I surround myself with people that are supportive of our insane family dynamic, and I savor every minute of every day I have at home with my family.

My boys will not only respect and admire women and see them as their equals, but they will also see them as sources of inspiration and knowledge.

I want children to feel proud of their heritage.

I love my fish spatula so much. I don't have many specialty tools, but that's a favorite of mine.

I use my Le Creuset dutch oven for everything you can think of. I even fry eggs in it.

My half-breed culture informs everything I do but I'm not thinking about it. I'm just doing it. Not until very late in my career did I realize that I was so fortunate to just live with this profound pride in being half Mexican without being attacked for it.

I hold both of them with equal amounts of pride. I feel just as strongly and equally Mexican as I do American.

You can invite people over or make your kids their favorite food - that usually inspires me in the kitchen.

I have pictures with Morimoto where I'm all embarrassed and he's so serious, it took me 30 minutes to get up the courage to introduce myself.

There are so many wonderful Mexican cheeses that people really don't consider when making Mexican food, or food in general.

I'm a purist when it comes to certain foods, and al pastor tacos (known as adobada tacos to us in Tijuana) is one of those foods. I lived off them - literally.

Growing up, everybody would cross the border, even to just do grocery shopping. A lot of traditional American foods stuck with my parents and became part of my upbringing. This all had to do with the proximity to the border. We were an absolute mix of classic Americana, traditional Mexican, and Baja cuisine.

My former assistant used to tell me I have a problem with cushions and she was totally right. The reason is because I'm constantly rearranging things in my house. And if I can't move a whole piece of furniture, the easiest thing to rearrange is cushions. I like to keep things fresh.

Herdez Salsas have always been a favorite of mine because I love the authentic taste.

You're only as good as the people who you surround yourself with.

Quesadillas, those are my comfort food.

My aunt was a chef and she inspired me deeply so she was a huge motivator but more than anything it was a quest for independence and freedom that lead me to an L.A. Culinary School.

There's a design book I got years ago that had a statue of a dog with a bunch of hats on it, and I just obsessively fell in love with it. For years I searched for that dog. One day I walked into an antique shop in La Jolla and I found a white dog that I could put hats on!

When summer squash is freshly picked, all it needs is a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe a hit of lemon juice.

I've been doing the 'Mexican Made Easy' show, and it's very heavy on instructions. It's me talking to the camera.

Growing up, my mom was a stay-at-home mom. I knew that her entire world revolved around us, and she relished being involved in every school project and every craft.

My decisions are motivated by my life, my values, and what I stand for, not what I can gain financially from it. This has weeded out the opportunities that I don't care about and has brought on a lot of new opportunities that mean everything to me.

There is no yellow cheese in Mexico!

I didn't realize I was living in a very unique situation until I became a culinary professional. For me, there was nothing out of the ordinary about spending half my day in Mexico, and the other half in California.