Cook ingredients that you are used to cooking by other techniques, such as fish, chicken, or hamburgers. In other words be comfortable with the ingredients you are using.
I live in New York and I’m in New York basically all the time. I spend a lot of my time in my restaurants, and I feel like that’s why they’re successful.
Even if the chef has a good business head, his focus should be behind kitchen doors. A business partner should take care of everything in front of the kitchen doors.
Everybody says, ‘I have problems overcooking steak on the grill,’ but just take it off earlier! Grilling is really common sense. It’s very simple. You should think of a grill as a burner – it just happens to have grates. You shouldn’t be intimidated by it.
There are so many great things about this business. Almost everybody is on the same team. It is all for one-friendly competitiveness. No one is out to hurt anyone.
I love working with big flavors like chiles and smoke. Honey is perfect for softening the edges, mellowing them out a bit. I put it in everything – vinaigrettes, soups, stocks, salsas, so I’m always on the hunt for great honey.
I don’t like to dump the dressing on top of the greens. Instead, I pour it against the side of the bowl – using only enough to glaze the leaves – then toss.
One of the things that happens in my house on the holidays is after dessert, we sit down to a very ambitious men-versus-women game of Trivial Pursuit. It’s brutal. And there’s a trophy.
I was hired as a sous-chef at a restaurant on the Upper East Side. The chef liked to drink – some mornings we would find him sleeping. Two weeks after its opening, I became the chef. I was 20 years old, and way over my head. I had to hire the cooks and do the menus.
