I've Never Really Had A Problem With

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.

I Respected It. I Submerged Myself Into It. So On A Lot Of Days Off I Would Go And Fish With The Fishermen And The Families That Ran The Boats. I Would Go Work The Fields With Farmers. I Would Go And Talk With Farmers About Growing Particular Products For Me.

Home Base Is The Support System Where We Have A Culinary Team, My Own Writers Because Of The Shows And The Books And Stuff, We Have A Culinary Team Of About Six People. Marketing, Public Relations, Accounting And All That Sort Of Stuff.

Many Of My Staff Have Been With Me For Over 20 Years. I Have A Great Team, And I Make Sure They Feel Respected And Appreciated.

Music Is One Of Those Things That Is Constantly Going In My Head All The Time. It's Sort Of Like The Evolution And Creation Of Doing Food, Or My Philosophy About Wine. It's Always Beating In My Head, So It Keeps The Spirit Moving.