“I love warm salads with bacon and spinach. I love the varieties of the...” — Marcela Valladolid Quote

I love warm salads with bacon and spinach. I love the varieties of the nicoise that show up on so many menus. I love steak salads for their lusciousness and how the meat juices seep into the dressing.

In Tijuana, we have cuisine from every region of Mexico and cooks from all over cooking in all of the restaurants, so there is a huge influence from sources like the Yucatan, Oaxaca and Puebla.

There is nothing more satisfying to me than seeing people who eat my food have smiles on their faces. It makes the experience special.

People don't realize that we're spending money throwing food away rather than feeding people.

Kevin Bacon and I went up for the same stuff, and people would say, 'You and Kevin have the same quality.' I was like, 'I do?' I remember seeing 'Footloose' and thinking, 'How do I have any kind of quality that that guy does?'

In the South, dove hunts do not draw quietly to a close. Sometimes, at the simplest end, a grill and cooler are hauled to the edge of the field, and the doves' breasts are grilled - usually swaddled in bacon, maybe with a jalapeno tucked inside - as the hunters tell and retell tales of the day's shooting.

Before I turned vegetarian, I used to often cook seafood or my favourite breakfast of eggs and bacon. Now, I love making pulao or rice with lots of spices and vegetables.

My early paintings weren't that good - I was very influenced by Francis Bacon. But there was a kind of intensity there. And however influenced they may have been by other people, even my earliest paintings were recognisably my own.