Judges, Bring It On!

I thought the special was great. It was a lot of fun. It's interesting to hear questions about what's on everybody's mind and watching at home, and giving them the opportunity to ask questions. Some of the questions are really just great, and others are pretty superficial. Is it anyone's business how Padma got her scar on her arm?

As far as the drinking clips are concerned, that's what we do. I think that it gets a little magnified sometimes with the drinking. But like Tom said, what else is there to do? If all other liberties are taken away from us, and then we're told, "Oh here, why don't you have some booze and have a good time? Well, OK. It certainly helps take your mind off certain things for a small amount of time anyway. There's no newspaper, no Internet, no television, no cell phones, no radio, no books -- what are we supposed to do?

I really thought the Perilla segment was a lot of fun, and I thought it looked great. It was really nice having the cameras in there. I didn't want anybody to do it during service because it's just not that type of restaurant, but I'm all about that. I was happy to have the Bravo folks in here. Before the special, I actually hadn't met any of the Season 3 contestants. They came down to Perilla for dinner that same night. It was cool. They were all really, really supportive, really nice. It was cool getting a chance to hang out with them. They all seemed pretty normal -- nobody was that eccentric. There's been some contestants in the past that I can't even be in the same room with because I kind of just want to choke the life out of them (I obviously won't name names), but this season's chefs all seemed really nice. Camille came in for her birthday, so it was nice to be able to cook for her.

As far as Micah not watching the show before she competed, I didn't really get it. You're putting yourself on national television. Knowing what I know now, I would definitely do all my homework and also learn a couple of pastry dishes I know I can bang out at the drop of hat, because sooner or later you're going to have to cook them. I don't know if it made it to the final cut, but I was asked about participating in a cook-off against the Season 3 chefs, and I said that they all seem pretty talented.The only way you're ever going to get me in a kitchen again for a cook-off is if you let me cook off against the judges. But I don't think they'd ever put themselves out there like that.