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Taking dishes straight off the restaurant's menu and putting them into a cookbook doesn't work, because as a chef you have your own vision of what your food is, but you can't always explain it. Or you can't pick recipes that best illustrate who and where you are and what you're doing. And if the recipes don't work, you don't have a book.

I've read hundreds of cookbooks. For my money, they are the bird.

Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore.

A cookbook is not like being an author. It's writing down recipes; it's not writing.

I wanted to write a food book, but I'm not a chef or an expert on culinary matters, to put it mildly.

What makes cookbooks interesting is to find out about the people and the culture that invented the food.

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 almost never make stuff out of cookbooks because they're either too complicated or there's an ingredient in there that I can't find.

I think every young cook wants to write a book.