My fantasy is to have a restaurant where there are no…

I don't want to turn 50 and say, 'Gosh, I wish I'd lived in that part of the world for a time. I wish…

— Charlie Trotter

If people give me a year or two of their best effort, then I am their friend for life.

— Charlie Trotter

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…

— Charlie Trotter

I never considered Miles Davis a perfectionist; I always considered him as an excellence-ist, where deviation is actually kind of cool.

— Charlie Trotter

I wasn't using college as a stepping stone to law school or some other career. I just wanted a liberal-arts education.

— Charlie Trotter

There has been no great surprise, no sudden revelation. I knew pretty much what I was getting into. What I've learned is that a…

— Charlie Trotter

Sometimes I think I should have chosen a line of work where it was just me alone in the room, with the sun coming…

— Charlie Trotter

I'm really not that comfortable with people. I mean, I love individuals, but I'm not very social.

— Charlie Trotter

I have a goal so lofty it's almost embarrassing to talk about. And that's to be the best restaurant in the world.

— Charlie Trotter

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…

— Charlie Trotter

In a time when it is common for chefs to simply reproduce the innovations of others, the few who speak for themselves through their…

— Charlie Trotter

I worked in 40 restaurants over a five-year period.

— Charlie Trotter

I love faltering. I love, in a sense, coming up short. Because you learn nothing from success. You learn so much from failing.

— Charlie Trotter

I believe in focusing on details.

— Charlie Trotter

Ultimately, I want to prepare food that will be recognized equally in Tokyo, London, and Paris. I am after that universality, that transcendence.

— Charlie Trotter