My grandfather gave me inspiration to cook, and love food and flavors. My Aunt Raffie, gave me creativity and the inspiration to create new things. My mother inspires me to find simplicity in food.

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

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

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

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?'

Every time I think I have something under control, it changes and I don't have it under control. I think it takes several years to get there. Jade is 19 months old, so right now I'm on alert all the time. And as a mom I think you're constantly worrying about things.

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