The impetus behind going to graduate school was a year after graduating from college spent in Dallas working at the dog food factory and Bank America and not having met success in my chosen field which at that point was being an actress.

If you're working out and taking care of your body you don't really want the greasy food that makes you feel tired or blah. You actually crave the good stuff!

After failing four times and after working for other people and realizing that nobody paid attention to the food like they should have we wanted to just pay attention to the food and service.

Everyone would talk about their diets and working out and what it made me do was go to craft services where all the food for the cast and crew was and I would eat.

I'm the only girl on The Food Network who grills - I have two bestselling grilling books. I try to really focus on what men and women can do outside together out on the grill. I think it's really fun to have men and women out there together having fun working and enjoying themselves.

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.

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.

A fly cannot go in unless it stops somewhere therefore weapons fuel food money will not go to Afghanistan unless the neighbors of Afghanistan are working are cooperating either being themselves the origin or the transit.

Part of my job as a food writer is to describe food. So my work on 'Top Chef ' I feel is an extension of that. When we give a criticism to the contestant we want to make sure we tell them why it's not working and why it would work if they did it a different way.

It's all about who's where on the food chain. When I'm the story editor I expect my writers to follow my vision. When I'm working for another editor I'm obliged to follow their vision.