You have to be generous if you want to spend your time making someone else dinner. Even if you're charging, you're still giving.

Look at cookbooks with your kids and ask them what sounds good.

There are two activities in life in which we can lovingly and carefully put something inside of someone we love. Cooking is the one we can do three times a day for the rest of our lives, without pills. In both activities, practice makes perfect.

I like cast iron coated with enamel for longevity and forgiveness if I happen to take my eyes off the prize while pouring Chianti.

There's a battle between what the cook thinks is high art and what the customer just wants to eat.

Unlike curing cancer or heart disease, we already know how to beat hunger: food.

The pendulum of cookery techniques became more significant than the actual experience. And when that happens, the customer's satisfaction becomes secondary to the chef's satisfaction. And in that case, you have an upside-down equation. Because the customer is the basis of our restaurant, first of all, and if the chef becomes the most important person at the table - even more so than the guests - then suddenly you're left with something that doesn't really work.