Just over 800 people were gathered around the cooking stage, all eager to learn about my five-minute flavor cooking. The demonstration had to be done right then and there, in front of everyone.

You have to stick out the toughness of the business and form relationships with the people in it.

At times, it was an incredible blessing to have all the attention; at times it was a logistical nightmare.

Be curious, learn and read as much as you can about food. Don't worry about making money. Focus on learning at various venues before you settle down for a steady position.

There are many great wine producers from all over the world making fantastic wines. Italian wines especially are making an enormous comeback after sometimes being labeled as inexpensive jug wines.

I was on the show previously as a guest host, so I had a little practice.

It's a very, very difficult space to operate in, the restaurant business-it requires a lot of human beings to intersect at just the right place to make it all work out.

After guest appearances, I got the offer to do the show as the successor of Arthur Schwartz. It's so much fun.

Just over 800 people were gathered around the cooking stage, all eager to learn about my five-minute flavor cooking. The demonstration had to be done right then and there, in front of everyone.

It is important to experiment and endlessly seek after creating the best possible flavors when preparing foods. That means not being afraid to experiment with various ingredients.

Flavor Five is a book with recipes using five ingredients to possibly be cooked in just five minutes. It will be very user-friendly for the home cook on the run.

I can now focus on a huge audience through TV, books, cookware and foods.

I wanted to share my life story and honor my roots. I am very proud of my family and mother.

Talking up a storm about food is so easy for me, it's second nature.

I came literally to the table with a wealth of knowledge by simply understanding how food should taste.

As a restaurateur, my job is to basically control the chaos and the drama. There's always going to be chaos in the restaurant business.

We are offering to the American public a line of delicious Italian-American foods. They will be available through the Internet, shopping networks and national store distribution.

There really is a camaraderie among chefs and a willingness to help out whenever we can.

In all my work I like to convey the fact that I like cooks, that it's noble toil and that it is hard.

The 1,000 tasting portions were to be served over a period of six hours, starting at noon, so we would have to prep those another way, to keep them as fresh as possible.

Mama is slowly getting better. So many people are so fond of her.

I definitely think there was some overacting on the part of the customers and the wait staff. The people who came in during the shooting were clearly there to have a moment on television, and that's fine.

I was pleasantly surprised after the book came out. It was like, hey, the home team put down a nice score.

I ended up turning down a full scholarship of music at the conservatory to pay to go to cooking school.

You know, this is really a way of cooking. It's not my way. I'm deeply influenced by the Mediterranean way of being. I've spent a lot of time there. And I've sort of translated it; I've tried to make it available to people in this country to whom it might not be familiar.

You know, you've got serious pieces, you've got light pieces, you've got cooking segments, you've got health-related topics, so it's not as if they've had a unique personality from the get-go.

Are you casting asparagus on my cooking?

I just get all jacked up when we start cooking.

There are people who claim to be instinctive cooks, who never follow recipes or weigh anything at all. All I can say is they're not very fussy about what they eat. For me, cooking is an exact art and not some casual game.

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.

I don't believe in low-fat cooking.

I played from the time I was seven years old. My father was my first baseman coach. I had opportunities that I never really pursued - with some Miami teams and a few larger colleges, and then I ended up bailing and began cooking.

I remember when I was in college, I used to watch Julia Child's cooking show during dinner and joke with my roommates about becoming a TV chef.

I'd love to learn to cook. I think the ladies like a guy who can cook. Also, there are lots of available ladies at cooking classes. Can you tell I'm single?

Cook ingredients that you are used to cooking by other techniques, such as fish, chicken, or hamburgers. In other words be comfortable with the ingredients you are using.

Whether one eats a cat or not is a personal choice, and I don't want to sway anyone one way or another. But if you do, there is one obvious cooking tip: Always remember to remove the bell from the cat's collar before cooking.

There are so many things that come into writing a recipe, and it's really important if you're writing for home cooks to be cooking like you are at home.

How is the government going to run without people like us? We make 35 percent of the bread in this country, and that much of the margarine, and cooking oil, and all the other things.

I guess I fell into cooking.

I was aiming for the cooks that I've talked to by teaching an online course and by traveling, listening to people who are really busy and harried but want to be cooking.

I do the cooking at home. Where we eat no more than 100 grams of meat a day and have 'tons' of fresh vegetables. I prepare the vegetables with a wide range of herbs, spices and such. We also keep on hand lots of fruit, yogurt and great breads.

My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor.

The first meal was an object lesson of much variety. My father produced several kinds of food, ready to eat, without any cooking, from little tin cans that had printing all over them.

Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore.

I started cooking when I was about 10. I have memories like when I was 6 or 7 with my mom, and when I was 12 I started getting real serious about cooking.

My mother was a good recreational cook, but what she basically believed about cooking was that if you worked hard and prospered, someone else would do it for you.

If people are going to be cooking the books, you're in trouble.

I like to get where the cabbage is cooking and catch the scents.

In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.