When I was growing up, Chef Charlie Trotter inspired me a lot.

My learning from my travels is that taste is objective. If a thing is tasty, it's universally tasty. Or, just not.

I found most of my learning has taken place after culinary college, when I travelled and met chefs and non-chefs.

The thing about innovation is, where do you stop? There are movements across the world where people are asking restaurateurs to bring back the regular plate. So, yes, we are fed up of drinking out of shoes and eating out of hats.

I watch people who are not driven by creativity any more, and I think how dull it must be to produce the same kind of thing. If you don't feel you're reaching something new, then don't do it.

I like working with people who are passionate about what I'm doing. I'm super passionate about music, so I want to make sure my colleagues and people on my team are the same, as well. I'm a very hands-on artist, so I don't give my work to my team.

To me, it's far more efficient to mobilize the imagination. It's far more efficient to hear a creaking step, for example, than to see the face of a monster, which usually looks ridiculous, and where you know that the blood is ketchup.

Combining music, theater and comedy is a new and broader form of expression. In certain combinations you can make people laugh one moment, cry the next, and then be astounded by the beauty of the music.