I worked for the Office of Management and Budget in the White House, on nuclear energy policy. But I decided it would be much more fun to have a specialty food store, so I left Washington D.C. and moved to the Hamptons. And how glad I am that I did!

I love Alton Brown's show 'Good Eats,' about the chemistry of food. It's really thoughtful.

Fun is the most important. If you do stuff for money, it never works out.

All my life I dreamed of an apartment in Paris where I could cook, and now I have one, on the Left Bank.

The most important thing for having a party is that the hostess is having fun. I'm very organized. I make a plan for absolutely everything. I never have anything that has to be cooked while the guests are there. The only thing I might have to do is take something out of the oven and carve it.

Every once in a while, a cookbook comes along that simply knocks me out.

With more and more fast food available, it takes an extra effort to cook delicious, healthy meals. I have always been a proponent of simple, easy food that doesn't take forever to cook so you really can eat well at home.