I can't grill vegetables, shellfish or steaks without tongs. Don't bother with those long-handled grilling tongs normally found in the BBQ section of your home store. Get intimate with your grill and opt for the regular stainless steel tongs.
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.
When I'm hiring a cook for one of my restaurants, and I want to see what they can do, I usually ask them to make me an omelette.
I probably use my chef's knives more than any other tool in the kitchen. I'm not married to a particular brand, because they all work, they all have sharp blades.
My partner and I are looking at several locations on Park Avenue South and Midtown for a new restaurant space.
Go vegetable heavy. Reverse the psychology of your plate by making meat the side dish and vegetables the main course.
I wasn't passionate about food until I'd been cooking for a while. I started long before food became part of the mainstream media. I just wanted to cook, period.
Today, when I hire, I look for people who want to be trained and molded.
The process and the great smells it produces make everyone hungry and get everyone's mouth watering. And it gives men a chance to cook.
I spend 80% of my time in my restaurants. Taping my TV shows doesn't take much time, and then they get aired a lot. That's the thing people don't realize.