[ColSahlas]

I saw a show on T.V. where you remodeled your kitchen at home. If I remember correctly, you had been living with a very dated oven which was not working properly, correct? How could a top chef like you live so long with a tempermental, old oven? Or are you so tired of baking all day at work that you don't bring your work home with you?

[Gale Gand]

I cook and bake at home a ton, whether it's for my kids schools, cupcakes for a charity event, or just meals for my family, but for years my cheapness (maybe thriftiness is a nicer way to put it) over road my desire to have the ultimate kitchen. And then I finally broke AND to be honest, I was making more money than I was used to doing my new (at the time) Food Network show. So I decided to do it. And when I went to a designer, he said people complain and think about redoing their kitchen an average of 7 years before actually doing anything about it, so I was really a bit early! And I'm never early for anything!

[MikeLM]

Gale, you mentioned...

"...whether it's for my kids schools, cupcakes for a charity event,..."

Just an interesting note on that.

A Hinsdale mother named Trudy Temple was asked to bake some stuff for a bake sale at one of her kids' school. She didn't like to bake, so she took the family station wagon down to the Water Street market at dawn and brought back several crates of fresh produce, which went over like a ton of bricks at school.

She was asked to do it again... and again... and that's how she started Market Day. Last time she talked about it, several years ago, it was grossing $300 million per year, operating in eight or nine states.

Mike