Respect for food is respect for life, for who we are and what we do.

We go through our careers and things happen to us. Those experiences made me what I am.

When I go out to eat, it's usually something moderate in style.

Vegetables to me are - I don't want to say the most exciting part of cooking, but certainly a very exciting part of cooking, because they continue to change. They come into season and they go through different phases.

A cookbook must have recipes, but it shouldn't be a blueprint. It should be more inspirational; it should be a guide.

Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore.

I wonder if I love the communal act of eating so much because throughout my childhood, with four older brothers and a mom who worked in the restaurant business, I spent a lot of time fending for myself, eating alone - and recognizing how eating together made all the difference.