Cookbooks have all become baroque and very predictable. Im looking for something different. A lot of chefs cookbooks are food as its done in the restaurants, but they are dumbed down, and I hate it when they dumb them down. – Mario Batali

When you cut that eggplant up and you roast it in the oven and you make the tomato sauce and you put it on top, your soul is in that food, and theres something about that that can never be made by a company that has three million employees. – Mario Batali

In America, I would say New York and New Orleans are the two most interesting food towns. In New Orleans, they dont have a bad deli. Theres no mediocrity accepted. – Mario Batali