I grew up in the kitchen, mostly with my grandfather, my mother and my aunt Raffy.

I think children learning to cook can be such a wonderful thing. It can help build confidence, make them feel good about themselves. It helped me build my ego and even start to get acceptance at school. I'd bring things to class that I'd cooked at home.

I think you can tell the food is close to my heart, too, because I'm doing what I do best.

I wasn't looking to get into TV. My family was in the movie business, so I was never interested in that world.

These days it's cool to be ethnic and to be different, but when I was a kid, it was not cool - at all. My friends would come over and my mom would make crepes with eggs, stuffed with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and spinach. And they'd be like, 'What is this?'

I don't eat a lot of anything. A little bit of everything, but not a lot of everything. Small meals all day long.

My goal is to make Italian food clean and accessible and beautiful and tasty, with simple ingredients that people can find at a local grocery store, because people don't want to go to a gourmet shop in search of items that will sit in their pantry for years after they use just a teaspoon or pinch of them.