My Philosophy From Day One Is That

My Inspiration Was My Mom. She's A Great Cook, And She Still Cooks, And We Still Banter Back And Forth About Cooking. Growing Up In A Mostly Portuguese Community, Food Was Important And The Family Table Was Extremely Important. At A Very Young Age I Understood That.

I Spent A Lot Of Time On Farms When I Was Young. My Uncle And My Dad Owned A Big Farm.

I Ended Up Turning Down A Full Scholarship Of Music At The Conservatory To Pay To Go To Cooking School.

I'm Pretty Actively Involved With The Military Because I Think They're Incredible Human Beings. If I Can Give Back To Them For What They're Doing For Us, It's A Good Thing. And I Think To Have Happy Soldiers, You Need To Feed Them Well.

I've Been Very Fortunate, Because I've Cooked For A Lot Of Actors And Actresses And Musicians. I've Cooked For Presidents And I've Been To The White House.