You don't have to stick with these recipes. They're guides. As I say, they're a way in. Have fun with them. It's an easier way to cook in a busy life, once you get the hang of it.

Confit is the ultimate comfort food, and trendy or not, it is dazzling stuff.

Using lots of fresh foods, fruits and vegetables, helps to keep the menu buoyant - I don't know if that's the right word, but it keeps a balance of freshness and health.

I also think it's very important to consider how the food will feel to the person eating it.

To write a book about improvisation is partly a contradiction in terms. Improvisation is spontaneous. It's in the moment.

Generally a chef's book is like a calling card or a portfolio to display their personal work.

But all that being said about modulation, if you're serving people delicious food, they won't complain.

I was working in restaurants as a captain and as a waiter.

I'm a serious eater and a seriously hungry person, so I set out on that path to figure it out for myself, and of course it really resonated with other people.

A lot of people who want to cook with less fat are surprised by that. You can cook vegetables in a little water in a covered pan and then throw the fat into the residual liquid to coat them.

I was aiming for the cooks that I've talked to by teaching an online course and by traveling, listening to people who are really busy and harried but want to be cooking.

The hardest thing in the world is to let go of who you once thought you were and to manifest your true self, at the risk of being unloved. This is self-actualization.

Flowers carry not only beauty but also the silent song of love. You just have to feel it.

Woody is so musical in his filmmaking. I've never worked with anyone I've trusted so completely. He won't let you hit a false note.

Usually bands would make a song to record for an album, but what happens with the deejays you say "Well the album is everything we need. Thanks band. You can go away now."

One effect could be that the huge atomic arsenal created in the cold war could be reduced significantly.

So I do not consider myself a chronicler of my fatherland or even a chronicler of Havana

Art informs life in so many ways, and vice versa.

Too great haste leads us to error.

You're burned into my mind forever. There is nothing, nothing in this world that will ever change that.