Michelle answers:

Tony is very outspoken and his show on the FoodNetwork despite the one fellows opinion was very popular, he travelled around the world and tried food most people would not dare.

Most likely he has a bit of a beef with them at the FN and as Racheal Ray does her program out of NY City and his restauant is in lower Manhattan, word gets out from place to place about the artsy fartsy’s and there dining tactics.

I was a chef and the grapevine is very extensive and can be vengeful, you would think with her money she would be a better tipper, I worked at place in Toronto that the celebritys haunted, and they usually spend $300-500 in one sitting, so 10% is not bad for a tip.

Michelle answers:

White sauce is very simple and it gets its flavor from the other ingredients

2 Tbsp. Butter
2 Tbsp. Flour
1 cup milk
dash salt
dash white pepper

Michelle answers:

Congratulations on the awards you’ve received from your school’s culinary program! What a wonderful achievement! And hooray for your school for having such a visionary yet practical program!
You’re so lucky that you’ve discovered your passion so early! Many of us finish high school and then go on to college and, finally, into a series of careers and we *still* don’t know what we want to *be* when we grow up!
There are so many options available to you with your gifts and talents!
You could become a personal chef and cook special meals for others in your community who would be very grateful and would pay you well. People are often on special diets and they might not be able to prepare meals for themselves. You’d probably first cook out of your home and deliver these meals to your customers and then later, when you have the money, you can prepare these special foods/meals at a leased or owned site. To learn more about careers as a personal chef, you can go to http://www.personalchef.com/ and to http://www.uspca.com/, as well as other websites.
You could give cooking lessons to the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and other youth groups as well as to adults and/or homeschoolers. Many of these people and groups meet in churches or other facilities that already have kitchens. The scouts need to earn merit badges, so they’d welcome your help and expertise! A homeschooling support group would welcome this kind of interactive, experiential learning! Just figure out what the cost of food, supplies, your time, transportation, rentals, etc. Would be and come up with an hourly rate that would ensure a profit for you. Then, when people sign up for your class or a series of classes, you can divide the total cost by the number of students and everyone will be happy and satisfied!
Sometimes, churches and other non-profit organizations publish cookbooks as a fundraising activity. People share their favorite recipes which are tested and them compiled into a one-volume, usually spiral-bound book. You might want to approach some non-profits in your community and see if they might have an interest. Then you’d become the project leader. To get some ideas about these “fundraiser cookbooks”, just do a web search. Some hits I received were http://www.cookbookfundraiser.com/default_fundraising.asp and http://www.cookbookpublishers.com/index.cfm?gclid=CJSGlby2uaACFRkcawodsCFQUA as well as dozens of others. Be sure to get references from other organizations that have used these printing companies in the past before you sign any contracts. Also, you might have a printing company in your area who would be willing to donate time and materials to print these cookbooks for a worthy, local cause. You might even consider putting this kind of fundraising cookbook together with your culinary classmates and teachers and donate the proceeds to your school’s culinary program! Then, you’d be a published cookbook author or editor!
You can also volunteer in a food pantry or soup kitchen and help to prepare food for others with fellow volunteers. A friend of mine taught people at our local food pantry how to cook meals from the food they were receiving each week. (As in, What do we do with kale? How do you cook/eat an artichoke?) This was a win-win for all! This same friend did some cooking demonstrations at our local Farmers’ Market, and the various vendors were happy to donate the raw food items since the audience, after taste-testing the finished food, swarmed to their stalls and booths to buy ingredients needed to replicate the recipes. This friend actually had the recipes printed out for the audience to take home if they were interested.
I used to run a program where teenagers helped homebound senior citizens by preparing their meals, chopping vegetables, doing their shopping, and the like. This is another way to be of food-related service where it’s needed.
Other teen and 20-something friends have been involved in Food Not Bombs where they cook and share meals with the hungry. To learn more and to see if there’s a local Food Not Bombs program near you (or if you want to start one!), just go to http://www.foodnotbombs.net/.
If you’re interested, you might also want to become involved in the growing sustainable agriculture movement. Some information is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_agriculture and at http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/Concept.htm, as well as other websites.
You can eventually attend a culinary academy and receive your certification. There are even some great culinary institutes in countries outside the U.S. Which offer hands-on immersion experiences. Check with your teachers for reputable programs. I’ve found an example in Italy at http://www.italianculinary.it/, but I’m, frankly, not familiar with this particular institute, per se. You can also check with your instructors about any local apprenticeship programs.
When you’re older and don’t need a work permit, you can work for a local restaurant and gain experience as you make your way up to an executive chef level. Many restaurants like to train their own staff and chefs. A good calculator to determine salaries, etc. For culinary positions is at http://www.indeed.com/salary/Sous-Chef.html.
A wonderful, creative life awaits you and I truly wish you the best!

Michelle answers:

They will lose a bit of sweetness if not brought back to room temerature, and they tend to become ‘mealy.’