I started cooking in kitchens right out of high school and I was lucky to work with a lot of great people but I had no idea it would turn into this. Of course no one should go into this business because they want to be the next Emeril.

For my birthday my husband learned to cook and is cooking one day a week for me. But he only likes to do fancy dishes. So we end up with weird obscure things in the refrigerator.

Pastry is different from cooking because you have to consider the chemistry beauty and flavor. It's not just sugar and eggs thrown together. I tell my pastry chefs to be in tune for all of this. You have to be challenged by using secret or unusual ingredients.

My mom is a really good cook. I didn't get the cooking gene but she cooks this really amazing dinner every Christmas and that's always really fun.

The radiation left over from the Big Bang is the same as that in your microwave oven but very much less powerful. It would heat your pizza only to minus 271.3*C - not much good for defrosting the pizza let alone cooking it.

My inspiration was my mom. She's a great cook and she still cooks and we still banter back and forth about cooking. Growing up in a mostly Portuguese community food was important and the family table was extremely important. At a very young age I understood that.