What were your favorite foods growing up?
Pasta: my grandmother was from a small town in Italy called Spinazzola. She would cook me pasta with butter and all would be right with the world.

What is your least favorite food?
Generally, I'm not that into offal.

What is your beverage of choice?
Gin gimlet, extra cold. I prefer Bombay Sapphire.

What do you eat when you are home?
I have an awesome variety of take out menus.

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast?
Eat out more

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
Sitting on a slab of volcanic rock overlooking the bay of Naples with a hunk of fresh bread just out of an ancient stone oven and some just-made mozzarella buffala, watching some very attractive and content Italians parade by.

When did you decide you wanted to be a chef?
Much too late

If you didn't become a chef, what would you be?
By now, perhaps a cheesy past-his-prime rock star, hanging on to the glory years. Or, maybe I would have gotten a job at a post office.

Who/what has shaped your cooking the most over the years?
My family, travel and eating out/working in NYC.

What is more important for a chef- technique or ingredients?
Ingredients, by far. My mother has almost no "technique" to speak of, but I still would rather eat her food above all else.

What influences your cooking style?
Many things; customers, pop culture, movies, art...

Which foreign country inspires your style most?
Italy because I am so connected to it. It's old, it's beautiful, and it doesn't seem to change all that much.

What are your favorite culinary weapons in the kitchen?
I love my microplane, which shreds Parmigiano Reggiano like little delicate snowflakes and my utilitarian battleship grey Waring blender. It's big, it's powerful and does exactly what it promises.

When you are not eating at your own restaurant...you are eating at?
Someplace new or at a place where a friend is the chef

What are some recent dining and culinary trends you have been observing?
The "casualization" of the NYC dining scene is interesting albeit sad. I think it's time for men to start tucking in their shirts again.

If I'm trying to watch my weight and I'm eating at your restaurant, what am I ordering to eat?
You are going to have to go somewhere else, seriously, we have a very demanding clientele all watching their weight and each other. I have prepared poached fish, meats, all kinds of food for special dietary needs; funny thing is no one who eats here looks all that fat.

What was the most challenging meal you had to make? Why?
I have recently cooked some meals off the premises, and I always find that challenging because no matter how much planning and preparation, when you arrive on sight, there is always stuff missing. We drove clear across town, got on sight and realized we had left half of the hors d'oeuvres on the side walk in the 90 degree blazing sun.

What was your worst restaurant disaster?
See above

What is the one rule or value you try to instill in all of your staff?
Integrity. It's sometimes hard for cooks to understand that someone just paid $45 for the plate of food they just prepared and that it has got to be the same every single time 24/7/365.