Charlie Trotter
Charlie Trotter
Charles "Charlie" Trotterwas an American chef and restaurateur...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionChef
Date of Birth8 September 1959
CityWilmette, IL
CountryUnited States of America
plan work
My plan is to work on a master's in philosophy.
accused alone chosen coming god insofar line smiling sun towards work
Sometimes I think I should have chosen a line of work where it was just me alone in the room, with the sun coming in, and God, insofar as he or she exists, smiling down upon me. Then I would have never been accused of being a tyrant, other than towards myself.
entitled gets home man maybe raise time voice work
At home, a man is entitled to raise his voice maybe once a year, if something really gets under his skin. At work, it's different. I raise my voice all the time. Not out of malice, but to get things right. It's never personal.
book books-and-reading
We said, 'We've got to write his book for him,'
adage rarely
You know the old adage that the customer's always right? Well, I kind of think that the opposite is true. The customer is rarely right.
education school stepping stone using
I wasn't using college as a stepping stone to law school or some other career. I just wanted a liberal-arts education.
appeals both diner food lay time
The most successful food, I think, is food that both appeals to the super-sophisticated diner or foodie and to the lay diner at the same time.
hard harder
As tough as I've been on anybody, as hard as I've ever been on anybody, I have been harder on myself. By far.
anywhere near trying
To me, searching for perfection isn't anywhere near as interesting as trying to find your own voice.
life
If you ever want to get anywhere in life, you're going to have to push it, and somebody's going to push you to get there. End of story.
attempt food less standing texture vertical weaving
In my case, vertical food was less about standing things up than layering things: more an attempt to gain texture by weaving things together.
afraid figured people
You can't be afraid to not have everything figured out. There's too much pressure on young people today to have it all figured out when they're in college.
bigger birthday bob born dylan fan kid moment pregnancy previous time wife
I timed my previous wife's pregnancy to the moment to have my son born on Bob Dylan's 50th birthday. There is no bigger Bob Dylan fan than me. You don't just time the day and impregnate your wife to get your kid to be born on Bob Dylan's 50th birthday.
classes fan harm milton obligatory took wants
I took the obligatory economics classes in school, but I've long been a fan of the Milton Friedman philosophy and its libertarian bent: One must be free to do what one wants to do, as long as you don't harm another. This is the seminal treatise on free-market economics.