If it's not messy and it doesn't drip over the sides, it's not a holiday hot chocolate -it's just an average hot chocolate.

I've thrown vanilla beans into mustard. Nothing crazy or grainy, just normal dijon. It's great for duck. Smear some of that right on the duck, coupled with some roast plums, and it all comes together in that savory over sweet over savory over sweet way we all love.

We have to get out there and explain that imperfect tastes just as good.

Dione Lucas has been obscured by larger-than-life personalities like Julia Child, but she had it going on. She is like the horse that came in second place, whose name we can't remember. It takes more than just one horse to make a race.

I'm interested in food and sharing my passion with a community of like-minded people. All of the celebrity stuff that comes along with that is just an incidental byproduct of being able to do what I love for a living.

I know that some people use lavender, incense, and cake as sedatives, but for me, a 'nose bath' in an old book just does something.