I taped my first series for PBS in 1982 at WJCT-TV in Jacksonville Florida. The show called 'Everyday Cooking with Jacques Pepin ' was about saving time and money in the kitchen - and it was a celebration of simple and unpretentious food.

When I came to the Food Network I didn't want to do a cooking show. I told Kathleen Finch for nine months I didn't want to do a cooking show I wanted to do a home-and-garden show.

I was born in the '60s and grew up in the '70s - not exactly the best decade for food in British history. It was horrendous. It was a time when as a nation we excelled in art and music and acting and photography and fashion - all creative skills... all apart from cooking.

My late wife Olympia was Goan and I've been to India many times. I love the food there. We used to do our shopping in Southall where you can find cheap but wonderful fruit like mangoes vegetables and spices. I didn't do much of the cooking as Olympia did a lot - I was the under-chef and did some of the chopping.

A lot of people think Japanese food is difficult a lot of work. But you don't have to buy the knife I have. You don't have to train as long as I have. You can do my cooking in your kitchen.

I love home cooking and I'm not a great one for fast food.

I wasn't passionate about food until I'd been cooking for a while. I started long before food became part of the mainstream media. I just wanted to cook period.

I like to abide by the seasons and let the natural flavor in food speak for itself. I use quick cooking techniques of high heat with very little fat such as quick saute or wok stir-frying.

I think people are more savvy about cooking food and dining. I notice they are looking for more value for their money - not in larger portions but more in terms of healthier fresh farm-to-table dishes with a nice presentation.

I think the biggest thing is clean as you go. Wash all your knives cutting boards dishes when you are done cooking not look at a sink full of dishes after you are done. Cleaning as you go helps keep away cross contamination and you avoid having food borne bacteria.

My Mom always cooked healthy. Greek food lends itself to cooking healthy.

I wake up every morning happy for where I am in life. It's not all about the cooking but the fact that I can contribute by using my influence to help people all over the country. In the last two years my partners and I have fed more than 10 million hungry people by bringing meat to food banks.

I'm a home cook and love to read about food but I'm not trained as a chef. I'm just really into cooking and passionate about it.

Instead of going out to dinner buy good food. Cooking at home shows such affection. In a bad economy it's more important to make yourself feel good.

Start with a clean grill. Keep it clean by brushing with a wire brush after preheating and again after cooking. Make sure to oil your grates and your food before putting it on the grill to keep it from sticking.

I love food and I love everything involved with food. I love the fun of it. I love restaurants. I love cooking although I don't cook very much. I love kitchens.

I don't like food that's too carefully arranged it makes me think that the chef is spending too much time arranging and not enough time cooking. If I wanted a picture I'd buy a painting.

When I was growing up in Mississippi - it was good Southern food... but I also grew up with a Greek family when other kids were eating fried okra we were eating steamed artichokes. So I think it played a big part in my healthy cooking.

I love cooking for myself and cooking for my family.

In large states public education will always be mediocre for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.

If cooking becomes an art form rather than a means of providing a reasonable diet then something is clearly wrong.

In the 1970s we got nouvelle cuisine in which a lot of the old rules were kicked over. And then we had cuisine minceur which people mixed up with nouvelle cuisine but was actually fancy diet cooking.

In France cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.

My dad was a master butcher and I trained to be a butcher when I left school. I didn't enjoy it at the time but I love cooking now so perhaps I would have been a chef.