I didnt want to be encumbered by what anyone elses abilities were, their equipment or environment or their ability to get certain products.

I believe Fernand Point is one of the last true gourmands of the 20th century. His ruminations are extraordinary and thought-provoking. He has been an inspiration for legions of chefs.

I like to drink young wines, wines which are robust and have a lot of forward fruit to them.

They know what my standards are. They know what I need and how to get it to me, and they know how to communicate with me if for some reason they can't get it.

With passion, if you see the first asparagus of the springtime and you become passionate about it, so much the better, but three weeks later, when you’ve seen that asparagus every day now, passions have subsided. What’s going to make you treat the asparagus the same? It’s the desire.

The law of diminishing returns is something I really believe in.

We rely on our purveyors to tell us what's available and what's good.