My mom, who's been in the restaurant business for 40 years, is the number-one influence in my life. But I look up to a lot of people in the industry. Tops on my list is Mario Batali. My mom and Mario taught me the same lesson: Food is love. ↗
When men I have dated over the years whined about, 'Oh, you make no time for me' - see ya! I just dumped them. I don't need that pressure in my life. ↗
I was at the Smithsonian for twenty years, and I'm still at the Smithsonian as a curator emeritus, and I still plan to figure out what that means for me at this point in my life. ↗