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Before I got in this business I was in the chicken business.

When I arrived at Campbell on January 8, 2001, the company had lost half its market value in the prior year. They had to cut costs to the point where they were literally taking the chicken out of chicken noodle soup and the product was no longer competitive.

I inherited the company from my father after he died very unexpectedly from a heart attack in 1966. He was just 51 years old, and I was 21.

Pork was in 1971, and I stopped hanging out at The Factory by like 1973.

I started a feta cheese company, Euphrates, in upstate New York in 2002.

I started in the supermarket business in the early '70s. And by '75, '76, I realized you don't have a business unless you own the real estate.

I was a very good cook, and I knew I could build a business.

I remember the Food Network when it was first starting out: Emeril Lagasse and all those people who helped make it when it was on a shoestring budget. It actually encouraged me to start cooking.