Being a food show and being me, I always kicked it up a notch, which means I would always elevate the spice level or the complexity of a particular dish. So, it was always like...

When I cook with my son, I might chop vegetables and have fun with different shapes. Cooking is a way to teach kids about other things, like reading or math with all of the weights...

I respected it. I submerged myself into it. So on a lot of days off I would go and fish with the fishermen and the families that ran the boats. I would go work the...

Those other 10 o’clock shows that come on, all you get from them is headaches and nightmares when you go to bed! At least we give you food, know what I mean?

In the restaurant it’s much more serious.

You go to a restaurant in the States and kids have these game boards at the table. You don’t see that in Italy or Spain. It’s not because they can’t afford to buy them, it’s...

Radishes grow just about anywhere. People think, ‘Oh it’s just a radish.’ But radishes are delicious, and people don’t think of cooking them.

I was on the board of Andre Agassi’s foundation, and seeing the way it operated blew my mind. In 2002, I told my wife, I want to start a foundation to give back, I want...

I think you’ve got to keep it simple, keep it fresh. Stay away from all that processed stuff, read the labels.

I wouldn’t ask any of my employees to do anything I wouldn’t do. And I work as hard, if not harder than the rest of the staff, to set an example. I also believe in...

We’ll be going to the fish market and a farmer’s market this afternoon to get what we need to make and eat dinner as a family. I’m trying to expose my kids to going to...

My family… always had the value of the family table and these cultural influences of growing up.

The cool thing is that now that people have made this evolution where cooking is cool, people are doing it on weekends, they’re doing their own challenges. It’s back to cooking. And it’s real cooking.

We’re probably close to reaching 2,000 shows, which is more than Julia Child and Jacques Pepin together.

My office in New York is overflowing with all kinds of cookbooks, and in New Orleans we have a huge culinary library. So yeah, I guess I’m a little bit obsessed.

My favorite Aspen memory is saving an upside-down cake that had exploded from the high altitude.

The premise of ‘The Originals’ are places that have been open 50, 60, 75, 100 years or longer that are still doing it right that maybe a lot of people, particularly the younger generations, have...

You have to be cautious of eating continuously the same thing. Beef comes to mind right away, and there’s nothing wrong with beef, but you’ve got to do whatever you’re doing in moderation. So try...

When it ceases to be fun, I’ll stop and just stay in my restaurants.

My inspiration was my mom. She’s a great cook, and she still cooks, and we still banter back and forth about cooking. Growing up in a mostly Portuguese community, food was important and the family...

You are going to be what you put in your body, so I try to teach that to my kids, and the kids around me.

When I first decided to open a restaurant, I was turned down by several banks. It was the late 80’s and many restaurants were failing. I refused to give up because I knew I had...

You gotta have good olive oil. You should have a cooking olive oil and you should have a finishing olive oil, like an extra-virgin olive oil.

The world has changed, and it’s almost been 11 years. I have 975 employees. I have six restaurants. We haven’t opened any new ones in almost three years.