willy bishop. he knew all the levels, draw chalk on the soup, a huge pot of soup and say, you know, "make soup to here," that kind of thing. i also loved the food that chez panisse represented, which was a little local south of france bistro, you know, selling vermouth and roast chicken. so i -- that wasn't enough for me. endless inspirationally -- alice b. toklas cookbook. it also goes everywhere with me. an ancient version of it. very quickly at chez panisse, i realized that everything that had gone before in my life -- menus, all the experiences with food and hotels and travel, cookbooks, my education -- were finally going to come into play. inspirational. >> michael: he began to mix and match from the different cultures he'd been exposed to, to make a kind of audacious experiment.