Yes, that pretty much sums it up. On this we can all agree.

admits he prefers Haagen-Dazs to Ben & Jerry's. Even so, he salutes Carbone's efforts to be different. ''There is something good and enlivening and even ennobling about food that makes you laugh, that makes you curious, makes you wonder.

The ingredients today don't impress us, but back then they were much more expensive and difficult to find. The Caesar, when it was first introduced, was considered exotic.

The chief problem with modern life is not work in itself,

[Among the cognoscenti, though, it is not just about elaborate new flavors.] I always consider the main test of ice cream to be the simple ice creams, especially vanilla, ... One should have fun when one eats, but it should also be seriously good.

The pace he was keeping up in the spring was pretty intense. It's probably not realistic to expect that level of attention to be paid forever, when you've got Supreme Court justices and lots of other things on the plate.