As you move through this life...you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life - and travel - leaves marks on you.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it's the restaurant business.

There are chefs who are spectacular technicians, and often their food is worth eating once or twice, but if there's no heart in it, if there's no personality in it, it's not something you want to go back for. But heart without any skill at all? All the heart in the world ain't gonna help you if you can't peel an onion, or if you don't understand how to apply heat properly. A well-done steak is a well-done steak.

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

I was a journeyman chef of middling abilities. Whatever authority I have as a commenter on this world comes from the sheer weight of 28 years in the business. I kicked around for 28 years and came out the other end alive and able to form a sentence.

It's wrong I think, morally and annoying in general, to try to get a kid to be a foodie, so I never even suggested, "Hey baby it's good, maybe you should try it." That never worked for me.

It's been about a week without alcohol of any kind. I'm enjoying my new, clean-living lifestyle.