Cleaning is my favorite way to relax. I clear things out and get rid of the stuff I don't need. When the food pantry and the refrigerator are organized I feel less stressed.

I recycle. I have a house in the south of France and I have a small garden. My name is Dujardin - 'from the garden.' I grow carrots peppers strawberries green beans and things for salads but there are lots of wild boars all around and they steal the food.

In '71 or '72 I returned to New Orleans and stayed there. I started cooking Louisiana food. Of all the things I had cooked it was the best-and it was my heritage.

I heard about the project over a year before we began. My American agent said 'Oh you might want to read 'In Cold Blood' because they're talking about you for Capote but the script's with Johnny Depp and Sean Penn at the moment.' So these things take their time to dribble down the food chain.

You can give men food and leisure and amusements and good conditions of work and still they will remain unsatisfied. You can deny them all these things and they will not complain so long as they feel that they have something to die for.

Life excites me-just little normal everyday things. Getting out of bed. Getting dressed. Making food. I find it all exciting.

As a freelance writer I'd be asked to become an expert for various magazines on any subject whether food or wine or history or the life span of veterinarians. I was completely unschooled in any of these things.

Doing things like playing music something that's so natural and basic to human function running around in nature eating delicious food. These things are intrinsic in basic primordial to human beings so that's sort of a way to return to a blank canvas allowing my true personality to return.

We are not really privy to all that crazy stuff that goes on in the show. I go to work eat and talk about food. The wild things happen when we aren't around. I expected Top Chef to last three or four seasons and we are now shooting season ten.

Asian food is very easy to like because it hits your mouth very differently than European food does. In European food there may be two things to hit - maybe sweet and salty maybe salty-savory but Asian kind of works around plus you have that distinct flavor that's usually working in Asian food.

Hunger is a political issue and there are several things politically that are keeping people hungry - not funding food stamps adequately not funding school lunches adequately. So there is a political solution to the problem of hunger.

I think the most wonderful thing in the world is another chef. I'm always excited about learning new things about food.

Go to the grocery store and buy better things. Buy quality buy organic buy natural go to the farmers market. Immediately that's going to increase the quality of the food you make.

I want Americans to enjoy food. I want them to celebrate food. I want them to on occasions to have big cakes and great things. And I want them to indulge.

It's easy to be lazy when there's food lying around backstage or there's a fast-food joint a couple blocks away. But if you walk a little further ask around a bit of course there are exciting things to discover.

There is no reasoning no process of inference or comparison there is no thinking about things no putting two and two together there are no ideas - the animal does not think of the box or of the food or of the act he is to perform.

When I do a 30-minute meal for instance on Food Network that's my food you see at the end of the show and it's not perfect. And if sometimes things break or drop or the pasta hits the wall when I'm draining it they never stop tape. They just kind of let me go with it.

Basically there are two things we know: Everybody has less time and the general public is demanding better food - better in terms of quality and better in terms of flavor.

Nobody believed the 'Food Network' could last. Even I was short sighted and thought to myself 24 hours of food on TV? They'll run out of things to talk about in four days! But that wasn't true. 'Food Network' continues to get better and evolve.

I used to eat because food tastes so good. I love food it's one of the best things on this planet. But I changed the way I was thinking. I started asking myself 'Hey am I eating because it tastes good? Or because I really need some more? Am I really still hungry?'

You know most of the food that Americans hold so dear - things like hamburgers and hot dogs - were road food but even before they were road food they were peasant food.

You don't want flame to hit your food. Flame is bad. Flame does nasty things to food. It makes soot and it makes deposits of various chemicals that are not too good for us. The last thing you really want to see licking at your food while it's on a grill is an actual flame.

I kept thinking 'Somebody has to make a food show that is actually educational and entertaining at the same time... a show that got down to the 'why things happen.' Plus I hated my job - I didn't think it was very worthwhile.

I'm trying to cut down a little on eating on sodium keep my blood pressure down which is tough. Because I love food! I do but it's unfair how everything that's bad for you tastes so good and all the good stuff veggies and green things doesn't match up.