I am happiest when I am with my wife, Susi, and our two boys exploring and loving something for the first time.

Any simple but delicious dish that celebrates the season and locality is what I want to be known for.

Everyone makes pesto in a food processor. But the texture is better with a mortar and pestle, and it's just as fast.

The way the bankers have kind of toppled the way money is distributed, and taken most of it into their own hands, is as good as Stalin or Hitler.

I come from an Italian family. One of the greatest and most profound expressions we would ever use in conversations or arguments was a slamming door. The slamming door was our punctuation mark.

Food is much better off the hand than the fork.

You know, when you get your first asparagus, or your first acorn squash, or your first really good tomato of the season, those are the moments that define the cook's year. I get more excited by that than anything else.