I had all kinds of food issues, including health concerns and weight concerns.

Often for hors d'oeuvres, I serve room temperature vegetables, something like that, so that the main course might be quite rich but the first course has balanced it out.

Generally a chef's book is like a calling card or a portfolio to display their personal work.

I often write into recipes techniques that I learned in the restaurant kitchen. There are ways of organizing your prep and so on that are immensely useful. Those are woven into all the recipes I do.

Confit is the ultimate comfort food, and trendy or not, it is dazzling stuff.

I was working in restaurants as a captain and as a waiter.

A lot of people love the idea of improvising but are terrified of it, so I tried to make a book that was not a chef's book about improvising but a real home cook's book with a real home cook's pantry, supermarket ingredients, that sort of thing.