I'm a comic nerd. I'm a former serious collector for much of my childhood and early teen years I wanted to draw underground comics.

I'm a control freak. If you're going to slap my name on something, I would like to control it.

I'm a decent cook; I'm a decent chef. None of my friends would ever have hired me at any point in my career. Period.

I'm a pretty decent writer. It comes easy to me. I don't agonize over sentences. I write like I talk. I try to make them good books.

I'm a Twitter addict. Jose Andres is a serial tweeter. It's funny to see which chefs have embraced it, and the different paths they take.

I'm always secretly the most pleased when a show just really, really looks good and when my camera guys are really happy with the images they got.

I'm evangelical on the subject of some chefs and writers.

I'm never a reliable narrator, unbiased or objective.

I'm not afraid to look like a big, hairy, smelly, foreign devil in Tokyo, though I do my best not to, I really do.

I'm not looking to freak people out - eating rodents or bugs. I don't do that anymore.

I'm really good at sleeping on planes. I mean, I smell jet fuel and I'm out; I'm asleep for takeoff.

I, personally, think there is a really danger of taking food too seriously. Food should be part of the bigger picture.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it's the restaurant business.

If somebody crafts an interesting tweet that'll lead me to their blog, I'm going to their blog.

If you get an opportunity to work with David Simon, anybody with good taste would.

If you've ever hauled a 28-pound two-year-old around New York, you'll find that men fold at the knees a lot quicker than women.

In America, there might be better gastronomic destinations than New Orleans, but there is no place more uniquely wonderful.

In too much of the West, everyone wants the guarantee of safety, and never having to make any decisions.

Is there a sharper commentary on American culture and the world than The Simpsons?

It would be an egregious mistake to ever refer to me in the same breath as most of the people I write about.