came from Hong Kong.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Categorized in : Place New Nothing Shopping

For me, the good food starts with good product.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

good me good-food food

My two essential ingredients are chilies, any kind, dried or fresh; and acid, whether it's citrus - lemon, lime, yuzu - or vinegars. Food has to pop.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

fresh ingredients food two

I have 20 restaurants. And if one doesn't work, it doesn't work.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

restaurants work

I want every dish to be a ten.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

dish every ten want

This is what I grew up on in Alsace. It's choucroute. I'd wake up every morning with the smell of cabbage and potatoes and pork.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

up smell wake-up morning

The role of a chef isn't to reinvent dishes but to tweak.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

reinvent role dishes chef

Actually, I'd really love to do something in Bali, up in the mountains. A little restaurant with that scenery would be beautiful.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

restaurant scenery beautiful love

When you do a menu at a restaurant, you have to be the engineer of that menu. It has to be a crowd-pleaser.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

engineer menu restaurant you

I think food is getting lighter and healthier because people eat out so often. It's about quality ingredients because that is the root of good food.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

good quality food people

I think, as a chef and restaurateur, that you have to take care of your business. Otherwise, you're only as good as your last meal. You have to watch if your food costs are too high, or you could be out of business in no time.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

good business time food

Food for me has to pop, and at Spice Market, the food really pops.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

spice market me food

You've got to be in your kitchens, or it all falls apart.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

apart got your you

I'm cooking 42 years, and I didn't know bananas are good for my brain.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

good know cooking brain

Food is a part of life. People are foodies and love to shop for food.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

food love life people

Cooking at home is easier than cooking in the restaurant because you don't have to write a menu or try to please everybody.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

restaurant you cooking home

My father was in the coal and heating business, and he wanted me to take over his business, and I resented every moment of it. So I would never force my kids to do what I do.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

me moment business father

I landed in 1980 in Bangkok, and I stopped to eat ten times between the airport and the hotel. It was all lemongrass and ginger and chilies.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

airport eat hotel bangkok

I think, when I was younger, I was cooking to impress. Sometimes the dish would have 15 things on the plate. That's cooking only for yourself. As you get more mature, you take all the superfluous things away, and you get the essential flavor. Now I cook for people, not for myself.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

yourself myself you cooking

If we put a vinaigrette together, every part of it is weighed. For the burger, we do a bit of arugula, olive oil - everything is weighed. To the gram.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

burger everything oil together

I grew up in Alsace - in Strasbourg, by the canal; the family business was coal handling. It was still in the days when three generations would live under the same roof. There were 15 people for lunch, 20 for dinner.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

dinner family business people