The Personal Chef A Personal Journey

Back in Connecticut along with the catering business I had a Personal Chef business. First let's define a Personal Chef.
A Personal Chef is a chef who prepares meals for a client in the client's home kitchen, based on the client's needs and personal preferences. In most cases these meals are left packaged in containers and refrigerated or frozen for the client to enjoy later. Some personal chefs, however, instead focus on cooking for dinner parties and other special occasions in the client's home, which means they are responsible for shopping, preparing the meal, serving the guests and cleaning up afterward. The menu is preplanned and discussed with the client, then prepared in their home. According to health-department guidelines, all food must either be prepared in the home of the client or in a kitchen that has passed an official health inspection.
Note that a personal chef is distinct from a private chef, which refers to a chef who is employed exclusively by one client, and in some cases lives in the client's home.
The business was a blast. I got to spend a good amount of time in shopping in supermarkets across Connecticut. I am at home in the supermarket. I was raised in a supermarket family. My father was an ICON at the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. My older siblings cut their teeth at supermarket registers in Brooklyn and Queens. I would shop in full chef regalia, right down to the Dansko clogs. This generated conversation and additional business. I landed a dozen or so jobs from being in public in chef garb. I joined the American Personal Chef Association and put together a website and got liability insurance. I advertised in some local papers and with flyers in some high end markets and I was off to the races.

I did culinary demonstration for dozens of clients. I did Pad Thai for a company called Thai Kitchen at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. I worked two nine hour days at $35.00 per hour and I gave away about 3000 samples. Thai Kitchen paid all expenses and outfitted me with product. I was in front of about 10000 people those two days and caught two well paying gigs from that weekend.

From that job I demonstrated butternut squash soup for The Beth El Temple in West Hartford.

I worked for Chabaso Bakery in New Haven at various community events all over the state. Chabaso was the commercial bakery offshoot of Atticus bakery that was founded at Yale. I booked dinner parties and pig roasts and barbeques.
The personal chef business also provided meals for clients prepared in their homes. I had about 24 regular clients

These folks were either too busy or had allergy or dietary concerns. Some of them were just too fat to get their asses out of bed and cook. I had a client that weighed 4000 pounds. He had arms the size of buffalo. This guy had more chins than a Chinese phone book. His mom had been feeding him cream cheese and Ritz crackers in bed since he was four. I cooked in an Army stock pot for him 8 gallons at a time. One time he ate his sofa after his mom covered it in Fluff and raisins. ( I made that one up sorry ).

I had a client who were brother and sister and whose doctor had them convinced they were allergic to everything under the sun. Seeds, nuts, berries, fruit, grain, butter, peanut butter, Nutterbutter, gluten, Rasputin. I went to their house every two weeks. I cooked there and packaged up 30 meals. I froze some and refrigerated others. They were kind of creepy to be honest. I thought they may have been "doing it".

I landed a client family who ran a business out of their home so there were there while I prepared. I made them a deal that the night of my visit I would serve the family a hot meal. On my second visit I dropped an oven stuffer roaster on the kitchen floor and it rolled down the basement stairs like a Brunswick bowling ball with legs and wings. There was chicken juice everywhere. The husband was there and witnessed the fiasco. He told me to just rinse it off and serve it. I refused and put together a pasta dish with the side veggies that I had made for night. He was impressed.

I was booked for an Oktoberfest event for 100 people in Middlebury Ct. The client was a big lawyer, a Yale grad who wanted to impress his clients. I enlisted the assistance of my friend Chef Gerald McDonald. A consummate professional with a penchant for Irish Whiskey. He was like a scaloppini ninja as he carved up veal leg for Weiner Schnitzel. We worked out of a rented kitchen in Naugatuck Ct.. My two oldest kids worked that event and made a hundred bucks each for the night. The gig went off without a hitch and the folks called me the next two years to come back.
We took care of an exclusive engagement party in Darien Ct. for some investment bankers daughter. The day of the event the dad dropped a marble chess board on the glass Jenn-air electric cook top and shattered it. She called me frantic at 2:00 PM. I stopped at restaurant supply house in Bridgeport on the way south and picked up some back up supplies. We cooked on butane burners in the garage. This also was a wonderful party no issues and a happy client. Always have a contingency!

You could not make this stuff up ( except for the 4000 pound guy). It was like the restaurant business on the go. Everything had to be ready on site. It taught me valuable business and food service lessons, in addition to management and customer service skills. I almost lost my shirt but I would not have traded it for the world.
It has been a great pleasure sharing this one because it strikes so close to home. I implore you all to chase your dreams. It is worth it. For you youngin's I suggest you find something you love and figure how you can make money at it.

I thank you all for your support. I thank you all for reading and remind you to click like banshees on my advertisers. One or two clicks per visitor and I can afford to come to YOUR house and cook a gourmet meal.
I bid a fond farewell - I would love to see more followers so share with your friends on Face book. Sign up to follow on Google, and watch for some tweets, which are coming soon. A special Hello to my buddy Gerald who I believe has had occasional questionable relations with Beef Tripe.

Nomad