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Don't be afraid to adapt new ingredients into your own techniques, and traditional ingredients into new recipes.

It's always good to go over the recipe beforehand, so you can easily think of the next thing that needs to be done.

Once you know the fundamentals of cooking, then you don't need to follow a recipe - you just know what herbs go well or what meats, or what combination of what goes together, and then you can just branch out from there. But if there's something specific that I want to make, I work on the recipe and tweak it to my own.

The main thing I look for in a recipe is taste, which is different from caterers and restaurants, who first ask 'How does it look?'

Always look for the best ingredients, treat the food you cook with respect, always read the entire recipe first, be organized, and have fun.

If you're trying to make a recipe that you're not even going to bother tasting, you're doing something wrong.

For me, whether it's in a book or on T.V., a recipe has to be simple. I have a short attention span, so to open a cookbook and see a recipe that goes on for three to four pages, well, I've lost interest.

I never really cook from recipes. But the worst is when something turns out great and I can't figure out how to make it again!

If I had one piece of advice for people - if they are cooking from the Alinea cookbook, the Betty Crocker cookbook or the back of the box - read through the entire recipe first before reaching for any ingredients, and then read again and execute the directions.