If I have committed any culinary atrocities, please forgive me.

I went in saying I wanted to be the food guy.

I cook everything. I love Mediterranean cooking, I love Asian cooking. I do lots of Japanese noodles.

However, I was a restaurant critic at Chicago magazine before I worked at Esquire, and I've been a really enthusiastic home cook for a long time. It's just something I'm passionate about.

The great mystery to me is how restaurant critics think they can get away with doing their job without anybody noticing who they are.

You know the great irony is that people think you have to have money to enjoy fine food, which is a shame.

Believe me, I understand the need for easy and speedy. After a 12-hour day of shooting 'Chopped,' say, I'm talking stir-fry, spaghetti, heck, peanut-butter sandwiches. But that's not about the joy of food. That's survival.