Way back when I was a junior pastry chef, I'd bake loads of muffins every morning, as many as 120 or so, while operating on autopilot.
Many a death was precipitated by the food, the job, or the medication whose main function was to postpone it.
I lurched away from the table after a few hours feeling like Elvis in Vegas - fat, drugged, and completely out of it.
I have a pet lizard named Puff, five goldfish - named Pinky, Brain, Jowels, Pearl and Sandy, an oscar fish named Chef, two pacus, an albino African frog named Whitey, a bonsai tree, four Venus flytrap...
To want to own a restaurant can be a strange and terrible affliction. What causes such a destructive urge in so many otherwise sensible people? Why would anyone who has worked hard, saved money, often...
Garlic is divine. Few food items can taste so many distinct ways, handled correctly. Misuse of garlic is a crime. Old garlic, burnt garlic, garlic cut too long ago and garlic that has been tragically...
We can't all be bakers or chefs. Many of us have modest ambitions. But we can all buy a piece of the pie.
If you want to become a great chef, you have to work with great chefs. And that's exactly what I did.
I learned so much from 'Iron Chef' about ingredients, about the courage to put yourself out there.
You hit a certain age and - especially because of TV - the young cooks coming up say, 'You're a sellout, because you're doing something other than what you should be doing.' 'Top Chef' is a double-edg...
A jazz musician can improvise based on his knowledge of music. He understands how things go together. For a chef, once you have that basis, that's when cuisine is truly exciting.