At the end of the day, the TV show is the best job in the world. I get to go anywhere I want, eat and drink whatever I want. As long as I just babble at the camera, other people will pay for it. It's a gift.

The cookbooks I value the most in my collection are the ones where you hear the author's voice and point-of-view in every recipe.

There is no other place on earth even remotely like New Orleans. Don't even try to compare it to anywhere else.

I believe - to the best of my recollection, anyway - that I soon made the classic error of moving from margaritas to actual shots of straight tequila. It does make it easier to meet new people.

When my father passed, I was still an unsuccessful cook with a drug problem. I was in my mid-thirties, standing behind an oyster bar, cracking clams for a living when he died. So, he never saw me complete a book or achieve anything of note. I would have liked to have shared this with him.

I have the best job in the world.

Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so I can profitably sell crutches later.