“To be around me, you must love food, or I’m the most obnoxious person you’ve ever met.”

I don’t believe that there’s a good guy and a bad guy. Unless it’s like Superman or Batman, there is no good guy and bad guy.

If you want someone to miss you, go secretly and spray your fragrance somewhere.

The only time I really go on the Internet is for recipes.

I’m no editor, no artisan, no expert. And certainly no arbiter of what you should buy, wear, or eat.

I was in a show choir. I can’t sing or dance to save my life, but I was very passionate. People said my parents paid the choir director to let me in. It was actually the parents who started that one!

Ngila Dixon is such an incredible costume designer. She’s such a cool, stylish woman. She has such an understanding of character.

I never really cook from recipes. But the worst is when something turns out great and I can’t figure out how to make it again!

All I need is my Chanel dress, my Louboutins, and some red lipstick.

I’ve kissed just three people in my life, other than stuff that I’ve done for TV or movies. I know – I’m weird!

I always like hair being a little messy because I think there’s something appealing about the whimsy of putting on a gown with any hair or make-up – just stepping into it, and you’re ready.

My mother had very humble beginnings – to put it mildly. Her dad built their home out of timber that he cut down on their land. No heat, no air-conditioning – ‘no foolishness,’ as he would call it.

I had the Buffalo shoes, a customised Baby Spice necklace – when I say custom-made, it was made out of plastic from the local mall – and a Union Jack dress.

Actually, I’m happiest in Williams-Sonoma in New York. That’s a wonderful cooking store.

Every relationship you have, you’re learning and growing and taking something from that.

I have a strong sense of myself. That gives me a sense of security, you know?

The food, the lesson, the chef, the ingredients – all the best of the best. I see why Le Cordon Bleu is world-renowned.

When I travel around the country, I see great companies with new ideas and a can-do attitude. But too often they are in hand-to-hand and pen-to-paper combat with officialdom.

I’m not the king in my own house. I have to wash the dishes and take out the trash and say, ‘Yes, baby.’ I’m 6-foot-5, but I kind of walk around hunched over.

You going to traipse all around like you haves to find something lost. You going to work yourself up with excitement. Your heart going to beat hard enough to kill you because you don’t love and don’t have peace. And then some day you going to bust loose and be ruined.

You need an incredible amount of self-confidence to go digging around in someone’s brain.

I actually went to study with the Ramapoughs in New York. I wanted to be able to see the mountains and the forest, be around the people.

Christmas for me is all about spending time with my family. I cherish any chance we have to spend all day together making gingerbread houses, baking cookies, or sitting around and watching movies.

We don’t know what’s around the corner – and we must do everything to ensure we get our country’s debts down, building our resilience so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.

My father was obsessed with folk music from around the world, and I think the countless artists who performed them are my biggest influences.