Essentially I'm untrained so I just go with my imagination and try to put myself as solidly as I can into the shoes of whatever person I'm going to be playing.
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.
