It's an interesting thing, Top Chef. Some of the contestants will make you one great dish, and then make you something on the next show that will make you say, "Is that the same person?"

I believe that London is the most exciting food city in Europe.

Italian food is all about ingredients and it's not fussy and it's not fancy.

There's a lot of processed food in America and I know that can make some tourists who're used to fresh food feel sick.

Television in the '80s was very limited. There was no Food Network. When I opened Spago, I had the kitchen in the dining hall. It was probably the first restaurant to do so. The dining scene became more casual. All these cooking shows have transformed our profession one-hundred percent.

I left school when I was 14 to work in kitchens.

One of the things I've found now, not just for television, but in the restaurant, is that you have many anxious chefs, who know how to cook twenty recipes really well, but they don't have a good foundation for other things.