Alain Ducasse

“The most classic French dessert around the holidays is the Christmas log, with butter cream. Two flavors. Chocolate and coconut. My first job in the kitchen when I was a boy was to make these Christmas logs.”

“My grandmother did all the cooking at Christmas. We ate fattened chicken. We would feed it even more so it would be big and fat.”

“In France, Christmas is a family holiday. You stay home. New Year's Eve is when you go out.”

“Food is one part of the experience. And it has to be somewhere between 50 to 60 percent of the dining experience. But the rest counts as well: The mood, the atmosphere, the music, the feeling, the design, the harmony between what you have on the plate and what surrounds the plate.”

“Failure is enriching. It's also important to accept that you'll make mistakes - it's how you build your expertise. The trick is to learn a positive lesson from all of life's negative moments.”