No one could touch the home cooking of an Italian woman. French women, they are very intelligent, very sexy - but they don't like to cook.

Paris is great. I stay at the Ritz Paris - I'm good friends with the Director, Frank Klein, and the owner. I lived there 3 years; I was the only foreigner working at Maxim's. They only took French, which was a mistake.

I like simple food, seasoned with just salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. Complicated food and complicated lives are never good.

It didn't get any more glamorous than Havana, Cuba, in the 1950s. I used to go there when I was a waiter on a cruise ship.

I started to work at the Colony in March 1958. I remember my first day because the telephone started to ring, and it was Sinatra, three for lunch, his usual table; Onassis, two for lunch, usual table; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Leland Hayward, Truman Capote, all wanting their usual tables.

My wife, she is so good. She was a famous singer - had a show in Carnegie Hall, did a big city tour for RCA. Then she made the mistake of marrying me. The next year, another tour, but the third year, she had Mario and said, 'Either I'm a mother or a singer.'