Cooking is for chefs. Science informs us and lets us cook while knowing what we are doing, but it is not a replacement for the skills of a chef.

The physics of water is central to cooking, because food is mostly water. All steak that you cook is actually boiled on the inside.

Cooking is an art, but all art requires knowing something about the techniques and materials. Using modernist techniques, you get more control, and that allows you to be more artistic, not less!

The best value for money in cooking equipment, in my mind, is first a digital scale and digital thermometer. They're both about $20. They help you cook so much more accurately that they're both enormously valuable.

With cult foods, there is an underlying assumption that the best cooking ideas came generations ago. Yet culinary innovation is nothing to be ashamed of. When a chef tells me he is cooking with his grandmother's recipe, I always wonder why. Did talent skip the past two generations?

But cooking is about emotion - if you want to please someone, you have to do it with your heart. It's a therapy. Right spices and right attitude matters! Careful shopping, fresh ingredients and an unhurried approach are nearly all you need. There is one more thing – love.