Chef de Cuisine at Eleven Madison Park & Partner of Daniel Humm Hospitality

Things are going to be okay, things are going to fall in place. If you love what you do, if you focus and you find your route, things will come to you.

When you're struggling, don't just keep going and trying to power through. Take a step back and realize what the struggle is. I've seen in so many chefs in my career struggling in a certain area or in a certain setup. When they finally decided to change and go to work in a different station, different restaurant, or a different path, they blossomed and became incredibly good at what they were doing and loved it.

There's always going to be a world where we have fine dining, where there's incredible food and amazing hospitality and great wines. I hope the people that are like me, that love food and hospitality in general, don't stop. Let's keep making this industry better because it's a really special world.

To really hold on to what a restaurant is–eating extremely delicious food and having amazing service and great wine–is what this is all about.

My mom was a great, great chef. She cooked all the time and made bread really often. That's one of my first memories: being on a stool, four or five years old, and she was teaching me how to knead bread on the counter. It's one of my fondest memories of me starting to cook and falling in love with food. As I grew up, I was always cooking with her. I just realized I just always loved cooking, and I was cooking a lot at home even as a kid.

I love the energy of New York City so much. Everyone comes from everywhere, but everyone is so passionate about what they do. We all live in our own world about our food, about hospitality, about wine, about art, about what we love. It's cool to be in a place where you're surrounded by so many passionate people.