“When I was first approached about television, I had a decision to make: Did I want to work on a kitchen or a restaurant set? And the answer, for me, was neither. I find stories about steaks grilling on the fire and turkeys roasting in the oven to be incredibly boring. Boring, boring, boring. But a tribe of Botswanan people who eat so seasonally that, for one month of the year, they only eat jewel bugs mashed with marula nuts? Nuts that drop on the ground in the Kalahari Dessert like hailstones in a Kansas summer storm? Now that’s where I want to play.”

“Without a doubt; my show is disruptive at its core. You have to keep in mind, rockstar chefs are still a relatively new thing. The role of the chef is changing, and we suddenly have these multimillion dollar brands. Disruption — or what I like to call the anarchist mentality, or blowing shit up — is no longer an option; it’s an obligation. It’s the role of a chef to consider food’s broader place in society… to think about how we’re going to teach healthy eating in a world that just craves more garbage.”

“Eating in America is a class issue; eating well is an even bigger class issue. When 20% of Americans don’t know where their next meal’s coming from — 19% of which are children — well, that’s criminal. But again, this goes back to what I said earlier: If we could all stretch our boundaries, maybe everyone could live a bit better. I try to educate people about alternatives. Take meat, for example. Maybe we should eat a wider variety of animals instead of just lamb, beef, pork and chicken… and then there would be more for everyone.”