I’m working harder than ever now, and I’m putting on my pants the same as I always have. I just get up every day and try to do a little better than the day before, and that is to run a great restaurant with great food, great wine, and great service. That’s my philosophy.

Lagasse frames success not as celebrity or accolades but as disciplined, repeatable work: showing up daily, staying grounded (“putting on my pants the same as I always have”), and pursuing incremental improvement. The quote emphasizes humility and process over status—an ethos common to craft professions where consistency matters. His “philosophy” ties personal work ethic directly to the guest experience: great food, wine, and service are presented as the concrete measures of excellence. Implicitly, he rejects complacency after fame, insisting that leadership in hospitality is earned each day through attention to standards and continual refinement.