Debi Mazar

“My husband has the philosophy that if you can work a Nintendo control, you can chop an onion. So, we have our children in the kitchen. We sit down every night for dinner. We're trying to give our kids a sense of what's going into their bodies, and it's also good for family time.”

“Being typecast is a great thing for an actor. I was considered one of the New York mob actors.”

“I think my career would probably be in a better place had I been more aggressive. But I don't have it in me. I'm not a competitive person, and I'm also really private.”

“I don't like the idea of things being off-limits to kids - like a fancy sitting room where they can't touch anything. I own vintage pottery cups, and I let my girls hold them. It teaches them to treat objects with respect.”

“I have a very high metabolism, and I have to constantly eat to keep on going.”

“Sitting down at the table is a sacred event. It's the heart of the home. People have ginormous homes or crappy little homes, but the kitchen is where we always end up sitting. It's where the stories happen, the family happens.”

“In Italy, everybody buys silver for every special occasion. Baptisms, weddings, you get silver.”

“Some people in LA are addicted. They have to be here. My personal life is stronger than my professional life, in terms of priorities.”

“I used to watch my grandmother make fancy, Julia Child-style beef bourguignon. And growing up in New York City, I was exposed to many cultures. I experimented with Puerto Rican and Jamaican food.”

“We want to teach families how to cook Tuscan wherever you are. How to reuse your leftovers. How to trick the kids into eating whatever you want by putting it into a frittata.”

“I'm teaching my daughters to be ladies by showing them how to dress appropriately when they leave the house, and how to be thoughtful and polite.”

“On the morning of Thanksgiving, I would wake up to the home smelling of all good things, wafting upstairs to my room. I would set the table with the fancy silverware and china and hope that my parents and grandmother wouldn't have the annual Thanksgiving fight about Richard Nixon.”

“I think that my interpretation of Italian was a lot more southern than what my husband cooks. You know, I grew up in Queens and in Brooklyn, and we - really, it's more southern. It's Naples and Sicily. It's heavier. It's over-spiced. And like most Americans, I thought spaghetti and meatballs was genius.”

“Nobody has money right now. And eating is very important, but it doesn't need to be expensive. And to make - it doesn't need to be fancy, as long as it's fresh and simple. The simpler it is, the more fancy it actually comes out tasting.”

“I've always been a foodie. My grandmother got me hooked on cooking.”

“We sit down with the kids every single night, not that I want to every night - sometimes I'd rather be out with my husband having a martini at a swanky restaurant - but we sit down with our kids every night at dinner.”

“I was born and raised in Queens and moved into the city as a young adult. Then I ended up acting and decided to run off to California.”

“I need savory sauces, stews and pastas. I can't live without pastas. My butt, you can tell I like to eat.”

“I've always been someone who can just move. Some people in L.A. are addicted. They have to be here; they come for pilot season and stay here.”

“With the breast-feeding, I really love the bonding. Real life is more important to me.”