And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!

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.

For me, thats one of the important things about cooking. What was good enough yesterday may not be good enough today.

Some of the recipes in the book have evolved for us. Many haven't.

Good food is a good trend.

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

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.