If you could cook a meal for anyone living or dead, who would it be?

MFK Fisher. She's a dead food writer.

What would you make her?

Braised chicken. My philosophy is that food should be simply elegant, and not fussy. Fisher was really in tune with that.

So what are some of your favorite ingredients?

Lots of stock, pounds of shallots, and plenty of fresh herbs.

Do you find any foods too evil or fussy to cook with?

I avoid bananas because I don't like the way they smell. But in general, I love all ingredients. It's not their fault if what people do to them makes them nasty.

What are your more popular dishes?

If the weather's cold, I know we're going to sell out of our braised chicken. On the weekends, we sell a lot of egg-white omelets at the crack of dawn to those healthy folks headed out for morning bike rides. Around one o'clock we get the hangover crowd. They order our homemade corned beef hash because it's an excellent hangover cure. Other than that, our menu is pretty seasonal, as is what's popular.

Interview by Cienna Madrid