My inspiration was my mom. She's a great cook, and she still cooks, and we still banter back and forth about cooking. Growing up in a mostly Portuguese community, food was important and the family table was extremely important. At a very young age I understood that.

I'm not a TV guy. I'm a restaurant chef and a businessman.

I think you've got to keep it simple, keep it fresh. Stay away from all that processed stuff, read the labels.

Music is one of those things that is constantly going in my head all the time. It's sort of like the evolution and creation of doing food, or my philosophy about wine. It's always beating in my head, so it keeps the spirit moving.

Growing up in New England, being schooled and classically trained, it needed to shake, it needed to evolve.

I like to keep things simple. It's really about the wine, food and the beach view. Nothing can beat that.

I think you have to be careful with spices. Kids' palates can be very delicate, and they might not like things overspiced. In my cookbooks for kids, I do a milder version of my signature spice blend, Emeril's Essence, called Baby Bam, which has no cayenne pepper.