[Madelaine Amee]

I think there is another side to this discussion of food in TV. I used the word "quality" in a post and that, in my opinion, is the wrong word. The quality of food available to us in the USA is excellent, it is the way in which it is prepared that becomes the problem.

Could the problem in TV be the lack of seasoned cooks, or chefs? Do our restaurant owners pay sufficient wages to bring in people to cook and prepare the foods? Due to the number of eating places in TV owners must have difficulty in finding good cooks.

I have had discussions with many professional people who have relocated here from excellent high paying jobs in their former locations and most of them will say that they are close to retirement age and want to live in the southern climate and slow their pace of life. I don't think that can be the case for cooks. I imagine there are short order cooks who can easily find a job here and come for the same reasons, but how many are basically really good cooks and they certainly cannot be classified as Chefs. Being a Chef or short order cook is a highly stressful job and people burn out very quickly.

When you stand back and look at Florida as a whole, there are thousands upon thousands of eateries that use cooks and if you want a really good cook to work for you that person needs to be compensated by working for a restaurant with a reputable name and they need a decent living wage. In the restaurant industry, the person who pays the best wages gets the best staff - which, of course, applies to any business.

It can be done here and The Rose Plantation is a case in point. Their food is excellent, their restaurant has ambience, their wait staff are excellent and their Hostess is professional.

At one time I knew a cook who used to spend his summers on the ocean in Maine and then come down here to cook in a restaurant on the Keys during the winter.