Alex Guarnaschelli

“Dione Lucas has been obscured by larger-than-life personalities like Julia Child, but she had it going on. She is like the horse that came in second place, whose name we can't remember. It takes more than just one horse to make a race.”

“The hardest thing for me is restraint.”

“Having students was so inspiring.”

“Sometimes I look up a recipe for chicken and tomatoes and end up cooking pork. The inspiration gets lost in translation.”

“Repeatedly opening the oven - or worse, taking out the turkey to baste it - slows down the momentum of cooking.”

“It's essential to make sure you have proper kitchen tools for food storage - like cling wrap, bags, and containers - because they help keep food fresher longer.”

“I baked the coffee cake recipe from 'The Joy of Cooking' over and over again when I was a kid.”

“Short ribs in the middle of a hamburger? That was pretty groundbreaking.”

“The longer I look at something, the more my imagination churns and I can find somewhere to put it.”

“Americans will not buy irregular-looking or oddly shaped vegetables!”

“Food is so heavily connected to memory.”

“I've had the privilege of having a lot of amazing people cook for me.”

“People in professional kitchens may love what they do, but sometimes it's just something that puts food on the table.”

“I feel like a princess with a knife. I've wanted to be an Iron Chef forever.”

“We have to get out there and explain that imperfect tastes just as good.”

“A splash of red wine vinegar can pull things together like a pinch of salt.”

“If you want to have a relationship, at some point you have to let yourself get caught. That's what I did. I got caught.”

“A homemade hamburger can be a real treat.”

“Every time I feel like something is missing from a dish, I think, 'Oh, I know, I'll add a pinch of dry ginger.' If it's not salt and it's not vinegar, it's probably missing dry ginger.”

“Buying food from farmers and people that I know adds that human element that I love.”