I was an overweight kid, and my father struggled with his weight, too. We would go for a ride on his motorcycle on Sunday morning to get doughnuts, to make pizza together, or go get ice cream. I quickly learned that food equalled love and attention.
I love to cook when I have the time. I don't cook French or Mexican food with exact recipes. I just go to the supermarket and buy things that look good, and I mix it all together and invent something. Ninety-five percent of the time, I'm lucky. Sometimes not so lucky, and I say, 'Let's go out to dinner.'
I supplement a lot. So I'll take a probiotic, and I mostly eat green food.
I don't take supplements - I get nutrition from food.
I need protein from food rather than just protein supplements. I changed my diet.
The act of eating is very political. You buy from the right people, you support the right network of farmers and suppliers who care about the land and what they put in the food.
Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.
For me, creating a supply chain of what we should be eating is incredibly complicated. It's complicated to figure out how to change the food system in America.
When food prices surge, poor families suddenly find themselves unable to afford enough nutritious food. If this happens during the first thousand days of a child's life, the damage to his or her body and mind can be permanent.
Look for the light. Look for it in everything. Look for it in yourself, in your children, in your job, and in your dreams. Look for it in the food you eat and in the people you surround yourself with.
More and more surveys in the US are indicating a change in values taking place among consumers, who become more concerned about quality of life, food, health and the environment.
My ideal night would probably be a dope outfit, people that I love around me. Go to get some dinner, have some amazing food. Maybe sushi or Italian: I love both.
The table is a meeting place, a gathering ground, the source of sustenance and nourishment, festivity, safety, and satisfaction. A person cooking is a person giving: Even the simplest food is a gift.
Make sure I'm chewing, swallowing, and breathing, my whole body is working together. I can just find a rhythm and keep going and going and going. It's my love of food.
I love collard greens and sweet potatoes. But like, traveling, I'm always just looking for that thing where you feel like there's love in the food. Like one of the best things, in Brazil it's feijoada. I was in Tobago in the winter, and I had the best roti I've ever had, with curry goat.
I have to avoid sweet food because it's my weakness, and it's really hard. What you eat will definitely affect your skin, so I really try to stay away from sweets.
Even though I grew up as a Sephardic Jew in Brooklyn where we ate Syrian food and went to temple, it was still America.
As a chef and father, it kills me that children are fed processed foods, fast food clones, foods loaded with preservatives and high-fructose corn syrup.
It's stylish to have people over. But unstylish to make them bring food. It's so tacky, making everybody appear at the door with a dish. Better to order in, use a caterer or bring prepared food into your kitchen.
The way America sees Mexico, if they have any sense of it, is like Taco Bell. Our countries are neighbors, and the only hard food to get in America is true Mexican. It's impossible to find, even in L.A. Why is that?
