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I'm an American chef. I'm American. I live here. I love being here. But, of course, it is different. A black man's journey is different.

Many of the master chefs in the South, both the upper South as well as the deep South, were blacks and many of those people came here to Washington, D.C., and opened up establishments. Very, very few of them have survived. But they certainly were very prominent.

Everything I do, I go to black people. If I have a problem at the airport, I'll go to the black ticket agent. I hope they notice me because I'll get better service. If I'm at a restaurant, I look for the black waiter. Rent-a-Car, give you the upgrade.

I've always gotten a positive reaction to doing African-American characters.

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'm happy that just about on every other show there's a Latino somewhere present, and we're not all the cooks anymore.

It's very important to me that people who are actual chefs and other professionals in the culinary world, understand that I'm not, and have never held myself out as being, like a CIA trained chef.

I am a chef through and through. Everything I do - whether it is cooking for kids in Harlem or cooking in a fine dining establishment - all my days are consumed by food.

When I go to Atlanta, I'm famous. I can get on a flight, anything. Because they're watching every show, and if you're black, you famous.

Mostly I enjoy the restaurants (my husband is a chef), though I wish we had a wider diversity of ethnic food.