Look, getting bullied in school and coming home crying in the rain and my mom making me a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup with some oysterettes. It was comfort food; that is what food should be.

In that sense, what a great way to live, if you could always do things that interest you, and do them with people who interest you.

Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one's life.

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 decent cook; I'm a decent chef. None of my friends would ever have hired me at any point in my career. Period.

I don't snack. I don't generally eat sweets or drink soda. I never eat between meals or even before big ones.

Thinking that your story is so interesting that other people will want to listen to it or read it or pay to hear it, that's - what kind of person thinks that? A monster of self-regard. It's not normal thinking.