What were your favorite foods growing up?
Peanut butter, mac and cheese, blackberries (grew them in the backyard.)

What is your least favorite food?
Salmon

What is your beverage of choice?
Mr. Pibb

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
Street vendors just off Khaosan road in Bangkok, green papaya salad, curry, pad thai, and pork satay.

What do you eat when you are home?
Lots of pasta.

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast
Have fun and experiment; make sure not to under season.

Where and when did your career in food begin?
CJ Diner, Columbus Junction, Iowa 1991

When did you decide you wanted to be a chef?
At age 14, while washing dishes in a diner. I would peak around the corner and see all these delicious breakfast dishes being whipped up, and it all looked like a lot of fun. Not too long after, the cooks let me make all of the pancake batter. I had only made pancakes for my parents before, so this was thrilling for me at only 15 years old.

If you didn't become a chef, what would you be?
Lost...

Who/what has shaped your cooking the most over the years?
Chef Donald Miller, Executive Chef University of Notre Dame. He was the one who nominated me to participate in the 1996 Culinary Olympics team. He took me under his wing, told me to get a haircut and put me through a rigorous but incredibly effective training program where I really began to learn the ins and outs of professional cooking.

What influences your cooking style?
Traveling

Which foreign country inspires your style most?
Vietnam. As a result of the country's previous French occupation, they have taken on a lot of fundamental French cooking techniques and use them with their own regional ingredients.

What is your favorite secret ingredient?
Radicchio, kaffir lime leaves

What are your favorite culinary weapons in the kitchen?
Vita-prep, digital scales, palate knife.

If I'm trying to watch my weight and I'm eating at your restaurant, what am I ordering to eat?
Cantonese steamed sole, scallion oil, and soy sauce.

When you are not eating at your own restaurant... you are eating at?
I'm either eating at my home or in Chinatown.

What are some recent dining and culinary trends you have been observing?
BBQ and comfort food, also low menu prices.

What was the most challenging meal you had to make? Why?
Every dish at the 1996 Culinary Olympics. I was only 19 years old at the time.

What was your worst restaurant disaster?
I helped work a dinner at Charlie Trotter's in honor of Fredy Girardet's visit to the United States. I was working with a number of esteemed chefs, including Gunther Seeger, and the lamb loin entree was cooked beyond well done (on accident of course.)

What is the one rule or value you try to instill in all of your staff?
You are only as good as your last dish.