What were your favorite foods growing up?
Mom's cherry pie, sugar cookies in the wood burning oven, bread from the outdoor oven, fresh caught brook trout, wild asparagus and any wild berry.

When did you decide you wanted to be a chef?
From a little boy I have been baking, pickling, preserving foods from the orchard and farm with my mother...growing up in a small fishing village of Belgian ancestory..."when the cupboard was bare"...on a farm in northern Wisconsin you learn how to survive.

Where and when did your career in food begin?
When I was knee-high to a grasshopper I was learning to stalk wild asparagus, forest herbs, plants, mushrooms, fishes...I was learning the techniques of the Potowani Indians. My chef's training began on MacDougal Street in NYC learning from the Northern Italian women in the neighborhood.

If you didn't become a chef, what would you be?
A fisherman

Who/what has shaped your cooking the most over the years?
Nature...wild places...my mother...friend...herbal smells of the Maquis...berries...real people who cook real food...simplicity.

What are your favorite culinary weapons in the kitchen?
My wood rolling pin, antique pie plates, a nice hard wood fire and my sense of smell.

What influences your cooking style and particularly the menu at your restaurant?
My menu is influenced by smells and fragrances and of course by what the farmers bring in. I try to cook with authenticity and simplicity and use only fresh ripe ingredients. The menu is also influenced by the provenance of my ingredients, I try to bring in food that has an interesting history to it, I believe that "food is memory".

What is your favorite secret ingredient?
Chestnut honey from Corsica. Dash of wild berry cau de vie from the house macerated fruit with a dash of aged rum and vanilla bean.

What is the one rule or value you try to instill in all of your staff?
Kindness, graciousness, humility...I want to hear "Thank you" often. This is the "hospitality" business--it should be fun. Always, always do everything you can to take care of people...you will be rewarded with lifelong friendships. If I'm trying to watch my weight and I'm eating at your restaurant, what am I ordering to eat? For a treat I recommend the bricciu-cintron non-fat yogurt with wild flower honey and wild blackcaps. If your in a savory mood I suggest seven grain bread with a thin layer of brie, peppery baby arugula, heirloom black tomato and wild asparagus with lemon-thyme

What was the most challenging meal you had to make? Why?
My mom's cherry pie crust--I can't get the magic tender flakiness that she was able to get by cooking with love. Recently I had to cook stew at funeral in a small village in the mountains of Corsica: how can you possibly cook the requisite nourishment amidst the tears of unfathomable tragedy?

What was your worst restaurant disaster?
9/11, I lost everything...3 places

During which season do you enjoy cooking most?
Any and all...seasons dictate everything I do, you must respect seasons. Winter is awesome though: hearth baked breads, slow roasted stews, fish from under the ice, opening a jar of homemade preserve from the bounty of another season.

How have you brought your love of old artifacts and "good finds" into your restaurant and food?
I have personally built up each one of my establishments with artifacts and antiquities that I have excavated from the surrounding neighborhood. I believe it is wrong to impose a design on a space, it must occur naturally, and organically from the elements at hand. The objects in my restaurant and the food on the table all must have a history...I let that define the space.

What is your least favorite food?
Anything not homemade, and unripe fruit! I hate a mushy apple, woody peach or an unripe berry.

What is your beverage of choice?
Pure, cold spring water, or espresso—very short.

What are some recent dining and culinary trends you have been observing?
I don't get out much so I couldn't comment, but I do like the return to price consciousness—value to the customer--I never did understand an expensive burger or roast chicken. I also love the emphasis on organic, growing up on a farm the natural production and freshness has always been important to me.

When you are not eating at your own restaurant...where are you eating?
Home or by a campfire in the woods with my family and friends.

Which foreign country inspires your style most?
France, especially Corsica

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
So many simple ones...food has defined my life and the most memorable meals are ones that are shared in good company.
a) a sugar cookie as a little boy baked by my great grandma in her wood stove
b) a patch of wild blackberries
c) fresh caught trout

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast?
Buy only what you need from individual proprietors and farmers' markets. Prepare everything you do with love, passion and frugality. Keep it simple and of the moment...as fresh as possible. Respect and be thankful for what you are fortunate enough to be preparing. Share these lovely food moments with friends and family, they are precious.

What do you eat when you are home?
Potatoes...and more potatoes. Crisply fried, roasted, boiled, mashed, style, then just add a little sweet butter or good virgin olive oil and perhaps a dash of herbs.