We hit it off immediately, especially Helene, who was a 'swallow-life-in-big-gulps' kind of person.

The shellfish thing is very scary. You have to know the people you buy from and exactly where their wholesalers are getting the fish from.

I love to teach - that's my role.

The problem for cookery-bookery writers like me is to understand the extent of our readers' experience. I hope have solved that riddle in my books by simply telling everything. The experienced cook will know to skip through the verbiage, but the explanations will be there for those who still need them.

I think anyone who is a carnivore needs to understand that meat does not originally come in these neat little packages.

The more you know, the more you can create. There's no end to imagination in the kitchen.

The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It's doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile.