Chestnuts are my favorite ingredient to use in the fall, especially for the holidays. I always find that they are meaty, hearty and have a mysterious refinement when cooked or roasted over sea salt.

Determine who you are and what your brand is, and what youre not. The rest of it is just a lot of noise.

My mother's blueberry pie from scratch was amazing. I still make it today.

The most important things in life happen over conversations while eating.

I don't enjoy eating humble pie.

I like old fashioned things. We have these old wine buckets at the restaurant and none of them match.

I love hospitality, and I love cooking. The kitchen is where I feel most at ease and where I feel most like myself.

I'll transform anything as long as it's edible.

The worst day is just that I did not enter the culinary world sooner. And the best day was seeing the reaction of my one year old daughter when she tasted her first crisp apple!

A plate of food has to have balance. For example, a mild fish like skate mustnt be overwhelmed by the side dishes. They should have personality and color, but they also have to be subtle.

When I step into the kitchen in the morning, I go for the scrambled eggs with pine nuts and minced lamb. When I finish at night, it is hard to resist the burger.

Your level of consciousness defines the beauty of your life and destiny.

Live healthy

Maybe I needed sensitivity training. I once signed up for an anger management class, but the instructor pissed me off.

There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life.

The devil sought to destroy me and discredit my testimony. But God wanted me where I would testify to others about his saving power.

I learned something from that. If someone asks me something that I really don't want to do, I say no. I have to trust that. And I'm not afraid to talk money.

[To audience members who were arriving late] You haven't missed a thing, I was just killing time 'til you got here.

JLo and I did not get along well when we worked together. I don't think there's love lost. I don't know if there was a lot of love from the very beginning.

Being thrown into the fire and getting the thing turned around in a hurry made it more difficult. Things have been done the hard way. I think you learn better when things are done the hard way.

Sudden and slashing reforms are as perilous as sudden and slashing surgery.