Recipes are just descriptions of one person’s take on one moment in time. They’re not rules.

All the information you could want is constantly streaming at you like a runaway truck - books, newspaper stories, Web sites, apps, how-to videos, this article you're reading, even entire magazines devoted to single subjects like charcuterie or wedding cakes or pickles.

I'm a big fan of featuring all of the local shellfish and seafood provided.

If I hear something's not quite going right, then I'm there quicker than if I hear something's going wrong.

There are pockets of great food in Spain, but there are also pockets of very mediocre food in Spain, and the same in Morocco and the same in Croatia and the same in Germany and the same in Austria.

One of the most important leadership lessons is realizing you're not the most important or the most intelligent person in the room at all times.

The Chinese five-spice works really well in the quantity that I used. It makes it almost imperceptibly just a little bit sweeter without making it really sweet or really even that Asian flavored.