Paul Prudhomme Quotes

"We had no electricity, no gas. Food was probably our greatest entertainment - the most fun thing that we could do was food."

"I believe in America. I'm one of those silly flag wavers."

"I opened my own restaurant when I was 17. I went broke, then traveled around the country, learning about different kinds of foods, had three other restaurants that went broke. It didn't all start just a few years ago!"

"I wait for the next opportunity to have something to do with food. If I get rested, my mind just starts creating new dishes - click, click, click."

"I'm a professional cook. I've worked with other cooks from all over the world, but my family is not that way - they're always lived within 25 miles of my hometown!"

"My mother would put me on a wooden box at the stove and tell me to call her if certain things would happen. Like if the steam turns blue, that is danger!"

"My sister just went into the restaurant business recently. Most of my brothers are in the 60s and are retired. I'm the baby in the family."

"The bad part about being recognized is that when I walk into a restaurant and sit down, I've got to eat everything on the plate, whether it's good or bad. People would take it as an insult if I did otherwise."

"We didn't do wrong things because we didn't want to embarrass our parents."

"I think the most wonderful thing in the world is another chef. I'm always excited about learning new things about food."

"One of the problems of our youth is that the family unit is broken up. When we'd sit down to dinner together as a family, we'd learn about each other. We had something people don't get today."

"Some people absorb in different ways. I didn't realize until I was 15 years old how much I retained."

"We trust something in a grocery store and assume it's good. We don't learn about the most precious thing in life-the food we put in our body. Educate yourself!"

"When you've got a great business going, you go open another and take the risk of losing the whole thing. It's fun!"

"Cajun is country food by farmers and fisherman that arrived in Louisiana from Acadiana, Canada."

"I didn't want to do just another set of recipes. I think that's useless."

"I would work as a cook, get a little money, then open another restaurant."

"In '71 or '72 I returned to New Orleans and stayed there. I started cooking Louisiana food. Of all the things I had cooked, it was the best-and it was my heritage."