Because we all know the last place you want to be on Valentine's Day is waiting for a restaurant table. This year, try dinner at home instead.

Brandon Chrostowski is the founder and CEO of EDWINS Leadership and Restaurant Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, a restaurant and school that provides culinary training and job placement assistance to formerly incarcerated men and women. Everyone who works there, from the kitchen to the dining room, is a former inmate.

Who says you can’t have pie for dinner? One thing we’ve learned from over 40 years of culinary education: pie is never not a good idea — especially as a main course. The galette we serve to guests at our special events is essentially that: pie crust with a savory filling that works perfectly for a main course dish.

The Sonicprep Ultrasonic Emulisifer by PolyScience is a piece of equipment that has fascinated me for a few years, but I never had the opportunity to use one. Until now. The Sonicprep is the latest addition to the Culinary Technology Lab here at ICE. The lab’s equipment spans from when man just learned to harness fire (our hearth oven, tandoor and rotisserie) to the most cutting edge cooking appliances in the world (sous vide and precision temperature induction).

The food industry is not for the faint-hearted — long days, heavy lifting and endless tasks are pillars of your average hospitality position. Never did I feel that more than when I was working as a line cook at an upscale, all-day restaurant in the West Village. During those days, it wasn’t uncommon for me to leave work at 2:00 or 3:00am, without a trace of stamina to think about what I would feed myself, let alone to take a shower when I got home (though I did, half asleep).