It's funny how I use social media because I don't use it to promote my restaurants that much. I use it for social issues and I think that's what it's for. I do a few things - I mess around with music a lot because that's a passion of mine. If something strikes me and I want to share it I do.

If you're going through friendship issues I would say first of all take a step back. How important is the friendship to you? Sometimes if someone's not being a good friend to you and isn't treating you the way you should be treated then you kind of have to move on sometimes.

I am conservative with a small 'c.' It's possible to be conservative in fiscal policy and tolerant on moral issues or questions of freedom of expression.

We're going to do everything possible to make sure that food safety is always paramount and that we work with the industry as aggressively as we can to make sure that we're paying attention to the food-safety issues.

Learning about issues such as sustainability and locavorism are things that you need to have as part of you as a chef because it will make you cook more delicious food.

I used to work a lot on food issues and every time somebody predicted that production would be inadequate they got egg on their face a year or two later.

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.

The public should know that the liability issues here have yet to be resolved or even raised. If you're a farmer and you're growing a genetically engineering food crop those genes are going to flow to the other farm.

Food during my early years was a very difficult issue for me. I grew up in an addictive family. My mother had serious problems with alcohol and prescription drugs. I was an overweight kid. I can remember back in those days there weren't the strategies that there are today to deal with those issues.

There were a lot of people dreaming about making films and they would finance maybe 6 films a year. Because they were funded by the government the films sort-of had to deal with serious social issues - and as a result nobody went to see those films.