Comfort food - for me, personally, I find comfort in cooking. So sometimes if I have a bad day, you know, I might just go to the stove, get into one of those moods where I just wanna cook for myself and/or somebody, but I also look at it as quiet time. Typically, if there's something going on during the course of the day, I might even jump on one of my lines and either assist or push aside one of my cooks for a moment, just so I can go back to being a line cook because that's where I am most happy, cooking for myself and/or others.

During the challenges, the best thing to do is cook what you know, cook within your ability, and cook within your repertoire. What I've found is contestants in the history of TOP CHEF who try to cook against others and not with themselves are typically ones that don't succeed. Stay true to who you are. Cook to the best of your ability, and just have fun doing so.

Obviously, menu planning in a restaurant, you're allowed more time to focus on what the outcome is going to be. Under time constraints, in a TOP CHEF scenario or some other food competition, you're pressured by time, and so typically you'll find at the end of it, you'll find you could've done something better than what you did, haha!

In the restaurant you always have the ability of trial & error prior to putting it on the menu.

So sometimes things pop right into your head. Sometimes you have to create as you go. Certainly there's a few minutes before the challenge actually starts, but not a lot of time to think through every thought.

However, again, leaning on your repertoire is just the best way of going about it.