There is no conflict between a better meal and a better world.

I had turned down other head chef jobs. I didn't want to take over someone else's cuisine. I wanted to start from scratch.

Fifteen years ago, France was the promised land of cooking. So I looked at a map, found five restaurants and faxed them to ask for a job. Within five minutes, I got a reply from the then three- star Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier.

Chefs have a new opportunity - and perhaps even an obligation - to inform the public about what is good to eat, and why.

People who have grown up in a world where this was not a concern and suddenly start hearing about climate change - it's very difficult. It's a very, very abstract concept. So we need to work on making it very educational and very, very clear, in very simple terms.

Ecology should be object lessons that the world sees, that explains in a visceral, physical way, the attributes of God.

As soon as it was clear, in Copenhagen in 2009, that the Senate was blocking Obama from introducing meaningful climate legislation, the push was for him to use executive authority, use the EPA, use the tool of federal leases, and there was just a refusal to do it.

The climate has been changing since there was a climate.