I'm in a loft and the kitchen is in the very center of the apartment. The whole place revolves around it.

I had a little epiphany when I was a writer at 'Chicago' magazine. I sat down to dinner at the Ritz-Carlton. Somebody poured a white dessert wine with chocolate cake. It was a wine I would never have expected to make sense. The idea of any wine tasting fabulous with chocolate cake was fascinating to me.

I'm a home cook and love to read about food, but I'm not trained as a chef. I'm just really into cooking and passionate about it.

People want honest, flavourful food, not some show-off meal that takes days to prepare.

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

Two words to improve any dish. Ba, Con

People who hardly ever cook at all, suddenly at the holidays, feel like it's their responsibility to not only cook dinner for large groups of people suddenly, but to serve things that are fussy or fancy or formal. And I don't think that's what anybody really wants, especially if you're not good at it.