I spent a lot of time on farms when I was young. My uncle and my dad owned a big farm.

Kids are now eating things like edamame and sushi. I didn't know what shiitake mushrooms were when I was 10 - most kids today do.

Life just doesn't hand you things. You have to get out there and make things happen. that's the exciting part.

Food is very representative of a city's culture. In order to really get to know a place and the people, you've got to eat the food.

You gotta have good olive oil. You should have a cooking olive oil and you should have a finishing olive oil, like an extra-virgin olive oil.

Cleanliness is very important. If you let kids make a total mess in the kitchen and then leave, you're not really teaching them anything.

My office in New York is overflowing with all kinds of cookbooks, and in New Orleans we have a huge culinary library. So yeah, I guess I'm a little bit obsessed.