First and foremost I am a chef, whether behind the stove at one of my Northern California restaurants or for the past 15 years in front of the camera on my Food Network cooking shows. Creating new dishes and flavor combinations that bring cooks and our restaurant guests pleasure is my job and I love it.

Children, if they haven't been introduced to foods by the time they're 3 years old, are afraid of it, as if it would hurt them. They don't really get out of that until they're 6 or 7 - it's a safety mechanism, and you're not going to win.

I love food, all food, everything about food. I enjoy going to the market and having what's in front of me - what's fresh, seasonal - tell me what I'm cooking.

My wife and I love to host wine and cheese parties. They are simple and elegant and you don't have to put a lot of effort and time into it.

Fruit often ends up rotting in the crisper drawer. Well, that's the wrong place to put it. Out of sight, out of mind. The kids all know where the junk-food shelf is. Make the fruit that easy to get to. Put a big huge bowl of fruit on the counter.

Fifty thousand dollars' worth of cabinets isn't going to make you a better cook; cooking is going to make you a better cook. At the end of the day, you can slice a mushroom in about three inches of space, and you can carve a chicken in a foot and a half. So it doesn't matter how big the kitchen is.

I want to be Jacques Pepin. I want to have a nice 50-, 60-year career. I want to be on PBS when I'm 70-something, still kicking it, having a great time, showing up in Aspen to sign cookbooks. I just want to have a nice, big, long career.