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Lord knows I love my chefs… We also know that I’ll do just about anything to get inside the luxurious confines of 60 E. 65th St. (Velvet banquettes and chandeliers suit me, what can I say?) But what really gets my heart rate going is passage back to the gleaming, million dollar kitchens where culinary history is made. Watch me wield a knife and blush scarlett as I try to keep up with the inventive, crazy, fast-talkin’ executive chef of “Daniel…”

Right now I’m on vacation with my family, trying to explain where my money goes.

I haven’t seen you in a new dress in ages… Chinatown for a haircut?… Honey, mind your cuticles… That shade of lipstick is very Alicia Silverstone circa 1995… You still have a VCR?!

I buy cheese, family. I buy 180 minutes with a lawyer. I buy myself an LLC. And then, y’all know what I do? I buy more cheese and pounds upon pounds of red bell peppers. With my spare money and time, I run up to Union Square and splurge on an heirloom tomato or two and then come back down to Sullivan for a ball of mozzarella from Joe’s. I’ll slip in a glass of wine and call it luxury.

But I do feel like an entrepreneur and I do feel like I’m taking a risk. My products are tucked away on Bleeker Street and stacked on the cooled shelves at Grand Central. That makes me happy. That keeps me going…

Call me inustrious or send me to Chattahoochee! I started my own line of Southern food products, Belle’s Southern Comforts, and Florence Fabricant at the New York Times declares it’s happy hour.

“Brooke Parkhurst… now living in New York, likes her [pimento] sharp and spicy, suitable to nibble with a martini at 5 p.m… Her Belle’s Southern Comforts pimento cheese is $6.99 for 7 oz. at Murray’s Cheese.”

Check out my Food Network-style “making of” video here. Camera rolling, clock ticking, Irish farmhouse cheddar up to my ears—I’m on my way to high blood pressure and becoming an honest-to-goodness foodie entrepreneur! But can I really pull off a lip-smacking good brand of my very own? Martha, care to help me with my recipe for success?