Hearing echoes of Graham Kerr when someone once criticized his style of cooking, ("Madame, you could go outside and get run over by a bus and just think what you would have missed!"), Ono is unafraid of thick steaks, copious amounts of butter and heavy cream. When at home he cooks as did the Galloping Gourmet and Julia Child -- a little wine for the dish, a little wine for the chef. Bringing his scientific and engineering background to the culinary world, he is on a seemingly one-man campaign to bring America out of the dark ages by rediscovering the goodness of lard and the safety of the digital thermometer.
He began experimenting in the kitchen at the age of four when he climbed up on his mother's cooktop and turned on a burner so he could figure out how it worked. He has no plans to stop, there's always something new to learn. He's worn many hats throughout his life, but says he's done with restaurants. Remember the scene in "No Reservations" where Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) walks out of the kitchen with a hunk of raw meat on a carving fork and slams it down on a customer's table and asks "Rare enough for you?" That was taken from Ono's last day on the job. He currently works as a private chef under significantly less stress.
- What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
- Braised short ribs over polenta, asparagus and cracked wheat bread. Chocolate Pots de Crème topped with vanilla whipped cream for dessert. Strange only because eating that way is how I lost 35 pounds.
- What do you cook when home alone?
- Less of whatever I'd cook if others were in attendance.
- Your most treasured kitchen possession:
- The wine glass in my hand.
- The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
- Six -- otherwise our guests would have to stand. But there is a reason we only own six chairs.
