Nobody believed the 'Food Network' could last. Even I was short sighted and thought to myself, 24 hours of food on TV? They'll run out of things to talk about in four days! But that wasn't true. 'Food Network' continues to get better and evolve.

When I’m hiring a cook for one of my restaurants, and I want to see what they can do, I usually ask them to make me an omelette.

I seem to respond most to places that are more cosmopolitan because of my Manhattan upbringing. Some of the major international cities I've visited, like Madrid, Rome and London, have a lot of similarities and "New York" elements while ... having their own flavor.

I don't have a long family history of good cooks in my family.

Cooking is a subject you can never know enough about. There is always something new to discover.

There are so many great things about this business. Almost everybody is on the same team. It is all for one-friendly competitiveness. No one is out to hurt anyone.

I dropped out of high school. I really had no interest in doing any school work whatsoever.