Somewhere between 50 to 60 percent of the food you eat has been touched by immigrant hands and it is fair to say some of them are not here as they should be here. But if you didn't have these folks you would be spending a lot more - three four or five times more - for food or we would have to import food and have all the food security risks.

Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.

'The Food Network' was just starting in New York and I was getting lots of attention from Mesa Grill. They had no money so if you couldn't get there by subway you couldn't be on. It wasn't like TV was something I really wanted to do - but I knew it would be great publicity for my restaurants.

If my daughter wants to get into this business I would support that decision. She's going to have a hard time not being in it. She loves food and she's around it all the time.

My last meal? The food would be much less significant than the company.

I've always hoped 'Chopped' would telegraph our enormous affection and love and admiration for chefs and food but at the same time we are inflicting extraordinary cruelty on them.

As the earth spins through space a view from above the North Pole would encompass most of the wealth of the world - most of its food productive machines doctors engineers and teachers. A view from the opposite pole would encompass most of the world's poor.

Food was always a big part of my life. My grandfather was one of 14 kids and his parents had a pasta factory so as a kid he and his siblings would sell pasta door to door. After he became a movie producer he opened up De Laurentiis Food Stores - one in Los Angeles and one in New York.

I'm the person who wouldn't send back my food even if I got steak when I'd ordered fish.

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 we're going to kick this up a little bit.