Beware of those who speak ill of others in your presence don't be surprised of what they say about you in your absence.

My family came from Ecuador.

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

As long as you remember what you love and why you love it, it will never be far from your heart - or your plate.

I think that a lot of us at home are iron chefs in their own right in that we have to come up with meals real quickly.

I studied cooking in Spain after college.

From the time I was 8 until now, I've been working. My Social Security is looking solid.

Chicago is a lot of my background as a chef.

I spent several years cooking on a line.

I'm a huge fan of burgers, and they're not my wife's favorite, so we don't cook them at home.

Being Ecuadorian is, I don't want to say it's tough but it's... something special to me.

Love shouldn't come with conditions.

A fair price for oil is whatever you can get plus ten to twenty per cent.

People are more comfortable learning about wine because now they can just Google, you know, 'Soave, ' and say, 'Oh, O.K., cool.'

Enlightenment has nothing to do with physical knowledge. It is the experience of existence. Existence is infinite. There are countless universes and creations taking place simultaneously.

I look down the farthest side of the mountain, fulfilled and understanding all, and truly content that I lived a full life and one that was my own choice

It's in my nature to feel, 'I could be this! This could be mine!'

I remember that Jack Lemmon, who is one of my favorite actors of all time, says that the day he stops being nervous is the day he should leave the business.

If you believe you can read you can

I could survive in a Turkish prison, probably.

It's fun to talk about heaven, about the throne of God and Jesus and Pop and the daughter we thought we had lost but will meet again someday. But it's not fun to talk about how we got there.