Des Quotes

I'm from the US of A. Born in Des Moines, raised in the New York suburbs.

Fifteen years ago, France was the promised land of cooking. So I looked at a map, found five restaurants and faxed them to ask for a job. Within five minutes, I got a reply from the then three- star Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier.

I stood there amazed. I found it all hard to believe, that I, Des Nilsen, had actually done all that.

It's hard to pass up a pole vault opportunity here in Des Moines. The crowd was so great when I was at the mall and I was pumped up and I thought technically I was on and I figured where else to open up my outdoor season than here.

My initial plan was to spend a year in France, go to some kind of school and learn a bit of French. I went a year in an American college in the outskirts of Strasbourg, but got a glimpse of a real art school, L'Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, and enrolled the following year.

I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.

I have cervical cancer. I'm what they call a DES baby... I have been cancer free for 7 years now... I had it the first time when I was 19 and then it came back a few years later after I went through treatment.