APPCA member Anne Blankenship is a long-time APPCA member. She recently posted on Facebook about an achievement in marketing to registered dietitians. What she did was so cool we asked her to expand on it for our blog. Take a read and try this in your community!
I am a personal chef in the Dallas, Texas, area and have been for 10 years now as “Designed Cuisine, A Personal Chef Service.” As with many personal chefs, I have cooked for a variety of clients over the years and do dinner parties and other such events. Normally my events are no greater than 20 people as I much prefer those to larger functions. Clients come and go so I never stop marketing and this article details my latest idea.
As personal chefs, we are constantly marketing and trying to come up with new and different areas to promote our business. Marketing to registered dietitians (RDs) is an idea I had when trying to “think outside the box” for promoting my business. I happen to have a friend who is a registered dietician at the University of Texas in Austin so I had someone I could approach who was a “friendly face.” She put me in touch with a contact in the Dallas area whom she knew but only on a professional level, so it was up to me to take it from there.
With Texas Academy of Nutrition Dietetics NE Region, Ft. Worth
When I sent an e-mail to the Dallas contact, I used some of the language from my website and LinkedIn profile as it was written to say as much as possible in about two sentences, describing what a personal chef does and giving the basic details. The contact responded within a day and I knew I had hit a home run, as she immediately “got” what I was wanting to do. She volunteered to put my information and website link on her group’s Facebook page, which is the DFW Area Nutrition Entrepreneurs (I didn’t even have to ask!). She copied her Ft. Worth colleague with my information and said she would get back to me about making a presentation at a group meeting. I also heard from the Ft. Worth contact who was interested in having me speak to her group as well and who put my information on her group’s page, which is the Texas Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, N.E. Region.
About a month later both contacts gave me dates in March for the presentations. As time for the meetings approached, they put notices on their respective group’s Facebook pages which I then shared on my business Facebook page and even my personal Facebook page, as well as an update on LinkedIn. The power of social media!
The presentation was an outline of the basics of what a personal chef does and how it works (planning client-specific menus, shopping, cooking in the clients’ homes, etc.). I tried to think what I would have in common with an RD and it dawned on me that educating the public about nutritional food was something we both faced on a regular basis. An RD works in various capacities such as consulting with a chef or chefs at a restaurant chain, in a hospital system to devise healthy meal plans for various requirements (gluten-free, strict calorie limit, etc.), as well as in private practice and a myriad of other positions. Since I had taken Nutrition in culinary school, I spoke briefly about how helpful it has been to have that knowledge and it enhanced my presentation since I could “speak their language.”
The biggest issue for me was how could I benefit THEM? I was honored to be asked to speak and they were all very interested to learn about what I do and how I do it, but I am always conscious about the “mutually beneficial relationship” aspect in a given business situation.
Many of the RDs to whom I spoke have private clients and they are in a position to refer those clients to me, if they choose. In some cases we could then work together to devise a meal plan or plans for the client and could pass any costs incurred along to the client. So I had my answer as to how we could both benefit with our relationship. Since some RDs work in hospitals, I touched on gift certificates that I offer, particularly for those who have recently had surgery, pregnant ladies, and new mothers. I could see that they really took to this idea and could pass along my information to their clients who might need my services or to family members who could give my service as a gift to a relative or friend. In speaking with them I was also inspired to start completing a project I had been working on for some time, which is to put complete sample menus on my website that reflect a specific amount of calories so that those interested in a low-calorie meal plan as an example, could see what I had to offer. One of the questions asked was whether or not I saw a trend in people wanting to eat a more healthy diet and I said absolutely, since many potential clients want to hire a personal chef for this reason. The RDs said that the majority of private clients they work with ask for the same information.
I followed up with the individuals in both groups within a few days after each presentation and have since connected with many of them on LinkedIn and asked them to follow me on Instagram, as well as encouraging them to “like” my business Facebook page. Since there were about 12 people at each meeting, I now have almost 24 new business contacts.
One lady was so excited because she said a member of their group was about to become one of the RDs for the Dallas Cowboys and that I would be a perfect fit in that situation. Time will tell, but I surely do love football and as a native Dallasite, always root for my home team!
How are you marketing your services? Have you also reached out to RDs?
Not an APPCA member? Now’s the perfect time to join! Go to personalchef.com to learn about all the benefits that come with membership.
And if you are a member and have a special talent to share on this blog, let us know so we can feature you!
Given the size of our national APPCA membership, Candy had suggested years ago that members gather regionally to better get to network and share information. The MidAtlantic Chef Chapter, or MARC, has long been an active and tight-knit group with a membership currently at 19. In April they announced a new slate of officers:
Keith Steury
President: Keith Steury of The Food Sherpa
Treasurer: April Lee of Tastefully Yours
Secretary: Katie Enterline of The Grateful Table
The first agenda item will be identifying a date to meet for their fall gathering–a potluck at member Iva Stanic’s home in Olney, Maryland. Then, of course, if the big two-day Spring meeting for 2018 that Steury hopes will include a trip to a pick-your-own working farm in Virginia.
Why join a member chapter? Well, Steury, whose business is based in Arlington, Virginia, explained that he joined the MARC chapter a few years ago.
“Before that I was a member of the APPCA, but I did not really have any meaningful personal connections to other chefs who were also running their own PC businesses,” he said. “Joining this group has helped me to make these connections and has proved very valuable to me. I am hopeful that we will continue to provide support to both current and potential new members during my tenure as chapter president.”
Katie Enterline
In his own words, Steury’s plans for his tenure as president include:
- Providing cross-referrals for new business: This is something that we already do a lot within our chapter and it is really a great thing. There are ebbs and flows in everyone’s businesses and times when we could all use a new client. Referrals are an excellent way to accelerate this process. This is also a very nice feature for new members and those new to the personal chef industry, because it gives them an immediate connection to potential new clients and the support of other chefs in the process of acquiring them.
- Supporting each other and helping each other to succeed: The APPCA provides a solid foundation and frame-work for how to run a successful PC business, but there is also room for each individual chef to modify things to fit their unique preferences. The chapter provides a great forum for discussing ideas, tips, pitfalls, and related information about running a PC business. There are a lot of smart people with creative ideas in the chapter, and they are open and willing to share this information with their fellow chefs. This helps everyone to improve their businesses and be more successful.
- Being aware of market changes and how to differentiate ourselves as personal chefs: I am amazed at how much things have changed since I started my PC business back in 2007. Back then, the concept of a PC was still pretty novel (at least here in Northern VA). Now, not so much. In addition, there is a lot more competition in the marketplace, so I think that makes our job more challenging. Now more than ever, I think it is important to be educated about the market and to take the time to identify and explain how we as PCs differentiate ourselves from these other options. We save our clients valuable time, we provide a custom experience/solution (to often complex problems), and we do it all while cultivating a meaningful relationship with a focus on excellent customer service.
April Lee
We wish the MARC chapter a productive and fulfilling year! If any of you would like to start a chapter in your region, please reach out to Candy and she can help you get it up and running!
Do you know any fellow APPCA members in your community or region? How do you network with other personal chefs–or do you?
Not an APPCA member? Now’s the perfect time to join! Go to personalchef.com to learn about all the benefits that come with membership.
And if you are a member and have a special talent to share on this blog, let us know so we can feature you!
APPCA member Judy Harvey has spent her career feeding people in one way or another. A child of the South, specifically Georgia, Judy came of age on Southern food, eventually launching a career in food service. She honed her cooking skills at home, feeding her family, but got back into the workforce when her kids reached school age as the food service manager at their private school. Yes, Judy was the “lunch lady” at a school that had previously had no food service. For 12 years Judy ran the cafeteria and planned and prepared all of the school’s in-house events–activities like sports banquets and alumni banquets. And then she was diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis, which felled her with pain and what she describes at debilitating fatigue. This was a turning point for her, both in terms of her health and her career. And it’s when she discovered personal cheffing. Today, Judy runs her own business, The Dinner Lady Personal Chef Service, serving central New Jersey. And, what a surprise, it now focuses on people with health issues. Why don’t I let her tell the rest of her story herself. You’re sure to be inspired.
When I was diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis I started to rethink what I was doing and began researching how to start a home-based catering business. In my research I discovered personal cheffing, which I had never heard of at the time.
I decided that this was a much easier business plan and would give me more time to focus on my health. I left my job and jumped right in to learning every thing I could about my new endeavor and also about my disease. I didn’t want to take the pharmaceuticals that were being recommended by my doctors and wanted rather to focus on a healthy lifestyle and nutrition as medicine. I became gluten and sugar free. I cut back dramatically on dairy and also added more organics to my diet.
As my business started to pick up, I found that many people were searching for a chef because of a newly diagnosed health issue and needed a dramatic change in their diet protocol. Purely co-incidentally I had fresh knowledge and understood what they were going through and a had a familiarity in how to cook for them. Of the nine regular clients that I have, seven are gluten free and out of the nine only one client eats a regular diet without restrictions.
So I sometimes call my business extreme personal cheffing! Each client has a very specific diet protocol that I follow. And it seems to be the niche that I have found for my business.
I am willing to work with any clients special dietary needs. I do a lot of research to find exciting meals that fit into their protocol so that they don’t feel like they are deprived. In the beginning of my journey I did see a few different naturopathic doctors who offered dietary advice. Clients sometimes provide me doctor or nutritionist recommended diets. But mostly I use the clients’ dietary guidelines and research online. Blog post are great places, especially for paleo dishes. I use Paleo Grubs a lot, and downloaded their ebook. Paleo often fits into several different profiles, like gluten free.
A book that I found useful for a MS client is Wahls Protocol. This client also gave me literature generated by their doctor which included some recipes.
Gluten-Free Crab Cakes
I recently had a client who could eat only 600 calories a day. That was a challenge! It required 3 ounces of lean protein and 12 ounces of vegetables with each meal. And NO fats at all.
It’s not just about eliminating things from your diet, it’s also about adding things like herbs and certain foods that can help our bodies repair. The changes in my diet have absolutely helped me. I am pain free as long as I adhere to it. I was on the verge of taking a very toxic pharmaceutical and was on a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug everyday. I don’t take any meds now, unless I cheat. Then maybe an NSAID for one or two days.
When I meet new people and they discover what I do, inevitably I get asked, “What’s your specialty?” My answer is, “Whatever you’re eating!”
Below is a recipe to look forward to for next fall:
Fall in a Skillet
Fall in a Skillet
From Judy Harvey
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 tablespoons bone broth
1/2 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 small butternut squash, peeled and diced
1 shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Soy sauce or Liquid Amino Acids to taste
2 cups collards, kale, or other greens, chopped
4 sprigs fresh sage or rosemary
Directions
1. Place oil and broth in a large skillet over medium heat.
2. Mix in potatoes, mushrooms, pepper, squash, garlic, and shallot.
3. Season with soy sauce or amino acids, and salt and pepper to taste
4. Cook 25 minutes, stirring occasionally until potatoes are tender.
5. Mix greens and herbs into skillet.
6. Continue cooking 5 minutes until greens are wilted.
How did you decide to become a personal chef–or are you considering it? What kind of clientele do you want to serve?
Not an APPCA member? Now’s the perfect time to join! Go to personalchef.com to learn about all the benefits that come with membership.
And if you are a member and have a special talent to share on this blog, let us know so we can feature you!
APPCA member Gloria Bakst is a personal chef who specializes in cooking for any medical condition and good health. Among the conditions she focuses on is cancer. We asked her to contribute a guest post here to explain her background, the challenges of working with clients who have cancer, and the discoveries she’s made that have helped them. She generously agreed and even provided us with photos and a soup recipe that she makes for clients undergoing chemo and radiation. If this is an area you are interested in focusing on in your business, you’ll want to read this.
I’ve been doing healthy cooking for the past 40 years. It has been a slow evolution of being educated and applying it to my recipes. I started by taking private macrobiotic cooking classes, which then developed into starting a small catering business.
As a trained personal chef and nutritionist, over the past several decades I’ve cooked for, counseled, and supported individuals seeking to improve their health, lose weight, manage special diets or health conditions, and recover from disease or surgery.
My menus range from macrobiotic to heart healthy, with a focus on flavor and freshness. My current company, Chef Gloria B, continues to offers my personal chef services, including healthy meal preparation customized to clients’ needs, as well as cooking classes and grocery tours.
From 1997 to 2004, while working for Abbott Labs, at ZonePerfect Nutrition, I advised more than 100 people daily on the Zone diet and lifestyle. My weekly “Cooking With Gloria” column on the ZonePerfect website was followed by a quarter million people. I have created hundreds of recipes for health, which have appeared in the Weight Watcher’s Grilling Cookbook, Weight Watchers Meals in Minutes Cookbooks, The Jewish Vegetarian Year Cookbook, and The Healing the Heart Cookbook. These recipes and my approach to a balanced lifestyle have been published by McGraw Hill in my book, ZonePerfect Cooking Made Easy (September 2006).
In 2011, a woman who had stage 4 breast cancer contacted me regarding doing personal chef work for her. She introduced me to Thea, her nutritionist, who had many years working with patients with cancer. Thea gave me a list of foods my client could not have. I cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner her and it was very challenging because in addition to the restrictive nature of the diet, her taste buds kept changing. However, since I happen to be a person who loves food challenges I was game to figure out how to keep her eating and eating well; it makes me more creative!
I had many opportunities to discuss cooking for cancer clients with Thea. I worked with this woman for four years until she unfortunately passed but I continue to get more clients who have cancer and use Thea’s list whenever I cook for clients. I also got involved with the Cancer Nutrition Consortium. However, I have learned through the years that different nutritionists have different points of view regarding cancer patients and food. I have introduced myself to the nutritionists at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Joslin Diabetes Center. Many are fearful of imposing what they think would be beneficial to the patients because it is restrictive and for fear that the patients wouldn’t eat. Many feel that just feeding cancer patients, because they get so thin, is the most important thing to do.
I have worked with many patients who have liver, brain, throat, lymphoma, and other cancers. The important thing is to find out as much as you can regarding their taste buds at the moment and work at finding creative solutions that will taste delicious and be beneficial.
Because of my background in macrobiotic cooking, I make a bone marrow soup that Thea told me about. This soup is so helpful to all cancer patients’ going through chemo and radiation because it helps to prevent nausea and has all the food important to their health at this time. No, it won’t help them put any weight on but patients aren’t going to gain weight anyway during this period. At least when they have these foods, they are getting excellent nutrition without any negative side effects.
The most important nutrition advice I can give to anyone cooking for anyone with cancer is NO DAIRY OR SUGAR! There is much more but if anyone is interested they can contact me at gloria@chefgloriab.com.
I get emails from all over the country asking me if I know anyone in their area who could help them. I would like to put together a list of personal chefs who understand how to cook for cancer patient and be able to give referrals.
I feel like this has been my life’s mission. I personally gave up sugar when I was 23 and became lactose intolerant at 37. I really feel as though each step of my journey was about healthy delicious cooking. It’s kept changing as life has taken its course.
Bone Marrow Soup
From Gloria Bakst
Yield: 4 quarts (about 4 days worth of soup)
This soup is intended to nourish the blood. Gloria suggests buying everything organic and from Whole Foods Market. The best bones to get are organic, hormone free, antibiotic-free, beef or bones. Use all the vegetables your client likes in small quantity, it fills up a large soup pot. While she lists vegetables, herbs, and spices below, other optional ingredients are shitake mushrooms, ginger, and various herbs.
Ingredients
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds beef marrow bones, organic
Purified water
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or more
½ tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary or more
3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley or more
1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano
1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil
6 to 8 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
1 bunch small sized beets, boiled with skin removed
1 large bunch beet greens, chopped
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 large leek, finely chopped
1 bunch baby bok choy (or more)
1/2 to 1 whole burdock root, peeled and chopped (can be found at Asian markets)
2 chopped carrots (or more)
1 bunch baby kale
2 parsnips, peel and chopped
5 fresh turmeric, peeled and chopped (or more)
Himalayan sea salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Directions
In a large pot, place the bones and cover them with purified water. Add thyme, rosemary, parsley, oregano, basil, and garlic. Cover the pot and slowly bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower the heat and simmer for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Cut the vegetables into small pieces and place in the pot, along with the turmeric. Cook for an additional 40 to 60 minutes. Add Himalayan sea salt, pepper, and taste.
Remove the bones. They can be given to your client to suck on if they wish.
The soup can be pureed if you wish after it is cooked. Some clients want a smooth consistency. Others like the vegetables in small chunks. This soup can be frozen.
What is your area of specialization? If you don’t have one, are you becoming interested in serving niche clients?
Not an APPCA member? Now’s the perfect time to join! Go to personalchef.com to learn about all the benefits that come with membership.
And if you are a member and have a special talent to share on this blog, let us know so we can feature you!
Last week I wrote about a long-time favorite recipe of mind: The Vegetarian Epicure’s Eggplant Soufflé. It caught member Suzy Dannette Brown’s attention. The owner of The Brown Bag Nutrition & Chef Services loves eggplant and decided to add more Middle Eastern flavors–and make it for herself. That same day the eggplant was in the oven roasting and her creative juices flowing. Suzy added caramelized red onions, Mediterranean oregano, substituted grated parmesan for fresh sheep feta (love this idea), cow’s milk for almond milk, and oats for wheat flour.
I asked her why she made the changes.
“Well, I love roasted eggplant to the point of almost burnt,” she explained. “This is why I roast it till it is collapsing. I find it is easier if you cut it in half versus leaving it whole. I prefer this method. The end product is to my personal liking. I know roasting it whole until very very soft other people like better. That is, I think a personal choice.
“I love red onions so deeply caramelized (just before burning) with brandy. Sometimes you may need more fat in the pan so they do not burn. I use a small red onion. I think red onions caramelize better than their yellow and white siblings. I also prefer the flavor.
“Putting the two together is amazing.”
Suzy also added the garlic to the roux to permeate the roux with the garlic flavor. Adding in the chopped caramelized onions, she said, darkens the roux. “It’s a quick way to turn it from blond to brown,” she said.
Because eggplant to her is so Mediterranean, Suzy used the oregano and feta. In fact, she suggests using a zaatar spice mix to really hike those flavors.
Finally, she doesn’t drink cow’s milk and so chose almond milk and prefers oat flour to all-purpose wheat flour.
Suzy’s next step is to work with aquafaba (chickpea water found in canned chickpeas), whipping the aquafaba to replace whipped egg whites.
“I love taking traditional recipes and see how I can make them vegan,” she said.
Eggplant Soufflé for 2
Suzy Dannette Brown, The Brown Bag Nutrition & Chef Services
Ingredients
1 cup roasted eggplant, pat dry and chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon butter
1/2 teaspoon avocado oil
1/4 cup sliced red onion
1/2 teaspoon Mediterranean oregano
1 tablespoon brandy (optional)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon oat flour
1 medium clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup almond milk
1 ounce fresh sheep feta, crumbled
2 large eggs, separated
Middle Eastern chili sauce (optional)
2 10.5-ounce ramekins, buttered and sprinkled with salt and pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°.
Slice 1 small eggplant in half lengthwise. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on a lined sheet pan flesh side down. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the pulp is soft and caramelized. Cool to room temperature. Scrape out all the pulp and discard the skin. Place the pulp on a paper towel to drain a bit and chop it. Season it with salt and pepper, as needed. This can be done a day in advance.
In a small skillet heat a ½ teaspoon of butter and ½ teaspoon of avocado oil. Add red onion. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté onions on low until they begin to caramelize and turn golden brown. I like to add a splash of brandy to give the onions a bit more depth of flavor.
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the oat flour and let the roux cook for a few minutes. Add minced garlic and caramelized onions to combine well into the roux.
Slowly whisk the almond milk into the roux. When the sauce thickens, remove it from the heat and stir in the oregano, feta and the eggplant pulp. Season with salt and pepper. Add the egg yolks and fold in until everything is well combined.
Whisk the egg whites until they are quite stiff but not yet dry. Stir about a third of the egg whites into the eggplant mixture thoroughly. Gently fold in the remaining whites.
Pile the prepared soufflé ramekins. Place ramekins on a rimed baking sheet, place in oven and fill with some warm water (just enough to bing up ¼ inch of the ramekins). Place in a preheated, 400-degree oven. Bake the soufflé about 10 to 12 minutes. The soufflés should be firm to touch but not dry. Serve at once.
I like to top them with a Middle Eastern chili sauce
Are you a chef who likes to turn traditional recipes upside down? What have been your successes? What didn’t work out quite the way you wanted?
Not an APPCA member? Now’s the perfect time to join! Go to personalchef.com to learn about all the benefits that come with membership.
And if you are a member and have a special talent to share on this blog, let us know so we can feature you!
So, here’s what I will readily admit. Making a soufflé for a dinner party can be tricky business, whether you’re a chef or a home cook.
However, decades ago I discovered a soufflé that is pretty much foolproof and even time forgiving. In fact, it even survives as delicious leftovers. I first made the Eggplant Soufflé from The Vegetarian Epicure when I was just out of college and living in a fifth-floor walk up in Manhattan. My mom had bought me a soufflé dish at Bloomingdale’s, among other “necessary” kitchen items to help me get started with my first solo apartment. I stared at that white dish a lot–but used it to serve salad. No way was I going to make an actual soufflé. That was big league cooking. It was scary stuff. But I pulled out The Vegetarian Epicure and that particular recipe with the eggplant, perhaps my favorite vegetable, intrigued me. I stared it down. I decided this was the time to conquer that mountain.
And it turned out that the recipe was straight-forward, reliable, and produced a divine cloud of cheesy eggplant that my friends and I scarfed down. Let’s face it: In the late 70s and early 80s, it was oh-so-sophisticated a dish for a new college grad to mak– and I did it.
Younger cooks may not be familiar with this cookbook since The Vegetarian Epicure dates back to the early ’70s. I fondly embrace it as part of a moment in time along with The Whole Earth Catalog and Our Bodies, Ourselves. Yet, it stands out as one of the few vegetarian cookbooks of its day that actually had great recipes. Today everyone’s talking about–with justification–Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty and Plenty More. But I think The Vegetarian Epicure deserves a revival.
I thought about all this a awhile ago when a friend of mine, a wonderful cook and cookbook writer, Kathy Strahs, posted a piece on Facebook about her challenges in making a soufflé and I responded by bringing up this recipe and book. Then I thought, “Wait a sec. It’s been decades since I’ve made this. I wonder if it holds up all these years later.”
So, I pulled out the much worn book, which opened directly to the recipe, and gave it a try. And, yes, my friends, it’s still as forgiving and fabulous as ever. The flavor is smooth, the texture rich and creamy. It’s not loud and bold. It’s actually a kind of comfort food.
So, I feel the need to share this with you, in case you, too, have been intimidated by the idea of making a soufflé–or think they’re passé. What I realized is that it is a great recipe for personal chefs to make for vegetarian clients who want a catered dinner party. And it’s a great recipe for those of you who also teach cooking classes. Here is a true confidence booster for home cooks, including kids, who may assume that soufflés are a guaranteed fail.
Now, I really don’t change a thing in this recipe (okay, I do add an extra clove of garlic and cook it up in a larger saucepan than called for, but that’s it). But one thing I did come up with years ago was a spicy tomato relish to accompany it.
The relish is simple: fresh chopped tomatoes, julienned fresh basil, a diced jalapeño, diced red onion, minced garlic, sea salt, and a dash of balsamic vinegar. You may not think this soufflé/relish combo works, but I love it still. It brings the punch I like to an otherwise mild, comforting dish. These days, I also appreciate that the soufflé is low carb and low fat.
Eggplant Soufflé
From The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 medium eggplant (about 1 lb.)
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. butter
1 small clove garlic, put through a press
2 Tbs. flour
1 cup milk
2 to 3 oz. fresh-gated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. fresh-ground black pepper
3 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
Directions
Bake the eggplant in a pie dish in a 400-degree oven for about 45 minutes or until the pulp is soft. Cool it under running water so that you can handle it, then split it in half and let the excess water drain out. Scrape out all the pulp and mash it well. Season it with a teaspoon of salt.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan [note: use something larger since all the ingredients will go into it.]. Stir in the flour and let the roux cook for a few minutes.
Heat the milk slightly and beat it into the roux with a whisk. When the sauce thickens, remove it from the heat and stir in the grated cheese and the eggplant pulp. Season with black pepper. Finally, add the egg yolks, lightly beaten.
Add a pinch of cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat them with a whisk until they are quite stiff but not yet dry. Stir about a third of the egg whites into the eggplant mixture thoroughly. Gently fold in the remaining whites.
Pile the mixture into a buttered 6-cup soufflé dish and place it gently into a preheated, 350-degree oven. Bake the soufflé about 45 to 50 minutes and serve at once.
Do you have an “impossible” dish that is actually very accessible for clients and cooking class students?
Not an APPCA member? Now’s the perfect time to join! Go to personalchef.com to learn about all the benefits that come with membership.
And if you are a member and have a special talent to share on this blog, let us know so we can feature you!
Are we in the age of salmon collars? Back in the 80s, if you had a dinner party, chances are you were going to serve salmon “steaks”–remember them? These were thick cuts of salmon cut perpendicular to the backbone.
Then we seemed to evolve into fillets. They’re the same meat–but instead cut parallel to the backbone and the bone. Fillets–of all kinds of fish–are still hugely popular. And delicious. But I’d like to think we’ve now evolved to enjoying more cuts of more fish. The belly. The tail. The cheeks. Maybe even the whole fish. At a time when we’re all concerned about food waste, using as much of the fish as possible is just smart, not to mention delicious. And, while I’m talking here about salmon, try tuna, yellowtail, halibut, and rockfish–to name just a few. Whatever is local to your region.
One of my favorite parts is the collar. This is a cut right along the clavicle behind the gills. It’s got some rich belly meat and a lovely fat cap. Get that collar near high heat and the fat caramelizes the skin and it becomes this crispy, luxe fish lollipop that you can grab by the fin to suck off the meat. Oh… And did I mention how cheap they are? At my local fish market in San Diego they’re priced at less than $2 a pound. So, this is also an economical dish to serve at a client dinner party.
Now the question is how to cook them. Yes, they can really flavor up a stew. They’re a delight in a curry. Yet to my mind, they’re really best grilled, but this hasn’t exactly been grilling weather. Instead I could run them under the broiler. Or I could do stove-top grilling using my carbon-steel pan. Since the pan is relatively new to me so I decided to test it out with the salmon using a teriyaki-style marinade I thought could possibly confound it because of the sugar (it didn’t).
What I found was a recipe published a couple of years ago in Food Republic by Myra and Marea Goodman, authors of Straight from the Earth, a vegan cookbook. Their teriyaki recipe is part of a larger one for Teriyaki Tofu Broccolette on Wild Rice, which sounds fabulous. But in the meantime I made the sauce for my collars. Not exactly vegan, but a good recipe is a good recipe.
The sauce calls for what you’d imagine are the usual suspects–soy sauce, brown sugar, unseasoned rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. It’s pretty simple. Put them all in a small, heavy saucepan together with some additional water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer until it thickens. It’s wonderfully sweet, salty, and sticky.
Now you’re not really going to marinate the collars. Instead you’ll heat up your pan and add an oil with a high smoke point. I used canola. Forget doing the usual seasoning with salt and pepper. The marinade has plenty of each. So clean and trim the collar, which may have some “stuff” hanging on to it–organs and blood lines, for instance. Clip them into two pieces.
Then place them skin side down on the now very hot pan (and open windows, turn on fans because there will be smoke). It won’t take more than a minute or two for them to cook up on the first side. Flip and brush the teriyaki sauce on the cooked side. Let the second side get brown and then flip and remove them to a plate where you’ll brush more sauce on that side.
That’s it. If it burns, don’t worry much about it. That’s just superficial–and makes it all divinely crispy. The meat inside will be amazing. And if your clients feel the need to use their fingers, all the better. Save the rest of the teriyaki sauce for seasoning chicken, vegetables, tofu…. You’ll want to keep it on hand.
Teriyaki Salmon Collars
Serves 4
Teriyaki Sauce
(from Straight from the Earth by Myra and Marea Goodman)
3/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon garlic, finely minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2. Bring to the start of a boil, and then reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until the sauce thickens slightly, about 10 minutes.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and let the sauce sit at room temperature while you prepare the salmon.
4. Heat the pan on the stove top. When it starts to smoke add the oil. Then add the salmon collars skin side down. After no more than 2 minutes flip them over. Brush the cooked side with the teriyaki sauce. After about a minute flip the collars and remove them to a serving plate. Brush that side with teriyaki sauce or pour some reserved sauce on it.
5. Serve with rice or other grains.
How are you working to avoid food waste and what less conventional food products are you finding to be really delicious?
Not an APPCA member? Now’s the perfect time to join! Go to personalchef.com to learn about all the benefits that come with membership.
And if you are a member and have a special talent to share on this blog, let us know so we can feature you!
Well, we’re at the precipice of month three of 2017. What actions did you lay out in your 2017 business plan to build your personal chef skills? Have you acted on them yet?
Now, you’re probably assuming we’re talking about cooking. And, yes, that’s a part of it. But being a successful personal chef involves more than cooking skills. It involves marketing yourself and your business. Gaining financial literacy so you actually make a profit. Broadening your social skills to be able to engage with clients and potential clients. Maybe it’s developing a specialty and attaining the critical knowledge of that area of specialization to deliver on it to clients.
With this in mind, here are five ways to build your personal chef skills:
- If you’re feeling that your cooking skills need a boost so you’ll feel more confident and able to expand your repertoire of recipes, enroll in cooking classes. They can be local classes or you can get certified by a cooking school. Our partner Escoffier Online International Culinary Academy offers self-paced Culinary and Pastry Arts programs. In fact, several of our members are graduates.
- Amp up your visibility by building a social media presence. Figure out where your potential people are. Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Pinterest? You don’t have to tackle them all but two, maybe three platforms will start to build your reputation among potential clients. Make sure you take great, well-lit photos of your food and reach out to others (including us) to build connections who can help share your posts.
- Where you live can make a difference in how you shape your business. So, why not reach out to other APPCA members in your city to network? You can exchange marketing tips, resources, and maybe collaborate on projects–catering large special events or backing each other up with gigs you can’t take on.
- Set yourself apart with an area of specialization. Some people focus on dietary specialties–gluten-free or vegan, heart-friendly diets, building athletic strength, disease oriented. Others like to cook for new moms and young families or busy executives or older adults. If there’s a type of diet or a type of client that really excites you, build a business around that–but make sure you have the special skills and insights you need to put you in demand. And that’s a combination of cooking skills and human interaction skills.
- Reinforce what you’ve learned and may have forgotten or weren’t ready to act on. When you joined APPCA did you attend our weekend Personal Chef Seminar at Candy’s home in San Diego? If you didn’t, this intensive course will give you a vast array of information, tools, and insights into running your business that you’ll leave excited and energized. If you did attend years ago, how about going back for a refresher course? With some experience behind you, you may discover some gaps you’re ready to fill. And Candy can offer you suggestions within the context of the seminar based on your evolved needs. The next seminar is March 11-12 and the following one will be held in May.
Enjoying lunch and some San Diego sunshine at a recent weekend seminar
We can help you with any of these five tips. Get in touch with Candy to discuss the Escoffier culinary program. Get in touch with me to get some help with social media (or take a look at past posts here and here and here). If you’re looking for local APPCA members to network with, go on our forum to reach out or our APPCA group page. Or ask Candy for a list of local members to contact. Get input from colleagues on specializing in both of these groups–or, again, Candy. We’re here to help you succeed!
What steps are you taking to rev up your business? How can we help you?
Not an APPCA member? Now’s the perfect time to join! Go to personalchef.com to learn about all the benefits that come with membership.
And if you are a member and have a special talent to share on this blog, let us know so we can feature you!
Two weeks ago we featured a wonderful post by APPCA member Jim Huff, describing the development of his recipe for his Nutella Banana Bread Bread Pudding. Recipe development is a key part of being a personal chef as you adapt ideas into dishes that both represent your culinary point of view and address client preferences or dietary needs. Maybe you have a concept in mind—transforming a traditional dish with gluten into something equally delicious but gluten free. Or you love a concept for a recipe but the ingredients either aren’t seasonally available or not regionally available.
So, you work it. You substitute ingredients, adjust amounts, and eventually voila! You have your your dish. But sometimes you give it a good try and it fails. Dismally. Then what? Well, you keep going to find a solution or—if it becomes clear the original concept is a nonstarter—you just move on. Here’s an example:
Will Gustwiller is a chef I know in San Diego. He started out as a truffle maker, which is when we became acquainted. But his interests were broader and he started branching out, incorporating chocolate of all kinds into savory dishes. His place, Eclipse Chocolat, started hosting special chocolate dinners. About four years ago he moved to a larger space in a nearby neighborhood which gave him the opportunity to create a sit-down cafe with a regular menu.
I joined him one day while he was working on a new concept for a savory cocoa buckwheat crepe. Not unlike your own kitchen when you’re experimenting with dishes, we had a hell of a time with a variation Gustwiller was trying with the crepe. He wanted to make it both vegan and gluten-free. The gluten-free part we had down. We were using buckwheat after all. But we found that soy milk and going egg free just didn’t work. Not only did it not come together well, it tasted dreadful. So, out that batch went. We tried some other options but they, too, failed. It was clear this wasn’t the day this recipe was going to turn vegan so we moved on and went back to his tried-and-true batter with dairy. You’ve probably had that experience in one way or another, too.
But the good news is that this is still a wonderful dish. The crepe has minimal sugar so not only does it work well in savory dishes, it doesn’t overwhelm a sweet dessert filling (like the strawberries I intend to try the recipe out on). Once we reverted back to the original recipe, it took less than an hour to get all three components together and ready to eat. One of the secrets to its success is filling the crepe, folding it into quarters, then putting it in the oven briefly to crisp the pancake’s edges. The result is a firm crepe with a hint of cocoa. The creamy shallot filling is sweet from the caramelized shallots and Riesling but just a bit tart from the crème fraiche. Topping it off with the mushrooms adds another dimension of flavor with a little bite from the fresh green onions. It’s rich, but not overwhelmingly so for a first course. This is definitely something you should make if you’re catering dinner parties or brunch.
Savory Cocoa Buckwheat Crepe with Shallot Filling and Mushroom Sauce
from Will Gustwiller
Serves 4
This crepes make a terrific first course for a dinner party or main course for brunch.
For crepe:
Ingredients
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 cup skim milk
1 1/4 cup water (thin as needed)
Whisk together ingredients and strain to remove clumps. Since there’s no gluten, there’s no need to rest the batter but you can refrigerate before using if you want to make it ahead of time.
Heat a nonstick sauté or crepe pan, spray with a little vegetable oil. Ladle in about a quarter cup of the batter and swirl it around the bottom of the pan. Depending on the pan size you may need to add a little more batter. When the edges start to curl and the crepe has set, flip it over and let it finish cooking briefly, then flip onto a plate. You can separate the crepes with wax paper. (You can also freeze cooked crepes, layered with wax paper.)
For shallot filling:
Ingredients
1 cup shallots, diced
1/4 cup butter
1 cup Riesling wine
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, minced
1 teaspoon lemon zest
salt to taste
1/2 cup crème fraiche
Caramelize shallots in butter and deglaze with the wine. Remove from the heat and finish with remaining ingredients. Set aside.
For mushroom sauce:
Ingredients
1 cup + cremini mushrooms, sliced
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup + Riesling wine
4 green onion tops, sliced
salt to taste
Sauté the mushrooms in a pan with plenty of room. Deglaze with wine and season to finish. Top with green onion slices.
Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F. On a flat crepe, add a couple of tablespoons of the shallot filling and spread the filling over the entire crepe. Fold into quarters. Place on a baking sheet and put into the oven for five minutes. Remove and plate the crepes. Top with the mushroom sauce and serve immediately.
Do you have a recipe you’re still trying to perfect? Share your story! Maybe a colleague has an idea for getting it to work.
Not an APPCA member? Now’s the perfect time to join! Go to personalchef.com to learn about all the benefits that come with membership.
And if you are a member and have a special talent to share on this blog, let us know so we can feature you!
One of my favorite food writing jobs was contributing to Rancho La Puerta’s blog and app. Every month, I would go down to their cooking school, La Cocina Que Canta, and participate in a hands-on class taught by a renowned cooking teacher, restaurateur, or cookbook author. One month it was Deborah Madison and it was memorable. For one thing, it was pouring rain, so the usual routine of participants first going to the magnificent garden just outside of the cooking school and picking the produce before returning to cook had to be scratched. But that was okay because the plan for that day was to make soup.
So, 15 of us sat around a long table and Madison led us through what you could call the soup-making journey—10 basic steps that most soups require, a concept she developed for her book Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
Not familiar with Madison? You should be. A chef, writer, and clearly talented cooking teacher, she was among the first contemporary chefs to develop the farm-to-table menu style now so popular among restaurants across the country. With Greens restaurant in San Francisco, where she was the founding chef in 1979, Madison established a career that has led to more than a dozen cookbooks (which have earned awards from IACP and the James Beard Foundation among others) and writing assignments from Saveur, Cooking Light, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Fine Cooking, and Garden Design.
While she admitted she doesn’t spend time thinking about the connection between words and food, Madison believes that food is bigger than a recipe and has everything to do with what we are. For her food is a lens through which anyone can view his or her life.
“It has nothing to do with being interested in food, or a good cook, or a lousy one, or a foodie or any of that,” she told me that day. “It has to do with everything we are, starting with nurture or the lack thereof.”
Given her enthusiasm for the bounty of the garden and farm, it makes sense that Madison’s starting point is the contemplative space of her home garden in New Mexico, and the community scene of the local farmers market. In fact, Madison spent time as a market manager and is a big fan of the Santa Fe Farmers Market. “It’s about running into friends, some of whom are the farmers, exchanging greetings and news, maybe sharing a recipe idea for some new squash or other produce, sometimes planning an impromptu dinner.”
One of her books, Local Flavors
- First of all, shopping at a farmers market for the first time is an adventure, and adventures are good for us to have, so go with an open mind and don’t worry.
- Always make a pass through the market and take a look at what’s there, the prices, the quality, what appeals to you, before you buy. That way you get the lay of the land. As you shop more and more at a market, you may find you have favorite vendors that you always return to—I know I do —but even so, I like to take a look around first just to see what’s there.
- Do accept tastes and ask questions about foods that may be unfamiliar. And just because you took a taste of something, it doesn’t mean you have to buy. You’re sampling and informing yourself.
- If you feel very unsure about what the food you see at the farmers market, for you might well see different varieties than what’s in the supermarket, start with those vegetables and fruits that are familiar, that you already use—carrots, onions, garlic, apples, strawberries. Then maybe choose one food that’s new to you—a white eggplant, a different variety of cabbage, an exotic fruit.
Once you have that produce back home—and maybe it’s a soup kind of day like ours was—Madison has suggestions that include making your own quick vegetable stock from the trimmings you would ordinarily immediately toss into the compost pile, tasting the soup not just for more salt but perhaps acid to create balance (it turns out a little lemon juice can go a long way to creating that “aha” flavor moment), and to just make plenty.
“Soup generally gets better as it sits,” Madison said. “It can make an instant homemade meal when you’ve got a big pot on hand, and, if you give a little thought to the garnishes and textures, you can turn one pot into many soups.”
That’s the über cooking teacher offering practical guidance. But now that we’re into cool, even cold, weather when soups become more than just a flavorful meal but, in their heartiness, are embracing and nurturing, it’s worth thinking about the connections Madison draws between food and our inner lives.
“Perhaps that’s where the magic lies,” she proposed. “Food is really about our larger, deeper lives, and we all have those, whether we’re close to our deeper selves or not.”
Quinoa, Potato and Spinach Soup with Feta Cheese
From Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
Serves 6
“This grain-based soup is light, delicious, pretty, fresh, and very simple to make. And with the quinoa, it’s highly nutritious. What more could one ask of a recipe?” DM
Ingredients
3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 small bunch spinach, stems removed, leaves washed and chopped
8 ounces Yukon Gold or other potato, diced in 1/4-inch cubes
1 jalapeño chile, seeded and finely diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground, toasted cumin seed
1 teaspoon salt, to taste, and freshly ground pepper
4 ounces feta cheese, finely diced in small cubes
3 scallions, thinly sliced in rounds, including a few of the greens
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1 hard-cooked egg, diced (optional)
1. Simmer the quinoa in 7 cups water for 10 minutes. When the quinoa is done, drain it, reserving the water, which you’ll use in the soup.
2. While the quinoa is cooking, cut the vegetables and set them aside.
3. Heat the oil in a 3-quart saucepan with the garlic and chile, cook for about 30 seconds, without browning the garlic, then add the cumin, salt and potatoes. Measure the quinoa cooking liquid plus water, if needed, to make 6 cups. Add it to the vegetables, bring to a boil, then add the quinoa and simmer, partially covered, until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes, then turn off the heat. Taste for salt and season the soup with pepper. Add the cheese, then stir in the spinach and the scallions. As soon as the spinach is wilted, serve the soup, garnished with the cilantro and hard-cooked egg, if using.
Is there a chef/cookbook author who inspires you? Tell us about that connection!
Not an APPCA member? Now’s the perfect time to join! Go to personalchef.com to learn about all the benefits that come with membership.
And if you are a member and have a special talent to share on this blog, let us know so we can feature you!
American Personal & Private Chef Association