Re: How do you contribute?

Description: How do you teach someone to cook?

Question: What impact does your work have on the world?

Transcript: I know I . . . Humbly I will say it has a tremen . . . substantial . . . a substantial impact. And how do . . . how do I know that? Well because my restaurant, and now with my son Joseph, and with __________ and so on, in partnership we have more than 12 restaurants. I have published just my fifth book. My television series is in its eighth year. And at the end of the day there’s 50 million viewers. My books sell in the 400,000 or 500,000 copies. So I know I reach people out there. My show has been bought in Australia, in New Zealand, Asia satellite, Canada. So I know that there is a want for what . . . the message that I’m giving. And I know that people are buying it and listening. So I am humbled by this, but I feel it is a great responsibility.

Question: What is your proudest achievement?

Transcript: My proudest achievement . . . I think I’m very proud of my family, my grandchildren, my son and daughter that have somehow – even though they have went into the wrong education and field – one on Wall Street and one in art history, and they reverted to . . . to continuing my message. It’s just the acceptance of what I do out there never ceases to amaze me.

Question: What was your greatest culinary adventure?

Transcript: Oh my greatest culinary adventure? Oh my goodness. Yes. A visit to China – and I’m talking about several years ago. China was still – and to the market of China. One of the things that I do when I go visit a different culture is go to the markets. But the . . . the . . . the amazing of the diversity of . . . of meats, vegetables; but the meats were particularly every form and shape. Whether they crawl. Whether they had 10 legs. Whether it had a long tail or short tail. Every imaginable animal was hanging somewhere in that market. And every part on that animal was dissected someplace hanging ready to be eaten. So I was just mesmerized me that this culture – the oldest culture . . . You know and there’s something to say there about respecting the food chain and maybe eating everything. Respecting when you kill an animal, whatever that might be, that you eat everything from it.

Question: How do you cultivate the joy of cooking in someone else?

Transcript: I think it’s something that . . . The joy of cooking certainly can be acquired at any age, I think. Because your palate does not steer you wrong. It does not lie to you. Something looks good, it really is good. And it’s sort of . . . It’s beyond almost . . . You can’t block it personally. It just goes directly. So therefore I think that exposure to that is absolutely necessary. As parents, in cultivating that, it begins at the . . . as early as you can at an early age. And that is having the aromas around children as they grow up. Cooking around them so that in the house, that happens, and the children get used to the smell. They become friendly with the smell of broccoli. They become friendly with the smell of cabbage. And when they begin to . . . or the mother puts it in front of them at the age of four, five, six, it’s not a complete stranger. So this familiarization with food needs to happen immediately as one is born, not . . . There is a lot of alienation. Everything is packaged. Everything is sealed. You don’t smell anything. You buy pre-cooked food. It’s tough. It’s tough out there.

Question: How do you teach someone to cook?

Transcript: I think just to relax and have confidence in themselves. I think that everybody can cook on a certain level. You don’t have to be a master chef; but I think it’s part of our survival mode, the nourishment mode. So I will just say relax, be mentored. Certainly try to learn things from . . . whether it’s your mother, your grandmother, whatever; from books, from television. And just attempt it.

Question: What is the biggest challenge the food industry faces?

Transcript: I think in the food . . . in the field of food, the big problem that we have is the availability, and the hunger that is present in the world. I don’t think that is necessary. And the question that follows or the answer that follows is that will there be availability in time to come? So the environment, and how we take care of the environment; and the interjection of technology, of industry, of whatever altering things. Are they all for our benefits? And ultimately are they . . . are we gonna have enough food?

Recorded on: 10/4/07