What makes the food that we do at Alinea so interesting on the outside is that we really don't let ourselves say no to an idea.

If I had one piece of advice for people - if they are cooking from the Alinea cookbook, the Betty Crocker cookbook or the back of the box - read through the entire recipe first before reaching for any ingredients, and then read again and execute the directions.

It's not really the life of cooking that's hard - it's what you make of it and what level you push yourself to.

I had D minuses in chemistry and all of the sciences, and now I'm known as a molecular gastronomist.

My father would always tell me that creativity didn't matter at the diner. When I was probably 14 or 15, I would put - I mean, it was a no-nonsense place - but I would try to put a sprig of parsley or orange curl on the omelets, or something like that. He'd be like "Don't do that!"

We all eat two to six times a day. Why? Because we are supposed to, we are programmed to, we want to.

Most smoked salts are made with liquid smoke, which is a condensate, but really, really good smoked salt is literally smoked.