I didn't want a desk job; I knew I'd get bored.

I was raised by a gaggle of women who all loved to bake. Dessert always existed after any savory meal. I was raised with cookies on the plate, brownies in a Tupperware container, and so on.

Most of my memories are of softball games in Falls Church with my sister, yard sales across town on the weekends with my grandma, grocery-shopping and errand-running with my mom, learning to drive an old Volkswagen bug down Old Keene Mill Road with my dad.

Both of my parents worked incredibly hard, and eating out was a treat.

I love checking out aspiring bakers' offerings at local farmers' markets when the weather is nice.

The hardest thing to do is dig deep and be patient about the things you're going to learn month to month and quarter to quarter.

When you open any kind of food service establishment, you do all this planning, but it's not until you've opened the door and people are inside that you learn what people want you to be to them.

My first season of 'MasterChef' was tricky. I took a risk going into TV. I was confident it was the right risk and confident I'd break down barriers as the first female judge - and one that was previously only known for the sweeter side of the kitchen.

I don't watch what I eat, because the concept seems exhausting to me.

I love feeling exhausted after a good, hard, honest day's work.

I love roasted pecans. I'll make a sort of granola with the roasted pecans, turn that into a super nutty pie crust, and top that with apple-syrup pudding and top that with cooked custard and maple syrup.

Fruitcakes have a bad rap.

If you're coming to dinner at our house, you know you're gonna be well-fed.

My family, as you can probably guess, was more into Christmas cookies and not so much the fruitcake.

I love a good challenge of looking with new eyes at a tried and true recipe in my recipe Rolodex.

I like to move around a lot - I'm a big runner, and I often get on a bike and ride from meeting to meeting.

Out of culinary school, I worked as a pastry cook in amazing restaurants for years. I ended up leaving the pastry cook scene because, though I loved the industry, the restaurants and the chefs I worked for so much, I had to be honest with myself. I was never going to be them.

When you taste something delicious, ask for the recipe! Or offer to trade a recipe!

I think my biggest heartbreak was when I just couldn't get an American cheese cake/pie with a saltine cracker crust and green tomato sorbet to work out in my favor.

I approach life with a 'jump' sort of mentality, although I wasn't raised to take crazy risks. I was raised to be a crazy hard worker. It seems to be a pretty good match of qualities.

I like trying to keep as honest and straightforward of a point of view in our kitchen as possible.

There are other things that set me off a lot more than what it's like to be a woman in the kitchen.

I have worked my way up in the food industry being strong and steady about who I am as a person, first and foremost, as a chef and professional, and certainly as a woman.

I was always taught to be myself, be honest, and be true to my roots.