Graham Elliot

“You are defined by your ingredients, by the way you touch them, by the flavors you draw from them.”

“I do take pity on some of the people that have to work with me.”

“I think the big things for me are trying to keep running and staying active, but not forcing to do one hour or five miles but really going out and doing it until you feel good.”

“I have two bookcases that used to be filled with cookbooks, but now it's mostly books about politics and government. I might just give this all up and run for office.”

“Kosher salt, eggs and flour. These are the building blocks of everything. Kosher salt, above and beyond everything.”

“I played the guitar and thought that was what I was going to do as a career. I still record music that is played in my restaurants.”

“I really see food as subjective. It's a creative outlet. It's something that you do for fun. It's a gray area. It's not black and white or right and wrong.”

“I'd love to open a restaurant that changes every month. One month it would be a mom and bar spaghetti-and-meatball, Red Sox place, and the next it would be a British pub, and everyone gets in a fight.”

“I tried to start my own religion in high school. I was very eccentric. I've always loved attention.”

“Any time you can involve fake mustaches, things are just better.”

“Kids see cooking as a creative outlet now, like soccer and ballet. It gives me hope that things like fast food, childhood obesity and the horrible state of school lunches can be addressed by kids and their parents.”

“I think what somebody orders and how they eat and cook really shows who they are.”

“I think that people are getting really excited about different ethnic food, and almost even micro-ethnic food. So it's not just, 'I love Asian,' it's Szechuan or Hunan, this one style from China.”

“Gray means being open-minded. I always look at the world that way; I'm able to hear both sides of an argument. I don't listen to opera, but I don't think it's good or bad; it's just its own thing. I can completely appreciate it.”

“I'm inspired by artists who use a limited palette, like painter Piet Mondrian, and the White Stripes, two musicians who create an incredible sound. Our food is starting to go back to a 'less is more' style.”

“I don't get to watch a lot of TV. I just do all my news and reading and 'Meet the Press,' all that fun, exciting stuff.”

“I'm in love with 'pure' flavors, things that are natural and delicious, minimally fussed with, that showcase the season.”

“Chicago's always been known as this meat and potatoes place, and a lot of restaurants play that up. They try to outdo each other by adding another 10 ounces, so their 80 ounce steak becomes a 90 ounce steak with 10 pounds of mashed potatoes on the side.”

“Barbecue is the good old technique of people making a fire and putting some stuff over the top - I mean, look at the S'more: it's just got a stick. A lot of those goofy toys, it's people who are looking at things to do. I think if you focus on the food, at the most you need tongs or a spoon to flip something; that's about it.”

“I think that expression is so great. So I'll look at someone like Prince, and one reason to lose weight is so I can rock that purple velvet outfit with the white frilly shirt.”