“My cousin owns restaurants, and I used to work in his restaurants with...” — Luke Pasqualino Quote

My cousin owns restaurants, and I used to work in his restaurants with his chef. I've always liked food, and I've always been interested in cooking and stuff like that.

Any project that you shoot, it's never going to be completely finished the way that... I don't think I've ever worked on anything where every scene has been kept in the order that it was originally in, or that it hasn't been cut down in some way.

You can't steal every scene. There are scenes in which you need to sit back and do a lot less, verbally, physically.

I did enjoy cooking, I still do really enjoy cooking - I make a nice salmon dish, and I'm a huge meat freak, so I love to bang a few steaks on the grill or pasta. Anything Italian, really.

The entire 'Top Chef' experience was a learning experience. I learned about myself as a competitor, a teammate, a friend, a chef, a mother.

Whenever I want to know how to cook something, I can't ask one chef - I have to ask six.

I always thought the name of my first book would be 'The Insecure Chef,' because when I started cooking, I was so nervous.

I make a really delicious eggplant and squash curry that's inspired by Vij of Vij's Restaurant, a great chef and restaurateur in Vancouver. I like to cook that dish because it's really simple, but the flavor is so pungent and intense that I feel like I'm a real chef whenever I create it.