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

For a moment, or a second, the pinched expressions of the cynical, world-weary, throat-cutting, miserable bastards we've all had to become disappears, when we're confronted with something as simple as a plate of food.

I've long believed that good food, good eating, is all about risk. Whether we're talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime 'associates,' food, for me, has always been an adventure

My French definitely improves the more I drink, as I worry less and less about absolutely perfect grammar. I do speak and understand the language, just not particularly well.

You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.

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

My tastes in what I eat at home would be very familiar to most people who cook for families. I just organize those things a little bit differently.