Food is so personal - I mean someone is talking to you when people are cooking for you. I like to hear an identifiable voice.

I'm a control freak. If you're going to slap my name on something, I would like to control it.

I like telling stories, and I tell stories that interest me. It would be boring to have to go to nothing but the best restaurants. That would be a misery to me.

I'm a guy who should not have a lot of free time. But when it comes to vacation, I like to pull the plug completely. It's all about my daughter - I'm no longer the star of my own movie.

I, personally, think there is a really danger of taking food too seriously. Food should be part of the bigger picture.

If you go to chefs all across America and ask them, 'What's your biggest problem right now?,' It is finding people to cook in their restaurants. They're having an enormous, countrywide problem here staffing their operations.

My house is run, essentially, by an adopted, fully clawed cat with a mean nature.