Carol Riley of Tea and Cakes Tea Room in Media is an industry vet who has cooked for world dignitaries but considers all her customers VIPs. She has tons of stories about the hard life as a cook back in the day but still manages to laugh easily, sincerely and purposefully. She has been there, done that, and seen it all. But it still makes her day when her cozy shop can bring tears to the eyes of a hardened Manhattanite (tears of joy obviously) as happened recently. Read below to find out more. Also check out the restaurant review on Tea and Cakes Tea Room.

Name: Carol Riley

Age: Over 40...

Hometown: Smalltown, USA

Home now: Media, PA

Favorite thing about the community: Media's a little capsule with diversity, theatre, education, good neighbors, dogs, community and at the end is a little trolley. There's no place like it in the USA.

Do you do any work with the community? We support anything with dogs. We collected blankets and towels and donated them to the SPCA. We donate food to fellowships and basically help anyone who asks. We also worked with ladies who were in the military during the war and worked as intelligence agents, pilots, etc.

Years in the industry: 35

Earliest cooking memory: With my grandmother when I was about 5, cooking with the cast iron stove that was fueled by burning wood. She made what we called "skinny pancakes" on the back of a cast iron pan and filled them with butter, cinnamon and sugar. I now understand that they were crepes but we still call them skinny pancakes.

What brought you to the industry? It's putting food and people together. I love the combination of people and food. The community-- new conversation among friends, or you can go into a restaurant and sit by yourself and read a book. Whatever you want. Sometimes when I am done cooking, I'll come out and sit with people at a table and just talk to them.

Advice for home cooks: Just relax, don't be so involved or eager to get the latest cooking magazine or cook what some megastar is cooking. Enjoy your kitchen, what you have in front of you. Don't be concerned with others.

Favorite thing to cook: Perfect scallops, sauteed golden brown with salt and pepper to be eaten immediately and not shared with anyone else.

Favorite menu item: Everything that is on the menu is from me--but if I had to narrow it down I would say the vegetable wrap or the personal sized quiches.

Healthiest menu item: Vegetable wrap

Favorite local restaurant: Crab Trap in Summers Point, NJ on the way to Ocean City

Favorite restaurant in the world: La Ti Da in Key West, Fla. or the Blue Parrot also in Fla.

Guilty pleasure (food or drink): Grand Marnier, popsicles

Last meal on Earth: A really simple, elegant picnic meal at the beach. I would have a nice Argentine Shiraz, a really really fresh composed salad with quail eggs, homemade blue cheese and greens and chilled sauteed scallops with a squeeze of fresh lime juice and the Norwegian holiday cake that my grandmother used to make.

Have you cooked for any celebrities? The entire Congress back during the Bicentennial, the King and Queen of Sweden and my customers.

Favorite food shows: Julia Child is my all time favorite. I also love Two Fat Ladies, they are an absolute hoot! Alton Brown's Good Eats is great. His style and way of teaching people and how he takes the science apart and educates the viewer is great. Simple and understandable.

Biggest kitchen disaster: I was cooking a steamship round (cut of meat) at a low temperature which needed to cook overnight. Someone saw that the oven was on as they were leaving and turned it off. The next day when I arrived it wasn't fully cooked and we had to slice it and saute off the slices really quickly so that we could serve it right away.