My partner and I are looking at several locations on Park Avenue South and Midtown for a new restaurant space.

My contribution I hope is to get people to eat full-flavored food. If I could come away with that alone, that would be a fantastic accomplishment. I'm also very proud of being a very American chef.

In those days, the main requirement to be on the Food Network was being able to get there by subway.

I wasn't passionate about food until I'd been cooking for a while. I started long before food became part of the mainstream media. I just wanted to cook, period.

I love working with big flavors like chiles and smoke. Honey is perfect for softening the edges, mellowing them out a bit. I put it in everything - vinaigrettes, soups, stocks, salsas, so I'm always on the hunt for great honey.

Today, when I hire, I look for people who want to be trained and molded.

I want to go to college and go back to Georgetown. It's a really cool place.