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You are so cute
You do know that if you have a food processer the plunger (that thing that sits in the shoot) has a tiny hole in it so you just pour the oil in that and it will take all the fun out of trying to drizzle it in yourself

@BitchinFixins
Ok that is just too creepy - I'd have to find another job

Fish should always be banned and I love the smell of fish no matter how it's cooked

For those of you that don’t care so much about the sanitation of where / what you eat let me point out that I am sure that is oky-doky until you contract guillain barre syndrome, while rare; the question is, Do you really want to roll those dice.
As for the cat’s and dog’s It amazes me that people really don’t realize that animals lick not just their privates but their feet and that is where the really dangerous bacteria hangs out (being gram negative and all), cross contamination is cross contamination by any other name. As a side not anthrax (the flavor that makes you sick not the one that kills you) is the most common bacteria passed between man and dog.
That crap about an animal’s mouth is cleaner is such bunk – the animals mouth is designed to get rid of the micro critters that would harm it not humans. I use to inspect kitchens in the military and if you wanted to fail just don’t clean the can openers. Granted we were not born with sanitizers or at least not chemical ones but we do have the bacteria in our mouths, nose and digestive system.
In the western world while we personally may not work on the food / germ free front you bet any food producer does and what this means to the consumer is that a lot of the bacteria that we could have be exposed to as children and built up the resistance for we have not done so because it we were never exposed. I would imagine that people would go for the “It’s better to be safe than sorry” idea rather than “a food born illness between friends is OK”.
I refuse to eat at a person who once was a friend because once she got cats she would let them run over all food surfaces and you had to fight them down with whatever you were eating. I go so sick at her house so many times after the cats that I just dissolved the friendship.
Side bar on pots after I wash them I heat them up on the stove to sanitize so if I missed a bit of food or there is still a residue of soap I’ll see it and give the pan a re-wash.

@dbcurrie - thanks for the insight
@humgryhungryhippo - could not agree more

I develop recipes so those of course I don’t give out or better said I copyright the darn things and even so you actually have to monitor the recipes to make sure someone does not accidently put them in a cookbook somewhere. Needless to say I’ve learned a good lesson about the honestly of people and how the copyright laws work. I don’t think anyone cares if someone copies a recipe and makes it, however it becomes an issue when they take the recipe and then shamelessly profit from it.

I do have recipes that I have added a different spin to or done something I term as a slight of hand in those cases I freely give out that info and will post it.

There are some recipes that I keep to myself but those are the ones that I believe have the potential to make money.

Update My poor comment

it should read "I went on a search for a subsitute and found it in Morton Salts tender cure"

I think of this as a balancing act. There is a bakery near my home that I no longer go to because of the Chef’s particular way he wanted to serve things (they had an assortment of petite fours and I didn’t like one of the flavors and just wanted that one omitted) and as other posters have pointed out the bakery went out of business.
I am beyond lactose intolerant I don’t have the enzyme to digest cow’s milk. So when I go out to eat I don’t do cream sauces. I can eat a cream sauce only if the lactose has been totally broken down. In addition I’m Jewish so I have that meat and milk thing going on. I also have a problem with sugar substitutes (often pre-made lemon aid is made with equal or some sugar substitute) so I drink coffee or water. My point is that if you know you are sensitive to an ingredient then you really should know what that ingredient may show up in, if you are allergic to nuts then going to a Thai restaurant and believing that nuts (peanuts) will be omitted from everything is just silly, but on the flip side, if you ask for a bit less chilies and in retaliation the cook should not be adding more chilies, they can just as easily say no to the request. (someone did this and I just blogged them to death)
I believe that the customer is right within reason but people that go out to eat and then believe that it’s OK to totally change the menu item is way over board, I know people who do this and after they are done with their requests it’s no long the posted menu item. While it may have been funny in “When Harry met Sally” in real life it’s just rude. My take is that if there is something that I would like but an ingredient that I know is added more or less at the end then I’ll ask but if the ingredient is an intrinsic part of the dish then I look for something different on the menu. No harm on foul
I also when I have people over ask what they don’t like to eat and if they have any allergies. I am cooking a meal for someone I feel it’s a gift and as gifts go it’s the receiver that needs to be pleased not the giver otherwise it’s not a gift

PS
When I cooked in restaurants I loved when the orders were the same that way I knew that I did not have to play the time and temp game and was guaranteed that both patrons would get their food at the same time

I’m going to say the same thing that I would say about going to any school after High School be it a college or a tech school.
The first thing anybody should do is, first go to 5 places that you want to work and interview the managers. Ask them what they look for in a resume (school / work experience). Ask them what schools do they think have relevant programs. Ask about the pay scale. If school is going to cost you 50K then that means that you will have a monthly bill for 8 years of about $600, so the question is will you be able to pay that school loan off with the pay scale for that job and still have a life.
I interviewed 5 different managers of vary different kitchens only two said that having gone to school would give the person an edge provided all things were equal so far as job experience. All managers said that kitchen experience would win out (actually I got a few job offers). In the end I worried that the long hours and the dedication it would take maybe a bit too much for me now (I worked in 3-5 star restaurants in Philly and managed kitchens in the military). When I hear people talking about culinary schools I just cringe because I know from personal experience that a kitchen is hard work and if it’s at the higher end (where you actually make money) it’s really hard and the competition is tough.
I would recommend that if people want to get into the restaurant business volunteer at a place that actually cooks and servers meals and of course try to get a part-time job in a kitchen. Just because your family and friends believe you can cook does not necessarily mean you can cook in an industrial situation. Professional kitchens are a whole different animal when it comes to cooking

The first thing I teach people in the kitchen is to hold the knife using the blade grip. This of course is just after I explain that oddly for your own safety and to keep your fingers your knife should always be kept sharp. The reason you want to develop using the blade grip method is so that you keep something that is razor sharp in your control, which is a good thing when discussing razor sharp and fingers in the same sentence.
I also tell people that knives should feel a certain way in your hand so the knife needs to be "in your hand" and it does not really matter at some point the cost of the knife. A sturdy blade is a must for most jobs excluding skinning or filleting (where you would need a flexible blade). A knife should "feel" like you have a good grip on it without cramping your hand or so light that it feels like it could slip and any moment.

As the axiom goes there is no accounting for bad taste. Better yet –No good deed goes unpunished. What I have learned is that most people grew up with mothers that don’t cook or worse had no idea of what a stove is because they went through one microwave a year. People like these have no idea of what fresh food looks like or tastes like so go into a panic when presented with decent food.
I grew up back east with both my mom and dad as rival cooks of each other, dinner time could be rather stressful with then bickering about who make the better biscuits or chicken. As a young adult most of my friend were restaurant owners these people owned 3- 5 star restaurants so if I made a meal it had better be slamming. But then I move to Southern California, where it is fashionable NOT to show up at events that you are invited to even if you have RSVP. I spend not only just a boodle of time but I spend money on my meals and when you invite 20 people and only 2 show-up then you have the mother lode of leftovers. So after a couple of times, what I have learned living in So Cal is not to invite anyone ever to my home for any meal. If I someone happens to be at my home and it happens to be a meal time then maybe, just maybe I’ll offer a meal otherwise I just don’t bother.
I personally find it disturbing that when you make food that actually looks good or that is actually prepared that people call it “Fancy” Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot. And they wonder why there is an epidemic of obesity in this country.

I agree with the other responders that the important thing is that Pillsbury market their products, no matter how unhealthy they maybe. I would think that now since the tide is turning to more healthy eating that they would start to move more of the scratch stuff to the “A” column. But most people have been brain washed to believe that anything that is not “quick and easy” is just too hard to do as if they have not done anything more then microwave any thing in their lives and then wonder why their weight is out of control.
Personally I think that the downfall of the American diet is the invention of the microwave oven.

I agree with Shelby - but passover is over so I'll give this a try but with out the jelly, I just can't see it
Hamnjam - There are a lot of egg breads that have been made for centuries without people dying (think challah). We jews have been eating it each and every Shabbat without harm.
As a matter of fact the easiest breads to learn are the egg based ones because they are so forgiving. The yeast chews away at all that egg protein and changes it.
Americans have a rather strange view of eggs in general because most people have been told that eggs are a dangerous thing but they are only if handled incorrectly, which most people will do, so the FDA has put the fear of g-d in to folks about eggs.

Several years ago after a very long hiatus (20 years) from the kitchen I looked into going to a cooking school. Previously I had spent the better part of my early teen and young adult years around food and in kitchens. Since the resurgence of celebrity chefs I was thinking it may not be a bad time to see if I could go back to my passion of cooking.

I had two concerns, I wanted to see if the pay scaling had changed for experienced chefs here in Los Angeles because unless you are a celebrity chef your competition is undocumented people; which is the prime reason I looked for a different career once I moved to LA, because I quickly realized that I could not live on making less then 6 dollars and hour which is the going rate for undocumented people. Back east I was use to a higher pay scaling then what is afforded here in Los Angeles.

The trick I learned was to first investigate the job field I was looking to get into. What that includes is reading all that I can about the job, looking at schools that supposedly teach in that field, most important what is long term cost. If I am unfamiliar with the field I try and find someone that works in the field and see if I can shadow them for a week. Last but not lease I choose 5 places that seem like places I would like to work and then I interview the managers / owners to see what formal education means and what they will pay for education vs work experience.

What I have learned from my investigation is that spending well over 45 grand is just not worth it for a lot of the so called “culinary” schools, certainly not to your potential employers as far as working in a kitchen goes (education does factor in fields such as dietitians and food stylist) as the NY Times points out most of these schools are simply not worth the money. Again back to the restaurants you interviewed ask them about the schools you are considering, they will know which schools have the best track record.

Le Cordon Bleu school and others like it flood the market with people that can barley hold a knife (look at an episode of Chopped), add to that high school kids and undocumented people and there is just this ton of people for employers to choose from. Remember we live in fast food nation, the bulk of food related jobs will be in the area of fast food and I seriously doubt you can make much more then minimum wage.