What were your favorite foods growing up?
My favorite childhood meal was breakfast consisting of fried smelts and cornmeal or baked beans and corn fritters with sausage. Lunch was liverwurst sandwiches and dinner was duck with seasonal fruits or poached salmon with egg sauce.

When did you decide you wanted to be a chef?
In 1979, I was 22 years old and working at the Harvest Restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts as a Sous Chef under Jimmy Burke.

Where and when did your career in food begin?
Since the age of 2, I lived with my grandparents at their farm in Hebron, New Hampshire. My treasured family memories are "eating local", an unconscious daily act as simple as walking outdoors to find a ripe and delicious vegetable, then rinsing at the hose or kitchen sink.

If you didn't become a chef, what would you be?
My love for the land and creating dishes are inspirations for being a scientist or a forest ranger.

Who/what has shaped your cooking the most over the years?
My childhood in rural New Hampshire started with my grandfather's love of farming and my grandmother's love of food. Both propelled to become a chef.

How would you describe your cuisine?
Our recipes celebrate the best of native New England flavors; farm to table with a culinary adventure in French cooking. Examples include Roasted Brined Tarragon Chicken with Roasted French Chantaney Carrots (the sweetest variety grown at the Apple Street Farm, left in the ground for the freeze to boost sugar content and inspired by Burgundy, France) or Strawberry Soup with Crème Fraiche Chantilly,

What influences your cooking style and particularly the menu at your restaurant?
Everything is seasonally driven, but standing amongst a field of dense vegetation at the Apple Street Farm or viewing the deliveries from our producers and knowing that it may enhance someone's lunch or dinner are inspirations for me.

What is the one rule or value you try to instill in all of your staff?
Cook and serve with respect and love of the ingredient and the guest.

What qualities to you look for when hiring cooks for your restaurant?
A passion to learn and the ability to use their creative license in the purest form.

If I'm trying to watch my weight and I'm eating at your restaurant, what am I ordering to eat?
Julia Child always said to me, "Everything in moderation." All of my compositions are balanced to the health and needs of every individual.

What was the most challenging meal you had to make? Why?
Without a thought, it was a vegan 14-course meal with 15 different allergies including the onion family!

What is your beverage of choice?
Champagne

When you are not eating at your own restaurant, where are you eating?
I love to cook for my wife and four children at home. Living at the Apple Street Farm, we go out and pick all the ingredients for a meal. Cape Ann, Massachusetts is also home to many great fish restaurants including the Essex Seafood Restaurant and Fish Market.

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
The four meals from unbelievable chefs that remain in my memory are:

Freddie Girardet in Switzerland in 1986
George Blanc in Burgundy in 1990
Allen Ducaisse in Paris in 1996, and
Michel Bras in Central France in 1991 when he was still a 2-star Michelin Chef

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast?
I recommend buying only the best products at the market and don't purchase any recipe item unless it's fresh.

What do you eat when you are home?
The Apple Street Farm has 70 hens so we enjoy their eggs in many recipes.

Why farm fresh? What are the benefits?
Diners are more concerned about their health, quality and food sources. Everyone should eat locally and our restaurants were built on the very premise of agricultural responsibility. Our farm to fork philosophy was ahead of the national trend. When diners see Apple Street Farm on our menus, they understand that we nurtured what they are about to enjoy. That's immensely satisfying to me as a chef who wants to eat and share the best food possible every day.