[plaster8]

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The point is this.

There's a status that comese with being a "chef" that's pretty meaningful. It speaks to somebody's experience, and their status. Ray and Giada aren't on TV because they've launched/run sucessful establishments. They're there because they look good and maybe wrote a cookbook that sold.

When Mario Batali, Ming Tse, Bobby Flay, do something, it carries a little bit more, because you know that they've done this for a living.

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I don't entirely disagree with you, but here's something from the Library of Congress 2005 National Bookfest Web site:

"Giada De Laurentiis grew up in a large Italian family and her passion for food was sparked when she learned as a child to prepare family recipes for their frequent gatherings. She became a professional chef after attending the famed Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Paris. After working in a variety of Los Angeles restaurants, including Wolfgang Puck’s Spago, she started her own business as a private chef and caterer in Los Angeles and is the founder of GDL Foods."

I don't know if she ever RAN a restaurant, but she at least appears to have worked in several as a chef.

(As for Ray's experience, I don't know and don't care, which ought to tell who I picked in the poll.)