My mother would put me on a wooden box at the stove and tell me to call her if certain things would happen. Like if the steam turns blue, that is danger!

Some people absorb in different ways. I didn't realize until I was 15 years old how much I retained.

Have fun. Do something nobody else had done before, or has done since.

I don't think life is to be taken too seriously. Take it too seriously, and it'll getcha.

I think the most wonderful thing in the world is another chef. I'm always excited about learning new things about food.

I opened my own restaurant when I was 17. I went broke, then traveled around the country, learning about different kinds of foods, had three other restaurants that went broke. It didn't all start just a few years ago!

In '71 or '72 I returned to New Orleans and stayed there. I started cooking Louisiana food. Of all the things I had cooked, it was the best-and it was my heritage.