Alex Guarnaschelli

You have to be disciplined about being in the kitchen.

I try to sit still for about 15 minutes each morning without making lists or running in overdrive.

I used to run track in high school and was unexceptional in every way.

I exercise at a great gym and do dance classes mixed with some calisthenics. I really enjoy that because it reminds me of '80s aerobics. It's fun! I also bike ride, or sometimes I swim. Because I stand a lot, I don't really like to walk long distances. Running or jogging is out of the question.

Every once in a while, I want to get up and cook.

You have a shelf-life on TV.

I think that 'celebrity' and 'chef' should be a permanent oxymoron.

I like Bobby Flay's attitude and his approach towards food. I think he's just passionate and very honest. I find him very honest about food and cooking and ingredients and I admire that because I think that it's easy to get away from that for various reasons.

Dione Lucas has been obscured by larger-than-life personalities like Julia Child, but she had it going on. She is like the horse that came in second place, whose name we can't remember. It takes more than just one horse to make a race.

I know that some people use lavender, incense, and cake as sedatives, but for me, a 'nose bath' in an old book just does something.

My mom is a self-taught home cook, so books that offer guidelines on how to organize menus are critical to 'cook from the book' people like her.

I really love muscle cars. I don't think people might realize that about me. I really want to go to an auto auction and blow my life savings on a Camaro. They have such design around them, such panache.

I didn't harbor a huge desire to become a chef until I graduated from college.

It's amazing how meaty cauliflower can be.

Give yourself enough time to really learn how to cook.

I used to sleep with the phone right by my pillow but I'm getting better. Now it sits on the table a few feet away.

The better the ingredients, the more farmers I can buy from, the closer I feel to the food I want to make that represents what I care about as a chef.

If I want my daughter to try something, I eat it in front of her repeatedly without forcing the issue and, with some trial and error, the world is our oyster!

Winter blues are cured every time with a potato gratin paired with a roast chicken.

If you want to have a relationship, at some point you have to let yourself get caught. That's what I did. I got caught.