Quote

When a dish really hits a nerve with the American palate, it can really take off across the entire country, facilitated by food vendors' freedom to copy good ideas.

Every dish doesn't have to be showy, and every dish doesn't have to slap you in the face with technique.

Whenever we create dishes, we work very carefully and ask ourselves, 'Is there anything on the dish that really doesn't make the dish better?' Then we eliminate that. We try to stay very focused on really showcasing everything on the plate so nothing gets lost.

We all have to be dishes on a plate eventually, with the way we are marketed, but I have no intention of being a cheap Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet.

I cook all the time, and I cook all different kinds of things, but never Mexican at home. That's my work.

I grew up in Harlem. My grandmother was one of the best cooks around, but the first thing she did on Sunday mornings when she started cooking a daylong meal was to take a big block of lard from the back of the refrigerator and throw it into the pan. I know how Hispanics buy their food, and it is not always nutritious.

I would try doing a dish 30 different ways.

After working for TV, you realise that the majority of the population still wonders where their next meal is coming from.

At home I serve the kind of food I know the story behind.

There are only two kinds of employees that I've run across in 30 years. There are ones that get results, and ones that make excuses. If you're in that second camp, you're not going to like Dish.