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Personal Chef Industry

HOw do you feel about cooking for your own family at night after you have spent all day cooking for someone else? I'm afraid I'll be too tired or too sick of food to cook at home.

Why not be your own personal chef and cook for your own family one day per week and store meals? You can use this as a weekly test run, especially while you're testing recipes and getting your business plans, forms and systems together. It'll be great practice for you.
Candy

The (personal-cooking) life cycle of a personal chef

In the beginning:
You start your business. While you're developing your marketing materials, pulling together your menu, your forms, beating the bushes for clients, you're experimenting with all sorts of recipes. Maybe, as Candy suggests, you have one day a week where you practice by doing a cooking session for yourself, testing recipes, playing around with how you do things, providing all sorts of meals for your family -- possibly even your neighborhood. You may even hold dinner parties for the express purpose of having friends help you decide what the BEST beef stew is and paring down your large quantity recipes to serve four.

The middle:
You have some clients now and not all of the kinks ironed out, you're learning as you go and getting much better and faster as you go, but still thinking you've got room to develop your technique. You're getting paid, answering inquiries, your marketing has paid off, but you keep seeking out more. You're also suddenly realizing that in the past week, you've had Chinese take-out one night, pizza delivered another and you even resorted to three cans and a box casserole (tuna noodle or other condensed soup-based comfort food) because opening up the those four containers was about all you could roust yourself to do. The thought of cooking something else, much less adding entertaining to the equation is just daunting.

But then you cycle to the End:
You've gotten much faster without even trying. A cooking session is just routine and no longer exhausts you. You went back and turned all of those four serving recipes into six or eight servings so that you're always bringing home something. Even though you may not want to eat what you cooked today -- there will be stuff in the freezer and by next week, you'll be hungry for it. You'll rejoice in the three chicken breast packages that always make you wind up with extra chicken breasts, because know you've learned to chop up the extra one or two so that you can do a quick stir-fry or saute at home. You purposely overbuy the protein, the veg and make more, mixing up sauces and ingredients so that you're not quite eating the same thing as you've been cooking all day. And yeah, one night a week, you get takeout -- but this time it's a treat!

Not that I've been there....

If you decide to price on an all-inclusive basis, you will bring home LOTS of odds and ends which only further challenges your creativity--Half a bunch of parsley, cooked too much pasta for the container/number of servings, three tablespoons of tomato paste left, etc., etc..

I'll admit, some days after cooking all day, I don't feel like embarking on an entire gourmet meal for my family. Nothing to beat yourself up about or stress over. It should be easier, though, for someone in our business. These are the days we can totally sympathize with what our clients experience before we came to their assistance--therefore, can relate to what they feel.

I prepare several meals and store in our freezer, packaged in both single serving and family style packages.

Also, if one of my clients is having something that is a favorite of my family also, I will buy extra ingredients (out of my pocket of course, not the client's) and prepare extra servings to bring home with me. I haven't encountered a client yet that has objected to this.

Thanks so much for your responses. Those are great ideas. I know everything gets easier with practice.

I am 90% sure I am going to join the APCA in the next month or two and start up my business. I'm having all of those last minute reservations, and it helps so much to know there are people out there who have gone through or are going through the same thing.

I started just as Meredith stated "in the beginning"...however, I skipped the "middle". I went straight to the "end cycle", however, cooking dates lasted me 7-8 hours. Now, they last about 4-6 hours depending on menu selections, & I package in ziplock bags, & put them in individual containers when I get home...life is so much easier. On Fridays it's Rib night at the local pub with friends...they have the BEST ribs, & on Saturdays, friends get together to cook at one of our houses, & use up left over bell peppers, mushrooms etc. On Sundays, depending on how much wine I had the night before, I will grill something, or try a new recipe (some of them knowing I will not offer for service)...or have something "quick" (frozen raviolli, "left overs")

Life is good! In this business, I know I will never go hungry!!!