I have always encouraged my restaurant operators and team members to give back to the local community.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
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.
If you have good food, people will come to your 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.
I want to make sure the fine-dining restaurant has a clientele who is local as much as tourists and foodies.
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.
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.
When I'm on a location, I pick a restaurant that's close and private and eat all my meals there.
Well, I got people that help me with the restaurant. I don't have to be at the restaurant 24 hours a day.
It's not easy to have success with restaurants in different cities, but I like the challenge.
I know, whoever visits my restaurant, they have loved the food.