Having been to Europe and working and traveling there the restaurants my wife and I remember were always off the beaten trail restaurants. So I tried to seek a little 'off the beaten trail ' but cool area.

I don't go to the cool trendy restaurants. I go to either the holes in the wall or the super-fancy restaurants where there are no cool people.

You know for 300 years it's been kind of the same. There are restaurants in New Orleans that the menu hasn't changed in 125 years so how is one going to change or evolve the food?

I'm carded for R-rated movies. And I get talked down to a lot. When I try to go rent a car or buy an airplane ticket or other stuff adults do I get 'Okaaaaaay honey.' I remember when I was 18 getting crayons in a restaurant.

The newly decorated theatres produced things like car parks and restaurants so you could have a good night out quite cheaply without all that bother of having to go somewhere else.

A couple of months ago I was down in Florida for the Food and Wine Festival. And this journalist grabbed me and said 'How does it feel to be a TV guy? You're no longer in the restaurant business.' And I laughed. I asked him 'How long do you think it takes me to do a season?' He said 'Well 200 days.' And I was like '200 days? Try 20!'

Whether you were talking about Pillsbury Burger King Godfather's the National Restaurant Association in each one of those situations I had a daunting problem that I had to solve. And I used the same business principles to approach the problem and more importantly solve the problem in every one of the situations.

As a restaurateur my job is to basically control the chaos and the drama. There's always going to be chaos in the restaurant business.

At the end of drama school I made a contract with myself: I'd try acting for five years. I was 26. I had already spent eight years working in restaurants and gas stations. So I had seen enough small businesses to understand that that's what acting is: a small business.

Behind every small business there's a story worth knowing. All the corner shops in our towns and cities the restaurants cleaners gyms hair salons hardware stores - these didn't come out of nowhere.

All I watch is the Food Network. I took a cheesemaking class a few weeks ago and I told my family and friends to only get me kitchen stuff on my birthday. I'm into every kind of cookbook and anything by Anthony Bourdain. I'd love to own a restaurant if I could find the right chef.

Memories are like mulligatawny soup in a cheap restaurant. It is best not to stir them.

Everyone goes to the same exhibitions and the same parties stays in the same handful of hotels eats at the same no-star restaurants and has almost the same opinions. I adore the art world but this is copycat behavior in a sphere that prides itself on independent thinking.

Murals in restaurants are on a par with the food in museums.

Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight dinner soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays I go Fridays.

The business that people do in LA on the social level is amazing. You go to a restaurant bump into this guy or that guy. The next day you get a call and they want you in their movie.

My father opened a restaurant. It's so amazing... it's so freaking delicious but I'm telling you I gain five pounds every time I go in there.

Weird people follow you in the streets you can't sit alone in a restaurant or a cafe and read a book in peace and I think everybody values those moments of being alone.

It's kind of awkward to eat alone in a restaurant because everybody's looking at me.

IQ is a commodity data is a commodity. I'm far more interested in watching people interact at a restaurant with their smartphone. We can all read 'Tech Crunch ' 'Ad Age.' I would rather be living in the trenches. I would rather be going to Whole Foods in Columbus Circle to watch people shop with their smartphones.

You hit a certain age and - especially because of TV - the young cooks coming up say 'You're a sellout because you're doing something other than what you should be doing.' 'Top Chef' is a double-edged sword for me: There's a whole group of people who will not come to the restaurants because they assume I'm not in them anymore all I do is TV.

I started in the restaurant business at the age of 19 as a waitress. I loved the atmosphere and the camaraderie of the restaurant business. I loved not having to go to an office. I loved making people happy.