The Dilemma’s of a Personal Chef
I have prepared hundreds of recipes for clients. The nature of my meals is customized and made to order for every health issue, like- dislike, texture, taste preference, ethnicity, trending diet, portion controlled or not and more that comes with being personal chef who prides oneself with using the best quality ingredients, organic, grass-fed-pasture raised and wild. I sometimes shop at three or four venues to get ingredients to prepare my meals for a client’s requests.
Being a personal chef is “a pleasing business.” This is to dispel the expectation sometimes that a personal chef is a glorified restaurant where a client can request a certain item and it will be the same each time. I recently had a client whose son only liked a specific rice noodle that I used in the first round but not the second when they ordered. That happened with a soup I prepared for another client “once upon a time.” The “exact” repeat an item on a menu is not always possible! The ingredients are just not the same or available the next time you shop for that client. A personal chef is not a chef preparing food in a restaurant where a repeat menu is used for every meal. Food is purchased in bulk and menus are prepared from the same template time and again.
In my business as a personal chef, I prepare meals for busy professional’s with very specific health needs and different tastes from one client to the next who are traveling on business trips from Philly to Europe and wherever, I am constantly on my feet menu planning using new ideas, so my clients don’t get bored. This takes a lot of work and time. There are menus I repeat and a lot that I don’t.
Here are a few choices chosen by clients that cross all different client needs. I enjoy preparing Asian menus and modifying ingredients using the healthiest and tastiest combinations suggestions in recipes. I have a few menus here that are recent and popular Asian and other….
1-Asian Marinated Sea Bass (variations with other type fish)
This is a delightful blend of sake, white miso, coconut sugar or brown sugar, tamari soy sauce and a dash organic dark sesame oil that marinates the sea bass filets for a few hours. The filets are broiled in the oven until the fish gets golden and slightly charred in areas. This is served with slivered scallions and toasted sesame seeds.
A complimentary starch for this dish is forbidden rice and lemon zested broccolini.
2-My Adobo Flank Steak or other protein of choice Tacos with requested trimmings that I discuss with clients to insure exact preferences.
3-Teriyaki Shrimp or protein of choice Stir-Fry
I go a lot of different directions with a homemade teriyaki sauce but always use fresh garlic and ginger and from there coconut aminos or low sodium tamari, coconut sugar, a dash of heat, a dash or dark sesame oil and from there the specifics of client requests.
Fresh vegetables such as broccoli, snow or snap peas, carrot, water chestnuts, mushrooms are lightly steamed to hold their beauty and used in a quick stir-fry with a starch of choice.
4-Golden Ranch Roasted Garlic Chicken Rollatini
5-Drunken Noodles and Vegetables