FabulousFoodBabe

I read the story to say that libido was dramatically increased -- though the thought of an anorexic guy with orange hands . ::: the horror ::: (where is that gouging-my-eyes-out emoticon when you need it?) What I've seen here and often elsewhere, is that severely restricted diets seem to go along with an attitude of moral superiority. I live in an area where women starve themselves regularly to stay in a size 2 (some smoke crank to do it), and are horrified when a fatso size 8 walks by ("she's eating ice cream! My god, the woman is out of control!"). And yeah, we have lots of fat kids around here, too. Anyway. Keep your quorn. My laboratory foods will be restricted to Circus Peanuts, and the occasional Twinkie. Kidding about the Twinkie.

If this is required by your school, it's a school expense, and subject to all the loan/grant and tax rules. That can take some of the sting out of it. Is your school helping at all with contacts? Anyway, I believe one should always reach as high as you can, and figure out a way to make it work. Most of the chefs you want to work for have done it, too.

Fabulous! I'm getting goosebumps. What a blessing, Cadbury. Wishing you an uneventful pregnancy and birth. My pregnancies were so long ago, and my diet was very restricted during each. But I think I posted here or elsewhere about standing in a bakery and breathing deeply, to get over my jelly doughnut cravings.

What works for me, is not greasing the sides of the pan.

Hmph. Now I have to go back and read the whole thread to figure out what you're talking about! Seriously, it'll be fine. He's less of a diner than an eater, but it'll buy him a few months of me not nagging him to go back to Per Se.

My advice would not be a checklist of "can you" or "do you," because they can pick 5 out of 10 and say, "I'm halfway there." I'd say, "work in a restaurant for at least 6 months." Doesn't matter how or where; six months will tell you if you're cut out for it. Listen and learn, and believe what you see. One of the things that makes me smile (well, wince) is the attitude that "properly managed, there's no reason why a restaurant can't be profitable in the first six months/be open five days a week and stay solvent/offer a little something for everyone, thereby broadening the customer base and, ka-ching!, make even more money." "That failure rate might happen to an experienced restaurateur, but he doesn't have a law degree from Yale." That kind of thing. (what, if people don't come in, ya gonna sue them?) Lotsa luck. It's hard to convince people that yes, its a labor of love but that it's a business as well.

I broke up with my cabinet guy this week, and I'm still a little depressed. I knew this was going along too well to be true! Now, the drawings go out to a custom maker and we'll see who can help us meet deadlines. All my materials are chosen, appliance schedules checked and double checked, vendors selected and prices locked in, permits are in hand, blah blah blah, and now this. The contractor took pity on me and agreed to do the outdoors now, so we can have our hot tub in by the first snowfall. I'm sad, but it was for the best.

Okay, my mind's in the gutter. You said "chicken ranch" pizza. Hee hee. Hookers! Seriously, Sandy, I'm really liking your blog. Office drag --

They shouldn't try and sell this on the euphoria -- I can get the same buzz from running after the Mister Softee truck.

I think they were a test-market regional thing; there's a large Latino population here, so they were in our stores for a while. I doubt any of the people in that article would eat one ...

Kids: I didn't see anything about the kids, but someone in my family was told that her daughter had "thunder thighs," so she restricted her food for a while. (Said daughter was 3. I am not making this up.) Exercise: Apparently, the guy with the orange hands runs 20miles a week. *** Eh, so this diet makes you live longer. You'll definitely outlive those around you, because you'll bore them to death.

I used to think that dulce de leche Oreos was the next sign of the apocalypse. After reading this article, I think I'll add Quorn to the list. I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks of this ... lifestyle Click It And Weep edited 'cuz I'm a knucklehead

Jennifer, Before I got my degree from CIA, I took a few of their CE courses and loved them. Now, because it's more fun to go into the city, I take supplemental classes at FCI and plan to go to Napa for Greystone's classes, when I can swing it. I know that the Greenbrier had an active cooking-class program but they're undergoing a big renovation (MichaelB knows more about this than I). What part of the country are you considering?

The good jobs: Italian restaurant, all my friends worked there, we'd clock out at the proper time and work until 2 a.m. Lots of after-work partying, and general fun. Externship job: terrific, loved it so much I stayed past my time. It was a new place, getting lots of press, very fun, and the chefs were amazing. Very hard work, too. VERY. And I learned something every day. Job at an organic-inspired restaurant close by: The chef's sister told me on my first day that she hated "cooking school people." She'd see that something I made was selling, taste it, and spit it out on the floor. Also told the Latins that I didn't speak Spanish, but I understood a lot of it, which was fun until it wasn't. Worst of all: filthy, filthy, filthy. Lots of finger licking and cooking with hands that hadn't been washed for a week. Yick. My attempts to organize and clean were met with, "f*cking cooking school prima donna." Oh yeah, that was fun. Job at a gourmet market: Good food, nice people, hours were workable, GM got bonuses based on her bottom line, which only meant she ordered NO product the last ten days of the month. Which wouldn't be bad, but we had nothing to work with and she'd be unavailable, and no one could fix it. However, when she went on maternity leave and I did all the ordering, well, I figured actually having food to sell would counteract having stock on hand. And plus, I didn't care! (Oh, she was furious ..) Catering company: Lots of freedom, loved the food, terrific owner. Learned quickly to take the checks to the bank and get the cash. There's more. Oh dear Lord, there's more. Just quit one after making the fatal decision to accept without a trail. Within two hours of seeing this place in action, I knew this was not going to happen. I finished the day and told the big boss that my professional style didn't mesh with their chef's, and mea culpa'ed the whole way outta there.

Sandy, you have GOT to write a book. I know, I know, in your spare time ...

Straight out of the fat, Krispy Kreme. Otherwise, Dunkin. But Krispy Kreme is more fun.

I'm assuming Gary is the second from the left in the dinner photo above? I like Vince's shirt; it looks like eyelashes. And is that you in the photos next to him? One of the things I'm loving about this blog is how we're getting to know more about you. More, more!

Chez Foodbabe, we call them Wieners Wellington. Sometimes they're Lobel's hot dogs, sometimes Aidell's or from a shop here in town, but they're always in Dufour's puff pastry. Accompaniments: Half hot mustard/half apricot preserves (heated, pureed and strained).

Most of my class at CIA knew everything. I still laugh myself sick about some of it. It took me about three days there to see that, even after 15 years in the business, I knew almost nothing! And it took me about a month on eG to learn that you can disagree with someone on these boards, sometimes pretty intensely, but that the olive branch that's extended is often full of extra fruit. (you know who you are, dahlinks! )

try soaking them in milk first -- a few hours will work. Drain well, dust with a little flour.

wow -- I can see the resemblance from here! Anything you want to share with us, Sandy? Seriously: Happy, Happy birthday! My gosh, you look terrific and as I reach through here and pinch you a little, you don't 'feel' older to me. Do you feel older, to you? Do you lie about your age? What did you get for your birthday, and do you get birthday cake or pie? Spankings? Songs? I'm looking forward to this blog, too. Scorpios rule.

:laugh:snorting up coffee::: OMG! Maybe a little flambe station would have taken care of that. I'm so, so looking forward to this dinner. I'll post dates and times so anyone interested can observe and speculate amongst themselves as to what Mr. Fabby sees in me. And keeping this completely on topic, while he's an enthusiastic diner, left to his own devices, he'd rather eat simple food, and not sit for hours and hours. He always said that he'd have liked Per Se and TFL more if he could have been outta here in a couple of hours, and I know he'd never sit still for Alinea. He does like Bouley, Daniel, and The Modern. So this should be interesting.

Well, duh! Of course she wanted to keep that in the family. Now, when you became a chef and served vegetables like that, did you credit Mom? these stories are cracking me up. Besides the tacos, my mother had odd ideas about sanitation. Peanut butter was kept in the refrigerator so we wouldn't get salmonella. So was Crisco. As a matter of fact, everything was refrigerated due to salmonella. We never got salmonella, but I guess that was because everything was kept cold until it was cooked beyond recognition. I won't even go into vegetable preparation.

Until the day my mother died, she did not eat tacos, because "You just never know what's in them." I would make tacos myself and tell her that 'this' is what is in them, but no, no way, nuh-uh, no tacos. She'd whisper that "they" would put donkey meat in them. WTF -- there is no donkey meat in my kitchen, but still, she persisted. She did eat head cheese, and Skyline chili, and all sorts of weird bolognas but tacos? No ma'am.

And I'm lovin' truffle-licious. One of my school chefs used to say, "Deli-Licoius!" all the time. Not beautiful, but we laughed.