Food

There’s a food revolution going on throughout the country. And it doesn’t matter if you’re down south, up north in Maine, if you’re out west in Portland or Seattle.

In New York, I’ll walk down the street and someone will say, ‘Nice show,’ and that’s it. If I’m at a food festival, it’s open season.

As a chef, I had started working with groups like Share Our Strength and various local food banks in New York, raising money for hunger-related issues. And not only me, but the entire restaurant industry has been very focused on this issue.

There’s the issue of hunger, and there’s an issue of if you’re going to cut out food programs. We should be focusing on healthy food. Right now, fruits and vegetables are very expensive. So what can we do on the policy side to bring the cost of fruits and vegetables down?

A couple of months ago, I was down in Florida for the Food and Wine Festival. And this journalist grabbed me and said, ‘How does it feel to be a TV guy? You’re no longer in the restaurant business.’ And I laughed. I asked him, ‘How long do you think it takes me to do a season?’ He said, ‘Well, 200 days.’ And I was like, ‘200 days? Try 20!’

Asian food is very easy to like because it hits your mouth very differently than European food does. In European food, there may be two things to hit – maybe sweet and salty, maybe salty-savory, but Asian kind of works around, plus you have that distinct flavor that’s usually working in Asian food.

I think steak is the ultimate comfort food, and if you’re going out for one, that isn’t the time to scrimp on calories or quality.

You have to know the classics if you want to cook modern food.

I can’t deliver lines, but I can talk about food all night long.