I use other cookbooks for inspiration. I must say I tend to cook from my own cookbooks for parties.

I time everything. I'm a scientist at heart.

My favorite fall or winter lunch is big steaming bowls of soup. I usually invite people for around 12:30 and have two hearty soups like shrimp corn chowder and lentil sausage soup, which can be made a day or two ahead.

The most overrated tool: a pasta maker. Why make it when you can buy it? It's a lot of work!

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

I get up every day, do the best that I can do, and go home and have a good time.

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