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Daniel already has 18 restaurants worldwide, with the majority (ten) of them based in New York City, where he lives, including DANIEL, The Bar at Daniel, Bar Boulud, Boulud Sud, Café Boulud, Bar Pleiades, DB Bistro Moderne, and three locations of Épicerie Boulud. He tells me that many of his New York customers seek out his other restaurants when they travel. "It's good. Of course, there's always the newcomer, the new this, the new that, it's natural that if you do well, other people are going to want to do something next to you, something new. But it's OK, competition is stimulating." With so many restaurants, how do you do it? Do you frequent them often? "I frequent them during the day. I frequent them at night. It's a teamwork... The chef cannot do everything himself. He's going to need his team of chefs with him. He's going to need a team at the front of the house to back him up and all that. I've been mentoring a lot of young chefs, a lot of front of the house waiters, managers, and sommeliers, and while we give opportunity to many to grow with us, some of them also have opened their own business and leave town and move on and are quite successful. And we also keep many in-house and we give them the opportunity to grow with us as well. There is definitely a lot of imprint of Daniel Boulud and the cuisine that I want, but then we work very closely with a chef… If it's a young chef, who hasn't worked long with me, for sure, we watch him closely. If it's a chef who has a lot of experience with us, he has the freedom and the responsibility to make that restaurant work. You really try to adapt based on what the brand is. So, if it's a Bar Boulud, it's not Café Boulud, it's not DANIEL." Now that you're a prolific restaurateur, how often are you in the kitchen? "I'm here right now. I can see what they're doing right now," he says matter-of-factly. But are you cooking? "I don't need to cook, but I need to taste. I need to know what's going on, and I cook sometimes. I cook more when I travel than when I'm in New York, but that does not mean we don't cook together. During the preparation, if they have any questions, they can always get to me, usually the recipe I established, the chef… There is an entire pyramid of management who supervise everybody, so I think the success of a restaurant is due to the success of the team." When you're home, do you cook? "Yeah, simple. One pot meal. Depends who I'm entertaining and where I'm cooking. I live right above the store here, DANIEL, so it's easy to cook, even if I have a New York kitchen." He smiles. "When I go in the countryside, I like to cook barbeque. I like to cook things I don't always cook at home." Because Daniel has young children, he likes to prepare dishes that please the household. "You'd be surprised, and it might be the same food you do at home." He laughs. "People should not think that chef always make fancy food. Chef like to just eat spaghetti tomato sauce as well. It's easy to do. You put the can of tomato..." He chuckles. "But I have good tomato sauce at home. Some good spaghetti." He adds that the source of your ingredients is essential. "My wife only buys organic vegetables, organic this and that. Everything. We cook simple at home, but we cook healthy."