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

I think it's important if you're going to write a cookbook, it should sound like you talking - it should be things you actually believe, otherwise I'm not interested.

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.

Anyone who's a chef, who loves food, ultimately knows that all that matters is: Is it good? Does it give pleasure?

Without new ideas success can become stale

Cooking is work that is traditionally done by working-class people. The work itself is not glamorous. It's repetitive, and it's a lot closer to factory work than art, whatever level you're doing it at. Certainly chefs are used to living like rock 'n' rollers to some extent, inasmuch as we get a lot of those fringe benefits without having to learn how to play guitar.

I lurched away from the table after a few hours feeling like Elvis in Vegas - fat, drugged, and completely out of it.