You have to stick to your gut and stay true to yourself. Whenever you try to be something you're not, you usually mess it up.

Definitely keep it simple but very heavy on technique, which, I think, is hard to do. How do you keep it simple and loaded with technique? That's like having a stack of cards but only holding one card. Hone in on an ingredient and its various features. If you get an ingredient that only has one side to it, figure out what other ingredients illuminate that one ingredient. It's really a very ingredient-driven competition, and it's driven by imagination, resourcefulness and technique. And there's just no way around that. That's like — you're not going to drive through the road block, no matter how hard you punch the gas. Don't overthink, in a way. Go with your first thought. Make the first dish that pops into your head. Is that easy to do? No. That's why it's a don't. Don't cook for the judges, as much you want to. Don't stare at the judges. Don't pay any attention to Alton. Don't pay any attention to Alton. Don't pay any attention to Alton. It's all an optical illusion, and you have to just get zen with it. You have to go to the back of the pantry and find a cabbage and the onions, and skip the truffles and the foie gras and the lobster, and make humble, down-home dishes jam-packed with technique, creativity and modernist thinking, and you should be fine. 

That last five minutes goes really quick. Don't underestimate how quickly it goes, and start getting your food on the plate as quickly as you can. Cook the food that got you here, not the food that you think someone else wants you to cook. Keep your flavors very simple and clean, but remember that the judges are only going to take probably one or two bites of your dish, so ... you can't cook subtly. I think you have to have nice, poppy flavors that are going to excite the judges with one bite.

I call it the Iron Chef Effect. A young chef coming into Iron Chef, they think: "Oh, my God. I have to take it to the next level." And they lose themselves and they just start going a little too crazy instead of staying true to who they are.