Trotter Quotes & Sayings

It's a lot harder to get people to 'ooh' and 'aah' over beets and carrots than it is to get them to 'ooh' and 'aah' over artichokes or asparagus, and I enjoy being able to take these humble, 'lowbrow' foodstuffs up a few notches and serve them with great exuberance. — Charlie Trotter

Playing Sgt, Trotter in 'The Mousetrap' is the same as playing Scripps in 'The History Boys,' in the sense that they're dream roles that I've always wanted to do. The fact they're letting me do this professionally and I'm getting paid for it, I find astonishing. — Thomas Howes

That weekend my people brought home
a big eared gray scrawny kit.
He was so loud and annoying
that I did not like him one bit. — Melinda K. Trotter

Mrs. Trotter made a sincere though wrong sound, while opening her handbag to look for help. — Patrick White

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

In my case, vertical food was less about standing things up than layering things: more an attempt to gain texture by weaving things together. — 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

Madame ... gloatingly savored her words as earlier she had savored her pig's trotter. — Georges Simenon

The truly scientific mind is altogether unafraid of the new, and while having no mercy for ideas which have served their turn or shown their uselessness, it will not grudge to any unfamiliar conception its moment of full and friendly attention, hoping to expand rather than to minimize what small core of usefulness it may happen to contain. — Wilfred Trotter

On the steps leading to a door
was a scrub brush that was blue.
I snatched it quick and ran for home
because it was just the thing to chew. — Melinda K. Trotter

Fernand Point's philosophy instilled what cuisine is all about: generosity and hugeness of heart. — Charlie Trotter

The second thing to be striven for is intuition. This sounds an impossibility, for who can control that small quiet monitor? But intuition is only interference from experience stored and not actively recalled. — Wilfred Trotter

What I was reading was already part of my psyche, but finally someone else was saying it's okay to walk alone. — Charlie Trotter

If you go around the kitchen and ask my employees what they want to be doing in three to five years, most of them, if they're being honest, will tell you that they don't want to be working for me. They want to have their own place. And I think that's great. — Charlie Trotter

Chefs, as a whole, say yes to any project, fundraiser, or tasting because they have such a generous spirit. — Charlie Trotter

I'd not sign away my liberty to any man,' Alice answered with spirit.'Wives have no more rights than servants.But once we women have the vote,we'll change all that. — Janet MacLeod Trotter

My friends back home call me a warrior. In fact I'm a butterfly-faced warrior. — DeeDee 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 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. — Charlie Trotter

The dispassionate intellect, the open mind, the unprejudiced observer, exist in an exact sense only in a sort of intellectualist folk-lore; states even approaching them cannot be reached without a moral and emotional effort most of us cannot or will not make. — Wilfred Trotter

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 I'd read that book by Faulkner.' I want time to delve back into Thoreau and Kafka. — Charlie Trotter

When God delays in fulfilling our little thoughts, it is to have Himself room to work out His great ones. — Lilias Trotter

I've always been a little crazy. — Charlie Trotter

Do what you love. Love what you do. Take less. Give more. Never quit. Never follow. Be passionate. Be bold. Be honest. Respect people. Respect the environment. Always bring out the best in your family and friends. Change is the only constant. Fear is an illusion. Attitude is everything. — Sonnie Trotter

I have a certain point of view, a certain way to plate food, certain ingredients that I like to use. — Charlie Trotter

If you know what you're doing, you can make a meal happen with any kitchen knife. But using a top-quality knife versus a low-quality one is the difference between driving a Jaguar and a VW Jetta across the country. They'll both get you there. But the Jaguar will give you a much smoother ride. — Charlie Trotter

When I graduated I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn't want a conventional career. — Charlie Trotter

It is necessary to guard ourselves from thinking that the practice of the scientific method enlarges the powers of the human mind. Nothing is more flatly contradicted by experience than the belief that a man distinguished in one or even more departments of science, is more likely to think sensibly about ordinary affairs than anyone else. — Wilfred Trotter

I couldn't really relate to the fraternity or party scene, to the people out in the mall every day protesting one thing or another. I felt like there was no one I could relate to. — Charlie Trotter

I try to keep my religion and politics separate. But I do prefer my stunts on Sundays. "I know you have a lot to worry about during the week, Jesus, but can you just watch over me, keep me alive, that day?" — Steve Trotter

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

My plan is to work on a master's in philosophy. — Charlie Trotter

You can't predict how much time you will get to embrace your opportunity. You have to go after it with everything you have in you, sacrifice and believe. — DeeDee 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 food become the skilled artists of their time. — Charlie Trotter

Any fool can be happy. What I'm interested in is satisfaction. There's got to be more to life than just being happy. You've got to be fulfilled. You've got to be satisfied; philosophically satisfied is what I mean. — Charlie Trotter

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. — Charlie Trotter

Life's too short. You may be on this planet for 80 years at best or who knows, but you can't just pedal around and do the same thing forever. — Charlie Trotter

Can't you see,Jimmy?It's not a war about our freedom,it's a power struggle between rulers and bosses wanting more land,more power.The likes of you and me are just cannon fodder in their draft war.We should have nothing to do with it,let alone be supporting it! The only fight that concerns the working man is the one the trades unions are fighting against the bosses.That's the only struggle I'm bothered about and I don't give a toss if they're British bosses or German! — Janet MacLeod Trotter

An event experienced is an event perceived, digested, and assimilated into the substance of our being, and the ratio between the number of cases seen and the number of cases assimilated is the measure of experience. — Wilfred Trotter

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. — Charlie Trotter

such as the fact that Strider was called Trotter until a very late stage in the writing of the book; that Trotter was at one time a hobbit, so named because he wore wooden shoes; that — J.R.R. Tolkien

My parents couldn't be looser. It was the ultimate laissez faire upbringing. — 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

The first step into the realm of giving is ... not manward but Godward: an utter yielding of our best. So long as our idea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things, we have never grasped its true meaning: that is not worthy of the name for 'no polluted thing' can be offered. — Lilias Trotter

The body cannot produce enzymes in perfect combinations to metabolize your foods as completely as the food enzymes created by nature do. This results in partially digested fats, proteins, and starches that can clog your body's intestinal tract and arteries. — Charlie Trotter

I'm all about making money. It's the greatest thing, because it means you get money to spend. — Charlie Trotter

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

I don't ever want to lose that mind-set where you've got to be able to realize different ideas-slash-fantasies-slash-possibilities in your life. — Charlie Trotter

The fundamental activity of medical science is to determine the ultimate causation of disease. — Wilfred Trotter

The air of caricature never fails to show itself in the products of reason applied relentlessly and without correction. The observation of clinical facts would seem to be a pursuit of the physician as harmless as it is indispensable. [But] it seemed irresistibly rational to certain minds that diseases should be as fully classifiable as are beetles and butterflies. This doctrine ... bore perhaps its richest fruit in the hands of Boissier de Sauvauges. In his Nosologia Methodica published in 1768 ... this Linnaeus of the bedside grouped diseases into ten classes, 295 genera, and 2400 species. — Wilfred Trotter

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. — Charlie Trotter

The idea that you have to pursue greatness ... it's up to you; it's your life. — Charlie Trotter

Take the very hardest thing in your life - the place of difficulty, outward or inward, and expect God to triumph gloriously in that very spot. Just there He can bring your soul into blossom. — Lilias Trotter

Experts don't apply rules, make decisions or solve problems.
They do what comes naturally, and it almost always works. When
they fail it often is because they are pitted against another
expert. — Robert J. Trotter

A jazz musician can improvise based on his knowledge of music. He understands how things go together. For a chef, once you have that basis, that's when cuisine is truly exciting. — Charlie Trotter

I would always be embarrassed to read out loud in class because I would transpose words and letters and things. — Charlie Trotter

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. — Charlie Trotter

For over 20 years, I have been saying that Chicago is by far one of the greatest food cities in the world. — Charlie Trotter

I was always inspired by restaurants like La Tulipe in Manhattan. You'd walk right by and say, 'Oh what a lovely house.' You didn't realize there was a restaurant behind the door. — Charlie Trotter

Kaylee giggled as he tunneled up inside her sleeve.
Out popped his head for a quick look, then he took leave.
He enjoyed scaling up, down and around her shirt.
What a sweet, funny and adorable flirt. — Melinda K. Trotter

Maybe it's good to be traumatized in your youth, to make you think differently and step outside the box. Anybody can be comfortable, but if you get your world rocked, shaken as it were, then maybe it causes you to really go to a whole other level in a different way. — Charlie Trotter

He was a noble man, as well as a nobleman." * "Mannerheim did not grow up among the masses, but in a castle.... he was a cosmopolite in the age of nationalism; an aristocrat in the age of democracy; a conservative in the age of revolutions."t — William R. Trotter

The mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with similar energy. It would not perhaps be too fanciful to say that a new idea is the most quickly acting antigen known to science. If we watch ourselves honestly we shall often find that we have begun to argue against a new idea even before it has been completely stated. — Wilfred Trotter

My father was a successful entrepreneur. — Charlie Trotter

I believe in focusing on details. — Charlie Trotter

I bounced off a rock at the bottom and saw stars for a second, but I wasn't knocked out. It's the rush of rushes, the most incredible feeling I've ever had. — Steve Trotter

I got on a Dostoyevsky kick right after college. I started with 'Crime and Punishment,' went on to 'The Possessed' and then 'The Brothers Karamazov' and 'The Idiot.' — Charlie Trotter

The art of cooking is among the most intimate things that we can do for another. — Charlie Trotter

A great word becomes a great sentence with great meaning from great writers who have a great imagination and who enchant greatness — Mark Peter Evans

I'm strapped in [the barrel] with a five-point drag-racing harness. With 50 feet to go, they tell me on the walkie-talkie to get ready for a head-first. "We love ya, man," was the last thing I heard. Then I could feel myself going over. — Steve Trotter

I have a Missouri Fox Trotter. So mine's like a quarter horse, but just a much better gait - it moves very fast. — Mitt Romney

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

Achieving excellence is being passionate about what you're doing and working so hard that they have to hire two people to replace you. — Charlie Trotter

Institutions that adopt systems and use them in certified ways in 2011 and 2012 could getting about $50,000 per doctor in total payments by being meaningful users of certified EHR technology over the period from 2011 to 2016. — Fred Trotter

I have always looked at it this way: If you strive like crazy for perfection - an all-out assault on total perfection - at the very least you will hit a high level of excellence, and then you might be able to sleep at night. To accomplish something truly significant, excellence has to become a life plan. — Charlie Trotter

The various systems of doctrine that have held dominion over man have been demonstrated to be true beyond all question by rationalists of such power-to name only a few-as Aquinas and Calvin and Hegel and Marx. Guided by these master hands the intellect has shown itself more deadly than cholera or bubonic plague and far more cruel. The incompatibility with one another of all the great systems of doctrine might surely be have expected to provoke some curiosity about their nature. — Wilfred Trotter

Well, I kind of think that the opposite is true. The customer is rarely right. And that is why you must seize the control of the circumstance and dominate every last detail: to guarantee that they're going to have a far better time than they ever would have had if they tried to control it themselves. — Charlie Trotter

I love cookbooks for completely different reasons. I love 'The Harry's Bar Cookbook' and Marco-Pierre White's 'White Heat' for their feel. For pure learning, Gray Kunz wrote a great cookbook, 'The Elements of Taste', published in 2001. The first time I read Charlie Trotter's, the Chicago chef's first cookbook, I was blown away. — Marcus Samuelsson

On Sunday mornings Squealer, holding down a long strip of paper with his
trotter, would read out to them lists of figures proving that the production of
every class of foodstuff had increased by two hundred per cent, three hundred
per cent, or five hundred per cent, as the case might be. The animals saw
no reason to disbelieve him, especially as they could no longer remember very
clearly what conditions had been like before the Rebellion. All the same, there
were days when they felt that they would sooner have had less figures and more
food. — George Orwell

Always make stock in a large quantity and freeze it in plastic bags. That way, when you want to make a nice soup or boil veggies, you can simply pull the bag out of the freezer. — Charlie Trotter

The Pension Dressler stood in a side street and had, at first glance, the air rather of a farm than of a hotel. Frau Dressler's pig, tethered by one hind trotter to the jamb of the front door, roamed the yard and disputed the kitchen scraps with the poultry. He was a prodigious beast. Frau Dressler's guests prodded him appreciatively on the way to the dining-room, speculating on how soon he would be ripe for killing. The milch-goat was allowed a narrower radius; those who kept strictly to the causeway were safe, but she never reconciled herself to this limitation and, day in, day out, essayed a series of meteoric onslaughts on the passers-by, ending, at the end of her rope, with a jerk which would have been death to an animal of any other species. One day the rope would break; she knew it, and so did Frau Dressler's guests. — Evelyn Waugh

You've got to give away what you love. — Charlie Trotter

If you want the meaning of families and life and religion and philosophy rolled into one package, all you need to read is 'The Brothers Karamazov.' — Charlie Trotter

The globe-trotter lives in a smaller world than the peasent. He is always breathing an air of locality. London is a place to be compared to Chicage; Chicago is a place, to be compared to Timbuctoo. But Timbuctoo is not a place, sonce there, at least, live men who regard it as the universe, and breathe, not an air of locality, but the winds of the world. The man in the saloon steamer has seen all the races of men; and is thinking of the things that devide men - diet, dress, decorum, rings in the nose as in Africa, or in the ears as in Europe, blue paint among the ancients, or red paint among the modern Britons. The man in the cabbage field has seen nothing at all; but he is thinking of the things that unite men - hunger and babies, and the beauty of women, and the promise or menace of the sky. — G.K. Chesterton

I have always considered desserts to be of equal importance to the savory food. — Charlie Trotter

The first [quality] to be named must always be the power of attention, of giving one's whole mind to the patient without the interposition of anything of oneself. It sounds simple but only the very greatest doctors ever fully attain it ... The second thing to be striven for is intuition. This sounds an impossibility, for who can control that small quiet monitor? But intuition is only interference from experience stored and not actively recalled ... The last aptitude I shall mention that must be attained by the good physician is that of handling the sick man's mind. — Wilfred Trotter

A pig's trotter is a fantastic thing. The first night of my honeymoon in Paris, my wife fell asleep in her steak tartare, so my trotter kept me company. — Fergus Henderson

The ordinary patient goes to his doctor because he is in pain or some other discomfort and wants to be comfortable again; he is not in pursuit of the ideal of health in any direct sense. The doctor on the other hand wants to discover the pathological condition and control it if he can. The two are thus to some degree at cross purposes from the first, and unless the affair is brought to an early and happy conclusion this diversion of aims is likely to become more and more serious as the case goes on. — Wilfred Trotter

Turn your soul's vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him. — Lilias Trotter

You have to be critical of what you do every day, to analyze it and be willing to push it further. — Charlie Trotter

Disease often tells its secrets in a casual parenthesis. — Wilfred Trotter

I don't care what the airlines say, there is no such thing as a non-stop flight. — Steve Trotter

It is sometimes asserted that a surgical operation is or should be a work of art ... fit to rank with those of the painter or sculptor ... That proposition does not admit of discussion. It is a product of the intellectual innocence which I think we surgeons may fairly claim to possess, and which is happily not inconsistent with a quite adequate worldly wisdom. — Wilfred Trotter

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. — Charlie Trotter

Cuisine is only about making foods taste the way they are supposed to taste. — Charlie Trotter

I'd rather climb 14a and eat whatever I want than climb 14d and measure out my food. — Sonnie Trotter

I don't know how to put this gently, but I'm trying to tackle the biggest question of all, which is the God question. — Charlie Trotter

It was not noisy prejudice that caused the work of Mendel to lie dead for thirty years, but the sheer inability of contemporary opinion to distinguish between a new idea and nonsense. — Wilfred Trotter

Students need to learn how to think critically, how to argue opposing ideas. It is important for them to learn how to think. You can always cook. — Charlie Trotter

I'm a big believer in the Christian faith. I don't push it on anyone, though. — Steve Trotter