I’M A GOOD HOST because I’m generous. First of all, if you’re invited, no one has to bring anything; I’ll provide everything. I just love serving food. I love plating food. I love bringing people together, and I like to be the host, because I like to work at my parties. I’m a better host than I am a guest.

WHEN I'M A GUEST, it’s like, what can I do? I like to be busy, y’know? I’m not great at standing idly by. I wanna move around; I wanna use my hands and feel useful.

I DON'T BELIEVE IN RETIREMENT, especially if I get to do what you want to do. I am living the life that I’m supposed to be living, so when somebody asks, Are you going to retire, that usually means to stop what I love doing.

I WAS EXPRESSING MYSELF on a plate, but I wasn’t expressing myself as a plate.

DON'T BUY SOMETHING THAT'S FASHIONABLE. I just acquired a style that reads fashionable to other people.

I LOVE ACCESSORIES. With my hair clips, to be 100 per cent honest, it started because I’ve always hated my hair. I have very curly hair, and I always wanted really straight hair, y’know. But I’ve decided to embrace it by pulling it back tight and sticking some colourful things in it. I feel it distracts people from actually looking at my hair. Instead, they are focused on the clips, which look like a crown or a tiara.

OH, I OWN MORE THAN 100 HAIR CLIPS, and they’re not cheap. I have a whole collection of vintage clips—beautiful clips—that have their own personality.

THE THING WITH MY IMPERFECT VISION is that everybody’s beautiful and soft. Once you put on these glasses that correct your vision, and all of a sudden, everybody’s sharp, and they have flaws.

YEARS AGO, when I finally got a pair of prescription lenses, I looked at the ground, and, oh my goodness, the ground is so dirty. I never knew that.

I WORE GLASSES AS AN ACCESSORY... I’m gonna say 10,15 years ago. It was a time when I felt that I needed details on my face: that’s where glasses came in. I became so used to wearing them that I feel almost naked without them. There’s something very comforting about it. Like I’m wearing a piece of armour.

I GREW UP IN THE 60s, in an era where, I think, families from an early age kinda stuck together. I feel like I was always with my family every single night as we ate dinner at the table.

ABSOLUTELY NO TV during dinner. Instead, we talk. I knew what my father did that day, whether he went to trial or won a case. I knew what my mother worked on and what she wrote. Most of all, I learnt about politics. My parents were very political, and they would discuss politics with each other at the table with my sister and me. I thought that was very unique.

I LIVE my bucket list every day.

AMERICA isn’t going in the direction that I agree with. The many wonderful things that were commonplace in our lives are going to be taken away.

IN 1979, there wasn’t anything like a celebrity chef. In fact, most people did not know who did the cooking at a restaurant.

I WAS VERY LUCKY to be the opening pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck when Spago opened in 1982. Prior to that, I worked at a restaurant in Santa Monica called Michael’s and I was happy there. I met Mark at Michael’s—and would eventually become my husband—and he was gonna leave and be the executive chef at Spago. He asked if I wanted to work at Spago.

I WAS VERY RELUCTANT, Y'KNOW. But I saw it as a career advancement for me. After a lot of begging, I finally gave in. Little did I know, I rode on Spago’s success and right away, the press came, and with that, my career took off.

UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT OF SPAGO, Mark was never gonna become the focal point because it was Wolfgang’s show. Two-and-a-half years later, someone lured us away to work at a restaurant in New York. I didn’t want to do it, but Mark really wanted to, because it was his opportunity to become a celebrity chef. We moved to New York, and it didn’t work out, but by then, Mark was ready to open his own restaurant. We returned to Los Angeles and opened Campanile.

I COULD HAVE WORKED for Wolfgang forever. I had no desire, really, to own a restaurant, but Mark really did, and I wanted to support him.

TO BE A GOOD CHEF, you have to be a chef who’s well-travelled.

VINTAGE, PRE-OWNED GUCCI, I love that more than its contemporary line.

WHEN I STARTED COOKING, I was very intimidated by the idea of being a chef. To me, a chef was someone, who wore the tall white hat, a button-down shirt and had worked for many years. I always felt that I’ll never achieve that, y’know? I’m still not comfortable with that title.

YOU GOTTA LOVE what you do.

[IF I HAD AN OPPORTUNITY to host three people who aren’t around anymore], it’d be with my mother, my father and my middle child. That would be a great party.

THE WAY PEOPLE DESCRIBE ME so often is like, You’re a legend. Maybe I’m a legend because I’m so old and I’ve been around. I look at a legacy as someone who leaves their mark. So, hopefully that’s what I have.

I DON'T REALLY LIKE IT when people are overly creative. Meaning that they don’t feel that they will either make their mark or be appreciated as a chef if they do something simple. Instead, they put such a crazy spin on a classic dish.

IF I'M IN THE MOOD for a grilled cheese sandwich, I just want toasted, buttery bread with a really good aged Gruyere. That’s it. I don’t want any foie gras in there.

I DON'T LIKE seeing myself in pictures. Never seen myself on television, never even listened to myself on a radio interview.

DI I HAVE ANY REGRETS? Yeah, I regret that I didn’t work on my marriage with Mark.

NO, ACTUALLY, I think everything I’ve done was within my control. If I don’t want to live in Los Angeles, I can move somewhere else. If I don’t like having restaurants, I could sell them, right? I thought about the things that I regret, and I really don’t, because I’ve done everything that I wanted to do.

MY PHILOSOPHY is that you can do anything and any decision made... that’s on you.