Or actually run a restaurant? If so, how much work is it? I hear from people I know that it's a 16 hour day. I have some ideas for running a home cooked food place, but 16 hour days scare me from further action.

Old Bay - been there - done that! And believe me - 16 hours is the least you work in a day! Many think that all you have to do is cook - there is much more to it than that.

Do I miss it?? Sure - I have a following and I still have ex-customers that hound me for things. And catering is more pressure. Although I am not running a restaurant right now - I am thinking of phasing into another phase of the restaurant business - because I love cooking; even all the prep and the cleaning and dishes. I even did the profit margins and all the books and the taxes - kept me busy 7 days a week. Maybe that is why I can function on 2 to 3 hours of sleep a night.

My husband is always saying, "When we open our restaurant this is going to be the dish that makes us rich," I do remind him though that people in the restaurant business dont have much family time and he would really miss our little girl if we did that.

There's a "retired couple" at the beach that run a barbecue pork business. It all started with the husband buying a commercial style rib smoker, then a small trailer, and now they have a homestyle barbecue double wide with seating. The food is amazing, and is all made with homemade recipes. I do think they work long days as I've had breakfast there at 6:30am, and dinner at 10:30pm and have seen them. Everyone raves over the food they make.

I dream of living at the sea shore, and think about what I could do to live there and make a decent living, and everyone likes to eat. But there must be a lot of competition, and that keeps the prices down, so it makes one work more. I kind of think about being the Bill Gates of food. Coming up with the recipes, and meals, and then having others make it. Isn't that possible in the restaurant business, or are the owners always hands on?

I worked *for* a restaurant before. I waitressed and did other little odd jobs for them. Let me tell you, although it would be nice - I couldn't handle it. It is an incredible amount of work. My boss was basically one of everything on a daily basis. He helped everywhere. It seemed like he never had a day off.