When I thought my professional career was over, it hadn't even started yet.

My extravagance is my garden - it's the first thing I look at every morning when I wake up. It gives me so much pleasure.

When I wrote 'Barefoot in Paris,' I wanted to make simple recipes that you could make at home that tasted like French classics.

The thing about all my food is that everything is a remembered flavor. Maybe it's something I had as a child or maybe it's something I had in Milan, but I want it to taste better than you ever thought.

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

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

I'm really a scientist. I follow recipes exactly - until I decide not to. And then I'll follow something else exactly. I may decide I could turn this peach tart into a plum tart, but if I'm following a recipe, I follow it exactly.