To be a good cook you have to have a love of the good, a love of hard work, and a love of creating.

There are reasons, and then there are excuses.

As we say in the American Institute of Wine and Food, small helpings, no seconds. A little bit of everything. No snacking. And have a good time.

Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.

If you're in a good profession, it's hard to get bored, because you're never finished - there will always be work you haven't done.

Animals that we eat are raised for food in the most economical way possible, and the serious food producers do it in the most humane way possible. I think anyone who is a carnivore needs to understand that meat does not originally come in these neat little packages.

I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.