“Not to sound too much like Christopher Guest in 'Waiting for Guffman, ' but on Thanksgiving you're putting on a show!”
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I really have a great deal of humility in that department, and a great deal of respect for people who spend their lives learning how to make these amazing preparations.
However, I was a restaurant critic at Chicago magazine before I worked at Esquire, and I've been a really enthusiastic home cook for a long time. It's just something I'm passionate about.
Believe me, I understand the need for easy and speedy. After a 12-hour day of shooting 'Chopped, ' say, I'm talking stir-fry, spaghetti, heck, peanut-butter sandwiches. But that's not about the joy of food. That's survival.
I think what I do differently from a lot of TV chefs is that I break down barriers and make fine food more accessible to the regular person, who might be intimidated. I try hard, particularly with wine, to make it not intimidating. It's sort of a teaching job.
