Anyone own a bakery? I need a reality check. I took a year off from my freelance business to go to pastry school in France and also did an internship at a tea salon/patisserie.

I'm trying to decide if I should start a bakery in Vancouver but understand that there are realities of owning my own bakery that go beyond the fantasy that is Meryl Streep in "It's Complicated". I'm also used to owning my own business and am at an age where it seems hard to work at another bakery for a few years before I start out on my own.

What are the pros and cons of owning a bakery? Any advice? Please give me a reality check, but it would be great if you could tell me why you love it too. All I've read are horror stories so far!

Thanks so much.

I know some will eat day-old sushi, but it's always creeped me out. So it ends up staying in the fridge for a couple days out of guilt and then on to the garbage pail.

I'm curious, what do you do with your sushi day-olds?

My husband and I are in a really fortunate position to take a year off to follow our passions. I've decided to go to pastry school in France!! I've been reading a lot about which schools are good and I've narrowed them down to 3 based on length of time.

Olivier Bajard
Bellouet Conseil
ENSP - Ecole National Supèrieure de la Pâtisserie

I have NO idea which to choose! Wondering if any of you have had experience or have heard anything that might help me.
Thanks so much in advance:)

My sister came back from cambodia with a bunch of dry spices for me, one of which is amok. I'm not sure what to cook to make the most of this spice. Would love some ideas!

I want to make THE best devil's food cake for a friend and I've narrowed it down to three recipes but I can't decide so I thought I'd poll the serious eaters to see which you think is the winner....if there is one:)

1. Devil's food cake by Rose Levy Beranbaum
2. Devil's food cake by Cook's illustrated
3. Beatty's chocolate cake by Ina Garten

Thanks for letting me borrow your tastebuds!

I want to have about 10-15 people over for my birthday. The challenge is, they all have diverse eating preferences. Some are vegetarians, some that eat very healthy and some like myself who love the bacon!

I usually do a "make your own" party like pizza or waffles etc. where I put out a buffet of toppings and they can pick what they like but I'm starting to run out of ideas! The other kicker is that I don't want to spend huge amounts of money.

The only idea I've come up with so far is a big pot of vegetarian chili and I can make some cornbread some homemade tortilla chips, have chorizo and other yummy toppings.

Any other ideas?

I want to make my regular pound cake into a white chocolate pound cake. Should I just add melted which chocolate to the sugar/butter creaming stage? Or do I need to take out some butter to account for the cocoa fat?

Any info would help me out A LOT!

Could be cookies, bars, cakes...anything sweet. What do you crave most?

Has anyone tried this recipe? Thinking of making it this year instead of my usual but am weary since fruitcakes can either be amazing or the total opposite.

I live in Vancouver and want to find foodies to start a cooking club. I've looked to see if one exists but none to my knowledge. Unfortunately, all my friends love eating my food but would never think of cooking/baking as something fun to do or talk about and I'm feeling a little lonely in my passion for food. (especially when I go gaga over the most recent burger article in Saveur and there are blank stares...gets a little dissatisfying on both ends)

So I'm thinking of starting my own cooking club but I'm unsure about a few things. For example, how do I get the word out? But mostly, I'm not sure how to deter crazy people or singles just wanting a hook up. I don't want to let just anyone in my home. I want to spend time with other foodies but not ones that have scary pasts or are completely obnoxious or keep trying to hit on everyone in the room.

Do you think I just need to wait to find some good foodie friends in the future or is it better to put it out to the public and see what happens?

Kind of a branch off from another topic but would love to know if anyone has tried this. Haven't looked into it too much in terms of health concerns.

From their website, it says you can bake with it (as in it is okay in heat) but I can imagine it might not react the same way in creaming etc. Has anyone tried baking with it? How's the taste?

I live in Vancouver and try to go to Seattle a few times a year since I LOVE eating there. My highlights? Amandines at Bakery Nouveau and anything at La Carta de Oaxaca. I've also been known to eat both the coconut cream pie and creme caramel for dessert at Dahlia.

The hubbie and I are going down again in early August. What are your "must eat" recommendations?

I'm thinking about getting one or both of these cookbooks but my cookbook shelf is getting excessively full and want to be a little more discriminating. Wondering if anyone has "Well-preserved" by Eugenia Bone or "Fat" by Jennifer McLagan? Heard nice things about both but what do you think?

Also on the back-burner to buy is "The Taste of Country Cooking" by Edna Lewis...too many books I want...any on your shelf that you think is a must have? One you'd by before any of the one's I've mentioned?

I have a bunch of them blooming in the garden. I've waited long enough because I can see some of them are on their last legs!
I'll probably make something for dinner with them but is there anything you can do with a chive flower that isn't just a nice garnish?

My grandfather was a chinese pastry chef and I recently got his old nougat recipe from a cousin...but it's poorly translated from Chinese, vague and it just doesn't look right. I've looked online at almost every nougat recipe and they all seem very different from this one!

Wondering if anyone has some insight as to if this recipe is really accurate or if you could answer some of the questions that have come up for me. The nougat is quite chewy and not airy but substantial.

Here are the ingredients and instructions with my questions:
A: water, sugar, syrup (don't know if it's corn or glucose)
B: nuts, butter, egg whites, milk and vanilla powder
C: syrup ( again, doesn't specify what kind)

1. Mix A (do you think I should be boiling this to a specific temp?)
2. from B, whip whites until thick. Add rest of B.
3. Mix A,B and C. Cook under 90 celcius (this one seems strange! do you think C should be cooked to a specific temp too?)
4. Cool and cut

Any insight would be incredibly helpful!!!