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I had turned down other head chef jobs. I didn't want to take over someone else's cuisine. I wanted to start from scratch.

I ended up wanting to be a cook and hold my own in a restaurant.

The summer before I went to culinary school, my family wanted me to take a job on a movie to make sure that I was making the right decision. I think they hoped I would change my mind about culinary school.

My dad was in the restaurant business, but I didn't really think about following him. Had I done better at school, I don't know if I would have been a chef.

I always knew I wanted to be a chef.

There are so many things you can do with a culinary degree.

I studied to be a chef as a side thing, a little hobby that I enjoyed doing, but I ended up falling madly in love with the food and the lifestyle.

If you want to become a great chef, you have to work with great chefs. And that's exactly what I did.

Having realised that in cooking there was a vast field of study and development, I said to myself, 'Although I had not originally intended to enter this profession, since I am in it, I will work in such a fashion that I will rise above the ordinary, and I will do my best to raise again the prestige of the chef de cuisine.'

I wanted to learn everything I could about what it takes to be a great chef. It was a turning point for me.