In America, there might be better gastronomic destinations than New Orleans, but there is no place more uniquely wonderful.

I'm not going to get off the pony as long as they let me ride it.

[George] Orwell's essays. It's got it all. Great writing, a worldview that I find interesting and useful, and most of it timelessly true.

I don't have to agree with you to like you or respect you.

Those places I don't understand, just doing bad food. It takes some doing. Making good pasta is so much easier than making bad stuff. It actually takes quite an effort to make poor linguine pomodora.

As a chef I’m not your dietitian or your ethicist, I’m in the pleasure business.

If I'm training I'm cutting weight for a competition. I'm hard. I'm pretty much eating animal protein and that's it. No rice, no beans, certainly no sweets.