Alex Guarnaschelli

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

There's not enough time in each day to really focus enough attention on any one thing, but I'm doing my best. I have a great group of people who support me, and I don't sleep a lot. It's like I'm on a constantly spinning merry-go-round, and every day, I'm wondering when it will stop so I can get off. I love what I do, so that helps a lot.

I love 'The Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook' by Dione Lucas. A huge source of information and inspiration. The book is organized by menu, and the recipes are unusual and exciting.

I've thrown vanilla beans into mustard. Nothing crazy or grainy, just normal dijon. It's great for duck. Smear some of that right on the duck, coupled with some roast plums, and it all comes together in that savory over sweet over savory over sweet way we all love.

I love it when a few simple ingredients come together on a plate, and I think, 'Wow, that's a dish.'

Who doesn't love a stuffed cherry tomato?

I love roasted beets with goat cheese. I am also a fruit addict.

If you want to have a relationship, at some point you have to let yourself get caught.

I like to take a day off and enjoy fast food for what it is. I have to say that in New York, I'm really partial about taco trucks. I mean, I really can't handle it. There is something about catching all those ingredients piled on top of each other: it puts me in a tizzy. I love it. I'm kind of a taco truck junkie.

When we talk about chefs, we often talk about their love of food or their passion for it, but cooking is also about making a living; it's a job.

I'm interested in food and sharing my passion with a community of like-minded people. All of the celebrity stuff that comes along with that is just an incidental byproduct of being able to do what I love for a living.

I love watching a single pork chop seasoned with garlic and shallots cook and see the fat bubble around it.