Ted Allen
I'm in a loft and the kitchen is in the very center of the apartment. The whole place revolves around it.
I went in saying I wanted to be the food guy.
I think that curiosity happened on these reviews where I was just a guest of the reviewer, because it introduced me to new cuisines and to the idea of cooking as a mechanism for studying other cultures and understanding other parts of the world.
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.
I moved into a larger apartment in the Village and I actually have the possibility of having people over for dinner again, so I'm very excited.
I mean I want people to enjoy their dinner, but I just love the process so much.
I like to have friends in the kitchen and make a big mess and use every pot in the kitchen.
I know that the single guys on the cast (which is everybody but me), hmm, well a lot more people flirt with you when you're on TV.
I had a really good time with Martha Stewart, who also is somebody I really admire a lot. I've learned a lot from her and I think all of America has, about attention to detail and using fresh ingredients and making things beautiful and special.
I first got into food with my mother, just Southern cooking, really bad for you food (just delicious!) because I'm the first Yankee in my family, and everyone else was from the South.
I cook everything. I love Mediterranean cooking, I love Asian cooking. I do lots of Japanese noodles.
I am much more interested in the process than results.
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.
For each episode the five of us are all wearing clothes by the same designer. It's a different designer for each episode, but for each one we're all wearing their clothes.
But, probably my favorite food interview was with Mario Batali, because I have never met anybody who was more instantly media savvy and more helpful than he was.
Because the show is popular, people do recognize us on the streets.
Baking is problematic for me because I usually drink a lot of wine when I cook!
A friend of a friend has an aunty who lives in southern Illinois, she's in her 60's, and it's totally conservative middle-America. She has a group of ladies her age that get together every Tuesday to watch Queer Eye.