A party without cake is really just a meeting.

You learn to cook so that you don't have to be a slave to recipes. You get what's in season and you know what to do with it.

I love to teach - that's my role.

When you flip anything, you really you just have to have the courage of your convictions.

The dinner hour is a sacred, happy time when everyone should be together and relaxed.

the more experience you have, the more interesting cooking is because you know what can happen to the food. In the beginning you can look at a chicken and it doesn't mean much, but once you have done some cooking you can see in that chicken a parade of things you will be able to create.

I was kind of an innocent hayseed from a middle-class, utterly nonintellectual background.