Born on February 12th

"My biggest challenge is cooking traditional French dishes, which usually require very specific techniques and methods. That's just not my style... I cook from the soul."

"I was a little, uh, incorrigible as a kid, so the kitchen was a good place to give me structure and balance. It taught me hard work, but then I grew to love it."

"My mother and my grandmother are pioneers of Mexican cuisine in this country, so I grew up in the kitchen. My mom, Zarela Martinez, was by far my biggest influence and inspiration - and toughest critic."

"I like to cook with the philosophy of using great ingredients and not altering them too much."

"When I was a teenager, I worked in New Orleans for a chef named Paul Prudhomme. That was a very important time in my life as a chef. I developed my palate and learned a lot. And here I am now. I specialize in modern Mexican and contemporary Latin cuisines."

"I wanted to get away from the Mexican vernacular and do more 'nuevo Latino.' Americans are starting to understand regionality in Mexican food. It is very regional in terms of ingredients."

"Instead of going out, I'm trying to encourage people to have a memorable experience in their own home. We call it 'Delicioso Night In.' I invite the people I care about the most. Then, when I get a lot of people together, I like to have finger foods."

"Latin food suffers like Chinese. You can do marginal Chinese and be successful. You can do crappy Mexican and be packed."

"If we're talking fantasy, I would love to host a late night talk show... More Fallon than Leno. Those guys always seem like they're having way too much fun at their 'jobs.'"

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

"How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg."

"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."

"No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar."

"I don't like that man. I must get to know him better."

"I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end."

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet."

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it."

"The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."