When the taste changes with every bite and the last bite tastes as good as the first, that's Cajun.

I'm a professional cook. I've worked with other cooks from all over the world, but my family is not that way - they're always lived within 25 miles of my hometown!

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

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!

One of my missions was to teach.

We closed the restaurant in New Orleans and brought the entire staff to San Francisco. But we had to go home.

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.