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I'm going to work on food culture and help food become fun and part of peoples' lives again. The traditional restaurant is more commercial-oriented. But I want community through food.

Hopefully, imparting what's important to me, respect for the food and that information about the purveyors, people will realize that for a restaurant to be good, so many pieces have to come together.

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

It all comes back to the basics. Serve customers the best-tasting food at a good value in a clean, comfortable restaurant, and they'll keep coming back.

So I quit my job and went to the New England Culinary Institute for the full two years and worked in the restaurant industry after that until finally I thought I had a grasp on what I needed to do what I do.

I love trying new restaurants.

As a chef, I had started working with groups like Share Our Strength and various local food banks in New York, raising money for hunger-related issues. And not only me, but the entire restaurant industry has been very focused on this issue.

Just as food is a craft, great service is, too. It can take years to perfect the technical aspects of clearing a plate, carving tableside, or pouring wine, and a lifetime to master the emotional elements of service.

My advice for any entrepreneur or innovator is to get into the food industry in some form so you have a front-row seat to what's going on.

My goal is to go from the industrial food system toward a real food system where you understand what you are eating.