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Love those bagged salads! 100% useable! Get your bagged greens at Trader Joes, and it's 1/2 the price of regular grocery stores. Their organic salad with herbs is wonderful!

Sorry, but I never found him to be a good teacher, and there were plenty of other people teaching cooking on PBS. And after what I personally witnessed, and how he mixed it with his promoting his own books (so it is on topic, I guess), I cannot stomach him.

Babyluck, if you had seen what I saw at a book signing (about 1996), you would have no doubt about the veracity of the accusations. At 10:00 am, he and Craig were signing books in a store where I worked. Their requirements were a bottle of Tanquerey for Jeff, and a 6 pack of Heinekin for Craig. Which they drank while signing books. In the morning. Many mothers had to pull their children away from Jeff as his hands wandered a little too much. It was just sickening.

Let's see...how about drinking too much alcohol, too quickly, getting drunk very fast. Instantly snagging the best food from shared plates for herself (all the shrimp, etc.). Gobbling food so fast it's revolting. Talking loudly, and making comments on table-mates ('That's your third helping. Are you sure you need that?'). When the rest of us pay cash, this person collects the cash, and pays with her debit card. What we didn't know is that she usually left a measly 5% tip, which means she basically stiffed the waiter, and stole money from us. I had forgotten a scarf one day and went back to the table to see the receipt. I was horrified! Sad thing is, this is all the SAME person. Needless to say, I happily severed any relationship with her, and am much happier!

This is a tough one. I understand both points of view. It's a tricky door to open, having employees pay a part of insurance. At least they have insurance - there are too many workers who don't. And they have jobs. There are many people who don't. Then there are the people with no job, or insurance. Most people don't realize that it costs the employer about $200 per month per employee for employee's insurance premiums (get laid off and go Cobra to get a real shock!). I never remember what insurance plan I have, as we get a new one every year, as the prices keep going up, and my company scrambles to find something for us. What's even worse is looking at buying your own insurance. Now that's a nightmare! It's so bad, and so expensive, it's just not worth it unless you're Bill Gates! This year, we were given the choice to have a cheaper plan for free (lesser bennies), or a slightly better plan than we currently had, and pay $25 per month out of pocket for the increase in premium (there's a higher deductible, too). I thought that was a good way to handle it, to give us the choice. I chose the better plan, which is about $500 more per year out of pocket than I paid on previous plans. That's bad enough - it almost negated my very small raise for the year. But then, I'm single. The groans that went around the table from the folks who have families made me very sympathetic.

Interesting article...but what's wrong with singing a little tea song in the morning? Sometimes, when it's cold and wet outside at 6:00am, I do, too! A little celebration of the little things in life that get us going is a good thing! Tea, beautiful tea....

Luckily, I work in the office of a food website, so food in the office isn't a problem. We have a full kitchen (all appliances, two ovens, espresso machine, three full size fridges, movie theater popcorn popper...), and use it every day. The only problems so far have been the one person who over-reheated some stinky fish dish, which caused the office to evacuate, and the person who repeatedly did a lunch sautee with gallons of pepper oil, causing massive coughing and watering eyes from the fumes. Other than that, we are quite happy, and the kitchen is a great venue to talk food, and trade recipes and food tips. We also use it to create banquets for our monthly staff meetings! We know we're very lucky!

Why on earth reveiw a professional level book as if it were meant for home use? You have to get through the entire reveiw to get to her conclusion that the Pro Chef isn't meant for home use. It's just a specious reveiw.