Memphis Downtowner June 2012 : Page 27
NOW SERVING Personal Chefs story and photos by Elizabeth Cawein Borchardt’s business in compliance with health regulations and guidelines. “Always make sure that your personal chef is preparing the food either in your home or at a licensed commercial kitchen,” she says. “They can’t cook meals in their home and deliver them to you. I have a business license, am a member of the American Personal & Private Chef Association, and hold the same food handler’s certificate that’s required of restaurant managers. It’s good to check credentials.” Almost every client has special dietary requirements, so personal chefs face some challenges. “I had a college student with Crohn’s disease,” Borchardt recalls. “She needed to follow the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and there’s a science behind that diet. But she loved to cook, so I just helped the family develop recipes and meals that adhered to the restrictions. Now she can do a lot of her own cooking.” From carbohydrate-specific to gluten-free, vegan to healthy carnivore, personal chefs rely on the ability to adapt, find new solutions, and keep clients’ palates guessing. “It can be very challenging sometimes,” says Borchardt. “It’s also a lot of fun. One of my newest customers is vegan, and they try to not consume any fat if possible. So I took the opportunity to experiment at home with making a vegan cheddar cheese without fat.” If hiring a personal chef lands on your wish list somewhere after a five-car garage, you haven’t seen the typical client roster of many personal chefs. Memphis’s longest-serving personal chef, Carol Borchardt, is into her 10th year, and her clientele is as varied as their tastes. “I’ve got families who are just too busy to cook,” says Borchardt, owner of A Thought for Food. “I’ve got vegetarians, vegans, people trying to lose weight or with health issues, and people who can’t or don’t cook. They find that when they add up the money spent on eating out, convenience foods, impulse purchases, and discarded produce they had good intentions of using, they could easily afford a personal chef coming into their home and cooking something fresh and healthy.” Personal chefs such as Borchardt typically work in clients’ kitchens preparing three to five entrees with accompanying side dishes in one cooking marathon of five to eight hours. Each meal is tailored to a client’s taste preferences, dietary restrictions, or medical considerations. She stores the meals in separate containers in the daily in that client’s home. Personal chefs are self-employed, carry more clients, and cook several meals at a time, which makes the price tag on personal chef service significantly lower. While each client’s service needs differ, all told, the cost per meal lands around the price of an entree at an upscale restaurant. Personal chefs also do the grocery shopping for the menu and will pick up incidental items the client needs, such as bread or eggs. She shops right before she heads to the client’s kitchen for a solid day of cooking several dishes at once. refrigerator, leaves instructions for heating each dish, then cleans and leaves the kitchen as she found it. When the family comes home, their meals are ready when they are. There are a few steps to take before fork meets mouth. It typically starts with a phone conversation, followed by a no-obligation consultation and discussion of the client’s tastes and preferences. When Borchardt makes her first visit, she also asks about any non-culinary issues — like what to do with the dog. A service agreement details the personal chef’s role and the client’s role to ensure smooth service. Then it’s time to schedule the first cooking date and develop a menu. Preparing meals in the client’s home is a key part of keeping MEMPHISDOWNTOWNER.COM Menu planning is always a team sport. “If the client requests something I don’t have in my repertoire, I research it,” she says. “Some give me family recipes or recipes that they used to make themselves but can’t anymore. I also maintain a selection of menu options on my website. Really, the sky’s the limit.” The strangest thing she’s ever cooked? “Dove pie!” she says. “I’d never worked with dove before, but the client had the birds ready and waiting. The recipes I found didn’t seem practical, so I took a coq-au-vin recipe and reworked it.” While Borchardt may be happy to try her hand at dove pie, there are some differences between a personal chef and a private chef. Private chefs are employed by one person and prepare meals “Remember the old Ed Sullivan Show and the guy who used to spin the plates?” she asks, laughing. “That’s what I feel like all day; I’m spinning plates.” But it’s a spinning challenge that contains many personal rewards. “One of my clients had a really bad day at work,” Borchardt remembers. “I had made several pots of soups for her because she loves soup. I found this message on my answering machine: ‘Carol, I cannot tell you how delicious this soup is, and it feels like somebody loves me.’ Things like that are the icing on the cake.” A Thought for Food Personal Chef Service 901-230-8357, athoughtforfood.com JUNE 2012 MEMPHIS DOWNTOWNER 27
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