Not to sound too much like Christopher Guest in Waiting for Guffman, but on Thanksgiving youre putting on a show! – Ted Allen
However, I was a restaurant critic at Chicago magazine before I worked at Esquire, and Ive been a really enthusiastic home cook for a long time. Its just something Im passionate about. – Ted Allen
When I come home from a shoot, Id rather reheat food Ive made than eat takeout. – Ted Allen
Ive always hoped Chopped would telegraph our enormous affection and love and admiration for chefs and food, but at the same time, we are inflicting extraordinary cruelty on them. – Ted Allen
Believe me, I understand the need for easy and speedy. After a 12-hour day of shooting Chopped, say, Im talking stir-fry, spaghetti, heck, peanut-butter sandwiches. But thats not about the joy of food. Thats survival. – Ted Allen
I think what I do differently from a lot of TV chefs is that I break down barriers and make fine food more accessible to the regular person, who might be intimidated. I try hard, particularly with wine, to make it not intimidating. Its sort of a teaching job. – Ted Allen
Im a home cook and love to read about food, but Im not trained as a chef. Im just really into cooking and passionate about it. – Ted Allen
To me, the kitchen is a place of adventure and entirely fun, not drudgery. I cant think of anything better to do with family and friends than to be together to create something. – Ted Allen
In recent years, Ive been writing because Im fortunate enough to work in the world of food television, to travel and taste and learn about cooking from the best chefs in the business. – Ted Allen
My whole problem is that all of my favorite things at Thanksgiving are the starches, and everyone is trying to go low-carb this year, even a green vegetable has carbs in it. – Ted Allen
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is a form of service journalism. To be successful, I think it has to be a combination of a good story, it has to be funny, and it also needs to be packed with useful information. – Ted Allen
I went in saying I wanted to be the food guy. – Ted Allen
Jay Leno is not a guy who likes change. He eats the same food every day. – Ted Allen
You know the great irony is that people think you have to have money to enjoy fine food, which is a shame. – Ted Allen
I really have a great deal of humility in that department, and a great deal of respect for people who spend their lives learning how to make these amazing preparations. – Ted Allen
The funny thing about Thanksgiving, or any huge meal, is that you spend 12 hours shopping for it and then chopping and cooking and braising and blanching. Then it takes 20 minutes to eat it and everybody sort of sits around in a food coma, and then it takes four hours to clean it up. – Ted Allen
