Observer Food Monthly's chefs of the decade - in pictures

Nigella Lawson: 'I think the fact that I am a bit of a kitchen klutz and fit cooking into an already busy life means that I cook in much the same way as my readers, or viewers.' Photographed at Universal Studios, Los Angeles on 12 September 2013 Photograph: Barry J Holmes

Ferran Adrià: 'What we did is to reconceptualise. The Romans wore their togas above their knees, but it took Mary Quant to reconceptualise that fashion as the mini skirt.' Photographed at el Taller, Barcelona on 2 October 2013 Photograph: Murdo MacLeod

Joan Roca: 'From a very young child, I learned to cook by playing.' Photographed at El Celler de Can Roca , Girona on 19 August 2013 Photograph: Murdo Macleod

Fergus Henderson: 'Someone was doing a tasting menu in New York and had half a raw sheep's head. It was all wrong – you like offal so you've got to be hard. No.' Photographed at the Royal Air Force Museum, London on 20 September 2013 Photograph: Murdo Macleod

Jamie Oliver: 'You are constantly battling with being a geek and lover of line-caught, organic, wonderful things and looking out for what's happening to an average Brit.' Photographed in London N1 on 29 August 2013 Photograph: Murdo Macleod

David Chang: 'I love the intensity of the fine-dining kitchen, but loathe the fine-dining experience.' Photographed in New York on 9 August 2013
Photograph: Steve Schofield

René Redzepi: 'If you let success become something you can't live without, you will make the stupidest, most awful decisions to protect it.' Photographed in Copenhagen on 15 August 2013 Photograph: John Reardon

Gordon Ramsay: 'I'm working smarter, but nowhere near as hard ... It's a long game.' Photographed in London on 12 July 2013 Photograph: Gary Salter

Alain Ducasse: 'Faire, faire, faire et faire savoir.' Photographed at Plaza Athénée, Paris on 3 September 2013 Photograph: Murdo MacLeod

Heston Blumenthal, winner the OFM award's chef of the decade: 'Three or four times a week my maitre d' would come up to the pass and say, "Sorry chef the table in the window says there is nothing on the menu they can eat so they are leaving." ... They thought they were part of a practical joke or something." Photographed in London Photograph: John Reardon