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I watched my parents go from having very basic jobs to educating themselves, to buying a house. They set a really good bar for what they wanted their kids to achieve.

You know, my parents had a restaurant. And I left home, actually, in 1949, when I was 13 years old, to go into apprenticeship. And actually when I left home, home was a restaurant - like I said, my mother was a chef. So I can't remember any time in my life, from age 5, 6, that I wasn't in a kitchen.

Growing up, my mom had a catering business. I used to help her pretty early on and loved doing it. My mom is an amazing cook, and she helped me cultivate a love for food. She taught me that food can be beautiful. We eat not just for survival, but we survive to eat. It's part of who I am.

I went to school and made good grades and went to college. So I was afforded an opportunity through my parents' hard work that most people don't have.

I was raised in restaurants. My parents opened their first restaurant, Buonavia, in Queens when I was just 3. This business has always been my way of life. As a kid, home was reserved only for sleeping. After school, you could find my sister and I helping out at the family restaurant.

Growing up, I knew you were supposed to have a profession - and something better than being a shopkeeper, which is what my parents were.

Your parents would not be happy if you came home and said you wanted to grow up to be a chef or a rock star.

My parents taught me service - not by saying, but by doing. That was my culture, the culture of my family.

My parents grew up working class, but in that way that working class families do, they spent a fortune on education to better me.