In case you're wondering why Guy Fieri is here, he won a contest. Mario Batali More Quotes by Mario Batali More Quotes From Mario Batali When you taste things in the right order, sometimes they taste so much different than if you taste them out of order. Not that there's a right order, like by rule, but just like in a thoughtful way that makes sense. Mario Batali thoughtful different order Michigan is my antidote to Manhattan. This is where I come to relax. Mario Batali michigan manhattan relax As they say in Italy, Italians were eating with a knife and fork when the French were still eating each other. The Medici family had to bring their Tuscan cooks up there so they could make something edible. Mario Batali forks knives eating The hardest part of anything is making a dish consistently great - you order it seven years later, if it's still on the menu, and it's still as good as what you remember. Mario Batali remember order years Twelve-piece cookware sets for ninety-nine bucks are routinely hawked on late-night TV - often by friends of mine. But with a mere five pieces, you can do whatever you like - slay the dragon and then cook its tenderloin in the style of the duke of Wellington, if you want to. Mario Batali ninety-nine dragons night Food is much better off the hand than the fork. Mario Batali forks food hands You have to be generous if you want to spend your time making someone else dinner. Even if you're charging, you're still giving. Mario Batali dinner want giving I am happiest when I am with my wife, Susi, and our two boys exploring and loving something for the first time. Mario Batali wife boys two I really want to be a rock star. Mario Batali rocks stars want My wife Susi and my kids quite simply are the most fun of all my friends. Mario Batali wife fun kids Just because you eat doesn't mean you eat smart. It's hard to beat a $1.99 wing pack of three at a fast-food restaurant - it's so cheap - but that wing pack isn't feeding anyone, it's just pushing hunger back an hour. Mario Batali smart wings mean When I was in college, I used to write little ditties and short stories and poetry for my friends. Writing a book is another thing. It is so much different from my traditional day of dirty fingernails and greasy hair and hot pans. Mario Batali writing book dirty I was at a party, and some squiggly looking dude with a bow tie came up and said, 'How'd you like to be on TV?' Turns out he was the programming guy at the Food Network. They had me come into the office, and I did a 'Ready, Set, Cook' with Emeril Lagasse, I believe. Mario Batali party ties believe The difference between 'Molto Italiano' and 'The Babbo Cookbook' is that the ingredient lists in 'Molto' are about half or even a third the size. In 'Babbo,' they are very long, they are very real. That's exactly how we make them in the restaurant. Mario Batali differences real long To eat the boiled head of a pig sliced like salami is very strange. It may seem cutting edge, but it's actually a lot older than any of the other traditional salami. Mario Batali cutting may pigs We need to figure out a 'harvest system' to collect the produce that stores don't put out for customers to buy because it's not perfect looking. Frankly, the stuff left to rot in the storeroom is more beautiful to me than the perfect carrot. I'm a gnarly carrot kind of guy. Mario Batali gnarly perfect beautiful There are pockets of great food in Spain, but there are also pockets of very mediocre food in Spain, and the same in Morocco and the same in Croatia and the same in Germany and the same in Austria. Mario Batali morocco spain pockets I'm a big fan of featuring all of the local shellfish and seafood provided. Mario Batali shellfish bigs fans I might use milk if I was using a touch of milk to make like a lasagna or a baked pasta. But cream? That is totally not the way they do it in Italy, and it's not a very good thing. It's kind of a blanket for flavor. Mario Batali might-use milk flavor I'm pretty confident that the seafood from the Northeastern Atlantic is one of the most delicious and unique in the country, so that we can represent that in a way that the Italians like to represent things. Mario Batali unique country way