Anthony Bourdain has observed that the only way to cook like a professional is to be a professional cook. If you aren't doing it full-time, you just won't have

Anthony Bourdain has observed that the only way to cook like a professional is to be a professional cook. If you aren't doing it full-time, you just won't have the same chops. (By comparison, imagine if you only wrote software a few hours a couple of times a week. Think you'd be as good?) But really, this turns on a grey line. If someone is doing a weekly or semi-monthly meal in their own home, for a handful of people, is that a "restaurant"? If I invite a friend for dinner and they bring a date, am I now a "restaurant"? On the other hand, if someone is doing this three nights a week and turning a real profit, that's kinda different. A regulatory line should be set. The cleanliness issues, I think, are totally overrated. No one is going to be serving something they haven't tried making before. If they poisoned themselves, they'll learn. Cleanliness is harder cooking at scale.