Busy households are hiring pros to cook for them at home...

Monday, Apr. 08, 2002
It's 6 p.m. in Columbus, Ohio, and the
Bacha family is famished. Sarah, 41, a marketing consultant,
has been firing on all cylinders since 7 a.m., getting the
kids off to school and then juggling phones, e-mail,
paperwork and a lengthy strategy meeting. Her husband Jim,
47, has lumbered home after another taxing day as an
attorney with American Electric Power Co. Will, 6, and
Henry, 4, are antsy for parental attention. As usual, no one
has had time to cook. What's a time-crunched family to do?
Sit down to a freshly made, aromatic Burgundy beef stew, of
course--unless they're in the mood for chicken Tetrazzini or
black-bean soup with ham. "Mmmm. It smells great," announces
Sarah to no one in particular, as she savors the steaming
stew. The sumptuous dinner was the creation of the family's
personal chef, Anne Hayward, 55, who left hours ago. The
only evidence of her efforts is the tantalizing aromas
lingering in the kitchen and the three weeks' worth of meals
freshly stocked in the refrigerator and freezer.
When the Bachas first used Hayward last October, they were
ambivalent about hiring someone to cook for them. Would it
be worth the expense? (Hayward charges $225, on top of the
grocery bill, for about 15 family meals.) How tasty would
the food be? Would friends in their neighborhood--affluent
but hardly overrun by servants--view the Bachas with
disdain? "It sounded pretentious," says Sarah. But she
seldom has time to indulge her own passion for cooking, and
Hayward's services give her more time with her family.
"We're not rushing around every night to pull something
together to eat."
Even in a slumping economy, more and more two-earner
families like the Bachas have been hiring personal chefs who
do the shopping, cook in clients' kitchens and clean up
after themselves. Five years ago, there were just a few
hundred such workers; today an estimated 7,000 personal
chefs are finding that demand for their services around the
country is robust. Last year the American Personal Chef
Association trained about 1,000 new chefs, twice as many as
in 2000.
Since Sept. 11, personal chefs have been inundated with
requests for simple comfort foods like chicken pot pie and
noodle soup. "People are still reluctant to go out to eat,"
says Candy Wallace, who heads the American Personal Chef
Association. "They'd rather be home." Michael Zytowski, 33,
a Long Beach, Calif., chef, agrees that current appetites
run more toward pot roast than foie gras. "I haven't run
into a client yet who wants Chateaubriand or lobster," he
says.
Personal chefs are different from private cooks, who usually
work full time preparing gourmet meals for the wealthy.
Instead, personal chefs are tempting two-earner households
with customized menus at reasonable rates, typically $15 per
person at each meal. The chefs are masters of efficiency,
whipping up three or four weeks of meals in a marathon
six-hour session and juggling a dozen or more clients.
Hayward's business, Premier Concierge of Columbus, primarily
consists of a Volvo station wagon brimming with knives,
spice tins and cling wrap.
Before the first cooking date, chefs and their clients
address everything from calorie content to seasoning levels
in devising menus that suit the household. When client
families get home, they find a meal ready for the evening,
as well as a refrigerator and freezer stocked with future
dinners, each of which includes instructions for reheating.
The process can save clients as much as 15 hours a week in
shopping, preparation, cooking and cleanup time. But
customers are not completely off the hook. Says Debra Ruder,
43, a communications specialist who lives in suburban Boston
with her husband and two sons: "You do have to remember to
take something out of the freezer the night before."
Personal chefs hope to shed the perception that they are
only for the wealthy. If you can afford a lawn service and
housecleaning, they say, a personal chef is likely to be
within your budget. "This has made a real difference in our
family life. It's a relief not to have to worry about dinner
anymore," says Cindy Abbott, 39, an attorney for Motorola
who is the mother of two. The Abbotts spend about $300 for
10 meals that they eat over the course of each month,
supplemented by takeout meals and Cindy's cooking. Like many
clients, she finds that household spending on food has
declined since the chef started work a year ago, because the
family is eating fewer restaurant and takeout meals. One
downside: diminished food quality from thawing and
reheating. "We've found some things, like asparagus and
pasta, don't work out so well with this process."
Hallie Vanderhider, 44, a single mother of 15-year-old twin
boys in Houston, hired a chef in January to prepare three
family meals a week for $200, including the cost of the
food. "Before this, sometimes all I had time to make was
peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches," she says. Evenings with
her kids are much happier, she adds. The three of them have
reached a consensus on ingredients: no mushrooms, onions or
artichokes. Says their chef, Jackie Alejo: "No problem."
Vanderhider, chief financial officer for a money-management
firm, has just one regret: "I wish I had thought of this
sooner."