- Adam Jones: [on his restaurant] We should be dealing in culinary orgasms. When is the last time you had an orgasm that was interesting?
- Helene: Remind me never ever to discuss food with you in public.
- Reece: You're better than me. But the rest of us need you to lead us to places we wouldn't otherwise go.
- Sara: He scares me.
- David: He's a two-star Michelin chef. He's supposed to be scary.
- Sara: Well, "two" doesn't seem like many.
- David: To get even one Michelin star, you have to be like Luke Skywalker. Okay? To get two, you have to be... whoever Alec Guinness was. But if you manage to get three... you're Yoda.
- Sara: Well, what if he's Darth Vader?
- Adam Jones: I don't want my resturant to be a place where people sit and eat. I want people to sit at that table and be sick with longing.
- Adam Jones: [Listening to his analyst] Should I be writing this down? Because I don't have a crayon.
- Adam Jones: [waking on the kitchen floor] What is this, hell?
- Reece: Yeah, I suppose it is. Well, the mercy of your enemy is a kind of hell.
- Adam Jones: [Eating lunch at a Burger King in London] What you should have said is that the problem with this place is it's too consistent. And consistency is death.
- Helene: Consistency is what every great chef strives for.
- Adam Jones: No, a chef should strive to be consistent in experience, but not consistent in taste. It's like sex. It's like, you're always headed to the same place, but you got to find new and dangerous way of getting there.
- Tony: In Paris, it happened two times a week. I used to worry, now I don't. Believe me, the only person who will kill Adam Jones is Adam Jones.
- [first lines]
- Adam Jones: Jean Luc, my mentor - the guy who gave me a chance as a chef - said to me it was God who created oysters and apples. And you can't improve recipes like that. But it is our job to try.
- Adam Jones: Being a young chef, I sure as hell tried. I spent ten years cooking in Paris and became head chef of Jean Luc's restaurant. I was good. Some nights I was almost as good as I thought I was. 999,696... 697... At least that's what I'm told. 698... 699... Then I destroyed it all. My devils chased me out of Paris and I washed up in New Orleans. I sentenced myself to hard labor shucking oysters. 999,999. And today's the last day of my penance. One million.
- [slurps it down]
- Michel: [to Adam] When are you gonna do something about Medusa out there? You're pushing her too hard. If you're not careful, she's gonna end up like you. And we can't have a kitchen with two of you in it.
- Adam Jones: You know, people pay prostitutes extra to fake orgasms. Maybe Tony pays you extra to fake concern.
- Tony: Well, if you go, you should take someone with you. Someone to stop you from getting into a fight with him.
- Adam Jones: Oh, you mean like you?
- Tony: No.
- Adam Jones: Your therapist's got a big mouth.
- Tony: Nothing you didn't know. You said in your restaurant everything was possible, but, um, I know not everything is possible. Besides, you're not as pretty as you once were.
- Adam Jones: Hey, Tony. Uh, you hungry? Can I... can I make you breakfast or something?
- Tony: You mean, cook me breakfast instead of falling in love with me?
- Adam Jones: Yeah.
- Tony: No. Thank you. I already ate. But I appreciate the thought. Take someone nice.
- Simone Forth: You know, when I lie awake at night and list my regrets, you're one of them. I say to myself, "Simone, you're a lesbian. Why did you sleep with Adam Jones?"
- Adam Jones: You want some lunch?
- Helene: No, not here. No.
- Adam Jones: Why not?
- Helene: I prefer to eat food cooked by a proper chef.
- Adam Jones: You don't like people on minimum wage?
- Helene: [scroffs] Mr. Jones, I'm a sous chef. I'm a person on minimum wage.
- Adam Jones: Hey, pretend that you're my *girlfriend*, okay? If Reece knows who you are, he'll steal you away.
- Helene: If I was your girlfriend, you'd probably hold my arm.
- Adam Jones: No, if you were my girlfriend, we would've gotten in an argument in the taxi. We wouldn't even be talking.
- Adam Jones: Closed down any, uh, good restaurants lately?
- Simone Forth: I don't close good restaurants, my reviews close bad ones.
- Dr Rosshilde: In my experience, people who come in here and make silly comments are generally frightened of what they might reveal if they really took the time to be themselves.
- Adam Jones: Oh, I've been myself since the '90s.
- Reece: I heard an idiotic rumor. You're going for third star.
- Adam Jones: I heard an idiotic rumor that you've *gotten* yours. Then I found out it's true.
- Reece: That must have hurt.
- Adam Jones: Eh, I was on heavy painkillers at the time.
- Dr Rosshilde: Someone told you when you were very small that you were good and the world was good, and everything naturally would be good. And then the serpent served you a bad apple, and for all your bullshit, you can't take bad. Not in a souffle, not in an apple, and crucially, not in a person. Whatever it was or whoever it was in the past, it's time to get on with it. And you can't do this alone. There's strength in needing others .. not weakness.
- [Adam has been jumped upon by the French mafia]
- Helene: No, you're not *cooking*, Adam. We can handle it, alright. Just tell me quickly, do you want me to baste them in butter?
- Adam Jones: *Slowly*. And then peel and emulsify.
- Tony: Jesus, you're as bad as he is.