What were your favorite foods growing up?
My mom's cookies

What is your least favorite food?
Bananas. I can't even smell them.

What is your beverage of choice?
Diet Coke in a can

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
Tasting menu at Wayne Nish's old restaurant "March" on the East side of Manhattan. Ridiculous!

What do you eat when you are home?
Cereal

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast?
Never fry bacon naked

When did you decide you wanted to be a chef?
I'm still not sure

If you didn’t become a chef, what would you be?
Furniture designer/builder

Who/what has shaped your cooking the most over
the years?
Living and working in New York City definitely made me the chef I am today. You can eat at a new restaurant breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday and never go to the same place twice. The experiences are infinite.

What are your signature dishes at The Restaurant?
We pride ourselves most on our fresh seafood (from our own seafood market next door). I think my favorite dish on the current menu is the pepper-seared yellowfin tuna with northern beans, chanterelles, watercress and vidalia soubise.

Which foreign country inspires your style
most?
I try to keep my eye on what's going on worldwide, but my French training seems to come through most often.

What are your favorite culinary weapons in the
kitchen?
The most important is quality ingredients; without that nothing can help you.

What is more important for a chef- technique or ingredients?
Ingredients, hands down

If I’m trying to watch my weight and I’m eating at The Restaurant, what am I ordering to eat?
Pan roasted pacific halibut with yellow tomato confit, artichoke hearts and lemon olive oil

When you are not eating at your own
restaurant...you are eating at?
Local pizza place

What are some recent dining and culinary trends you have been observing?
The stuff Ferran Adrià is doing at El Bulli in Spain is fascinating.

What was the most challenging meal you had to make? Why?
Cooking for President Clinton was pretty challenging; the Secret Service is very intense.

What was your worst restaurant
disaster?
Power going out on opening night, full house

What is the one rule or value you try to instill in all of your staff?
Cleanliness