Cooking is an observation-based process that you can't do if you're so completely focused on a recipe.

The kitchen's a laboratory, and everything that happens there has to do with science. It's biology, chemistry, physics. Yes, there's history. Yes, there's artistry. Yes, to all of that. But what happened there, what actually happens to the food is all science.

Cooking is an observation-based process that you can't do if you're so completely focused on a recipe.

I'm not a slave driver or a yeller. I was yelled at in kitchens and other workplaces.

Take ice. Ice is fascinating to me. Ice is the one thing in our world that went from an agricultural product to being manufactured.

I'm an absolute connoisseur of cheeseburgers and like to think that I can detect even mere percentages of shift in fat content in ground meat in a burger and can actually name the temperature to which it was actually cooked to the degree if I'm, you know, really on my game.

Although I don't take myself very seriously, I do take my work extraordinarily seriously.