Latest Daniel Boulud Quotes from Interviews

• Receiving the president of the United States in your restaurant is a big thing. Obama came three times. There's a sense of pride when you're one of few who has had a chance to spend an evening with the president of the United States. Despite if he's Republican or Democrat, we accept them all. Also, I remember days when I had Julia Child coming, with close friends. I had a great relationship with Julia. So those moments are more of affection and admiration than of fancy pride.

  Daniel Boulud

  Children, Pride, President

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Loyal customers, or customers who recommend their friends, give me the most pride. I think that is the biggest compliment I can get. I think in the restaurant business, it takes patience from the customer to spark up a relationship with the restaurateur, but it takes also work from the restaurateur to spark up a relationship with his customer.

  Daniel Boulud

  Pride, Thinking, Giving

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• We are in the top five restaurants in New York. Daniel is about luxury. It's a luxury where when somebody has never come they maybe expect to be intimidated, but once they have the experience I think they feel this is a welcoming, fun and great experience to have. The menu, the price point, the level of service, and class we offer to people... I think it's incredible. Not every restaurant can be like that - it's a commitment, in terms of dedication to excellence.

  Daniel Boulud

  Fun, Commitment, Thinking

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• My favorite thing is when I go back and my mother cooks for me. Because it just throws me back the same flavor. And I try to modify things: I say, "Why don't you do this and that?" My mother is older, but she cooks a lot, and she doesn't want to change anything. She's a very good cook, and my grandmother was an amazing cook.

  Daniel Boulud

  Mother, Trying, My Favorite

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• A beginner cook is going to have to be patient to really learn well. When you start to beat your master, that's when you're really starting to master the thing. But it's going to take a while. After that, you have to define what you want to be, who you want to be, where you want to be.

  Daniel Boulud

  Patient, Be Patient

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• What I bring - my team and I, because it's not only me - is this sense of elegance and casualness, and no pretension. There's also a sense of loyalty - loyalty to my customers, but also loyalty from my staff. Also, I think a sense of perfection; I'm a bit of an obsessed freak with perfection. I think I bring craziness sometimes, because if there is someone who's going to dare do something crazy, it's me.

  Daniel Boulud

  Loyalty, Crazy, Team

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I have a sense of respect: respect for my suppliers, respect for the staff, respect for the customer - as long as they respect us. When we have a customer who is playing a provocative, disrespectful game, then we just prefer to just throw him out, rather than deal with it. Some people, sometimes, are unhappy themselves. And that can really create a frustrating performance to us and to the staff and all that. I don't throw customers out as much as I used to. In the old days, "You don't like it? Get out!" I'm much nicer now.

  Daniel Boulud

  Long, People, Unhappy

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Bill Blass came in all the time, and I would make him roast chicken with spring potatoes and spring porcini with spring onion. And baby artichokes. And never, ever did he find a better chicken. Norman Parkinson, one of the greatest photographers alive, came every lunch to Le Cirque. And every time he would clean up his plate with his bread and then he would take his marker and write on the plate how much he loved the food. I think at Le Cirque I learned how to make real food, which is what people crave, not just gimmicky things on a plate.

  Daniel Boulud

  Baby, Spring, Real

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I was at Plaza Athénée, where a jacket and tie was required. Andy Warhol came with his turtleneck, because he was always wearing a turtleneck, with a tie over it, and we gave him a jacket - so he had a jacket and tie over the turtleneck. It was pretty cool.

  Daniel Boulud

  Warhol, Over It

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com