Designer and blogger Athena Calderone often makes this whole roast fish for her family on Christmas Day — it makes a dramatic centerpiece for a holiday meal.

Epps’ family waited until he finished filming in Canada so he could attend the funeral in Virginia.He then flew to Milan for the.

finale with the obituary in his pocket.. “I was in the moment in Milan,” he says.“We could have been in Detroit for all I cared.It wouldn’t have mattered if it were there on the moon.

I had a singular focus: I wanted to tell my story, cook my food.”.The challenge for Epps and his fellow contestants Bailey Sullivan, from Chicago, and Shuai Wang, of Charleston, was to make the best four-course progressive dinner of their lives.. No pressure.. For the judges at the table, including me, it was clear by the end of the meal that no matter how good Sullivan’s and Wang’s dishes were, and no matter how evident their talent, Epps was cooking and competing at a different level.

His third course, an exceptional riff on oxtail Milanese, likely sealed his win.

To make it Epps braised the oxtails, picked the tender meat from the bone, sauced it, and formed it into the shape of the traditional circular Milanese cut of ossobucco.I tried it until I graduated with a BA in Theater, but guess what?

I made more money carrying hamburgers to Times Square tourists than I did doing musicals in Brooklyn basements.There are plenty of school loans that are being paid back by the money earned from waiting tables.

And even if I hadn't tried college, it doesn't matter.A person who dropped out of high school can wait tables just as well as someone with a PhD in psychology.