What were your favorite foods growing up?
I was lucky enough to have parents who were gourmet enthusiasts for their time, and they exposed me to gourmet food. I had tasted foie gras and veal marengo and chocolate mousse made from the original edition of the Gourmet cook book, and I would help my father beat the egg whites in a copper bowl at age 12. But, it didn't keep me from loving fried chicken, which I still enjoy, and about twice a year, I indulge in chicken fried steak.

What is your least favorite food?
Ketchup. I think it is the end of civilization as we know it. It isn't horrible, in theory it sounds great. However, it has become so sweet and the masker of food. People use it in a way that they don’t know what they are eating anymore. It prevents people from understanding the good and the bad of the ingredients and execution of food. Gum and artificial flavors ruin everything, once people get used to the artificial flavors, real strawberry doesn't taste good anymore.

What is your beverage of choice?
Coffee, three to four cups a day

What do you eat when you are home?
Embarrassingly, Korean food leftovers or I typically have very simple ham and cheese, like Pleasant Ridge Reserve (an extraordinary American gruyère). I put the ham and cheese on plate for 30 seconds in toaster oven, or even the microwave, until it melts and add sliced avocado, Aleppo pepper and sea salt.

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast?
It is important to understand the principle of how to sauté, use high heat, a small amount of fat (I suggest grapeseed oil) and make sure that the protein you are going to sauté is very dry. Use integrity to the process of your sauté.

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
Maybe the first tasting menu I had at L’Achestrate in Paris. I remember that. I remember some roadside picnic I made of simple cheeses, crisp tender and flavorful baguette and apricots with an extraordinary perfume while riding through the Rhone Valley on my bike as a 17 year-old. I remember tasting wild sturgeon for the first time grilled over vine cuttings at the Sardine Factory, in Monterrey, California.

When did you decide you wanted to be a chef?
Cooking was something that I was lucky enough to have been exposed to at a very young age, and I stumbled into doing it as an opportunity. I was able to work at Le Perigord Park, at 63rd and Park, where Park Ave Café is now. I got an apprenticeship there at age 16, I finished high school a year early and was commuting back and forth from Connecticut. It gave me exposure to French food, French language and French culture. I met David Bouley there when he was a young chef working in the pastry department. Later, I went to France on a bike trip, went to culinary school at CIA, and by 18, I knew that I wanted to be a chef.

If you didn’t become a chef, what would you be?
I would like to think that I would be a salt water fly fishing guy, but who knows?

Who/what has shaped your cooking the most over the years?
Good question. David Bouley had a kind of passion and imagination of palate, Alfred Portale showed precision, consistency, professionalism and execution. I share a lot in common with Tom Colicchio, in terms of flavor profiles and experience. I met Tom during a trip to France in 1986; he likes salt water fly fishing too.

What influences your cooking style?
The market in two ways: What is available and who am I cooking for? There are times when you want to cook purely for your own esoteric desire. But, there is fun in satisfying your clientele’s wants. Your clientele could be a special event one-course dinner in East Hampton, or patrons at a bar in New York City. It is interesting to create under different circumstances. There is little original in food anymore (save some of the worst abominations of molecular gastronomy) that hasn’t been around for 100 years. You should be a great steward of the highest quality ingredients; then, it comes down to applying judicious technique to and rearranging things in ways that people (you know) haven’t tried yet.

Which foreign country inspires your style most?
France

What are your favorite culinary weapons in the kitchen?
A Sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp knife. You will cut yourself less with a sharp knife than with a dull one. It has more precision, accuracy, and it doesn’t veer off. Immersion blenders--the tiny ones are good for frothing and the big ones are good for puree. I like a blender better than a food processor. It blends smoothly, forces food in a tight spot and chops. Food processors throw things around rather than blend.

What is your favorite secret ingredient?
Marjoram

When you are not eating at the your own restaurant…you are eating at?
I go where my friends will be behind the burner. Daniel and Jean Georges are often at their restaurants. It is gratifying to find them there when I go on a special occasion. I like good Korean food on 32nd Street, but it is even better in Flushing.

What are some recent dining and culinary trends you have been observing?
The dining trend is that people have thankfully grown savvier; I like people who know what they like. People who can taste and determine for themselves instead of being told what they like and relying on someone else’s opinion. The culinary trend is the national awareness and involvement with more organic and better quality and less processed. The local trend is important; it gets you asking a lot of questions. It gets people excited about eating locally. But, it is difficult to rely on local products, due to weather. For example, you have to be creative if your strawberries are different because of too much rain.

If I’m trying to watch my weight and I’m eating at your restaurant, what am I ordering to eat?
You can order a number of things because the way we construct our menu is based upon components. If your way of being concerned about what you eat involves less carbs, you can manipulate and base your choices on the different components. Four things from tonight’s menu are good for watching your weight: Hamachi, salmon, loin of lamb, and a braised shoulder of lamb.

What was the most challenging meal you had to make? Why?
The most challenging meals are always for the person who is not happy to be in the restaurant and dining. If people are upset about food, it is hard for me to make them happy. You don’t feel excited about cooking for such people. Fame and money don't make people generous and happy. Fame and money only exacerbate what is already there.

What was your worst restaurant disaster?
We had a leak at Eleven Madison Park that went undetected due to a clogged drain, it was dripping on the main transformer for the entire building. It was a busy Saturday night and we continued to serve while ripping open the walls to find where the leak was coming from, and standing in 18 inches of water. Tuesday, 9/11 was the most catastrophic time for everyone. Eleven Madison is near the armory where people lined the block looking for loved ones; we tried to comfort them the best way we know how, by cooking incredible food.

What is the one rule or value you try to instill in all of your staff?
Integrity. Maintain the integrity of the product by properly storing, cooking and serving it. Use sustainable, local ingredients. You need to be excited and happy to serve your clients. Danny Meyer put it best when he said there will come a time when when people can choose food served by happy people over unenthusiastic ones. As Machiavelli said, people function better when they are ultimately motivated by love, not fear. Integrity applies to the front of the house as well. Every diner comes in with a different emotional agenda and all must be treated with integrity.