For their own good, vegetarians should never be allowed near fine beers and ales. It will only make them loud and belligerent, and they lack the physical strength and aggressive nature to back up any drunken assertions.

It’s an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu, for instance, seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. For a while after, you fumble for words, trying vainly to assemble a private narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where you’ve been and whats happened. In the end, you’re just happy you were there - with your eyes open - and lived to see it.

I am very much enjoying the fatherhood phase of my life.

Unlicensed hooch from a stranger in a parking lot. Good idea? Yes, of course it is.

Very few restaurant workers could even dream of eating in the restaurants they work in. Many do not make a living wage.

I wanted it to look like real cooking in someone's real home or just so out-of-there bizarre that it would be fun.

Tokyo would probably be the foreign city if I had to eat one city's food for the rest of my life, every day. It would have to be Tokyo, and I think the majority of chefs you ask that question would answer the same way.