It's my belief that cooking is a craft. I think that you can push it into the realm of art, but it starts with craft. It starts with an understanding of materials. It starts with an understanding of where foods are grown.

A steak needs fat to taste great.

Every chef should have an understanding of pastries or desserts.

Hunger is a political issue, and there are several things politically that are keeping people hungry - not funding food stamps adequately, not funding school lunches adequately. So there is a political solution to the problem of hunger.

Every season we try to do something new. And not for gimmicks. We feel the show has to evolve and keep changing.

Too often, chefs just want to experiment - they want to use liquid nitrogen before they know how to use heat.

Mushrooms can be very fancy. It's the closest you can get to eating dirt.