Thursday, May 31, 2012
Homemade Dinner for Father’s Day Present
Running low on gift ideas on how to surprise your dad this Father’s day? (Father’s Day is June 17 this year, so don’t forget to make your plans!) Well, if you live in the Atlanta area, remember that Atlanta Personal Chef Service sells gift certificates, which would make a great surprise gift for dad. Our gift certificates are redeemable for a three-course meal of your choice, cooked and served right in your own home. You don’t need anything fancy, just a kitchen with the basic appliances. Once you reserve your dinner date, we’ll work with you to create the ideal menu that dad will love. Our chefs do all the grocery shopping, cooking, serving, and cleaning, which means all you have to do is enjoy. Atlanta Personal Chef Service prides itself on an up-scale, sophisticated cuisine, with menus tailored to our clients particular taste preferences. To buy a gift certificate, or reserve a chef to cook a dinner in your home, click here.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Themed Dinner Parties in Atlanta
If you’re going to host a dinner party, you’ll want one type
of coherent theme to link all the courses together. It may be a single main ingredient, or
cuisine of a chosen country, or a similar color palette. For last week’s party, our clients requested
an Italian themed menu, so we chose plates which highlighted Italian flavors
and ingredients, while offering a tasteful break from the typical idea of
“pizza and pasta.” We typically provide
our clients with a few different menu options, which they can then pick and
choose particular starters, entrees, and desserts from. For example, we’ll suggest three different
Italian inspired salads, and ask them to pick their favorite. Since all the options already are within the particular
theme, any selections will work well together.
Below is a picture of the chosen menu for a dinner party we hosted last
week in Buckhead, Atlanta.
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| Dinner Party Menu displayed on place setting |
For more sample dinner party menus created by Atlanta
Personal Chef Service, click here.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
How do I find and hire a great personal chef?
Personal chefs are in demand as happy clients tell their friends about the great food and service their in-home chefs provide. They’re enjoying healthy, tasty meals without the stress of meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning. Small wonder more and more Atlantans are choosing to outsource their cooking and spend more time with their families.
If you’re reading this, you’re likely exploring the personal chef option. But how do you find a great personal chef—one who’ll cook great food and also have a great working relationship with you and your family. A personal chef may spend many hours per week in your kitchen—your home’s nerve center. So you want to invest thought and effort into finding the right private chef.
Looking for a personal chef is not unlike looking for a good doctor. You’d prefer to have a friend recommend the trusty professional they’ve been using for years. But sometimes you can’t get a good recommendation. More likely, you don’t know anyone who’s already using a personal chef. In that case, the internet is a good place to start looking.
If you search “personal chefs” in Atlanta, you’ll get tons of results. It may be overwhelming at first, but look carefully at the following criteria:
1. Credentials. Anyone can call himself a chef, but if you’re paying someone to cook for you, you want a professional. Make sure the chef has some formal training-- ideally a degree in culinary arts. Professional training ensures mastery not just of cooking skills, but also of safe food handling and storage techniques.
2. Experience. Like anything else, kitchen skills improve with practice. Many chefs start their careers working in restaurants. Some have worked in the fine dining rooms of country clubs or top hotels, which demand excellent service and food presentation.
3. Meals. Read sample menus, and view on-line pictures of the chef’s dishes. Be aware that some websites don’t picture the chef’s own dishes, but use purchased images of someone else’s food or photos of colorful fruits and vegetables. If you’re going to be eating a chef’s food on a regular basis, make sure it looks appetizing and appealing. Also, consider how healthy the meals are. Does the chef use heavy cream-based food, or heavily breaded or fried dishes? Or does the chef focus on balanced meals, full of vegetables and cooked nutritiously?
4. Professionalism. Check whether your chef runs his business in a professional manner, is organized, and can be easily contacted. He or she should carry liability insurance to protect against the rare event of a kitchen fire or other potential problem.
Once you’ve narrowed your list, start calling a few of chefs to see whether they sound like someone you’d enjoy working with. Remember, this chef is going to be coming to your home on a regular basis, so should be friendly, polite and easy to get along with.
When you find a chef who seems promising, hire her to prepare a meal for you and taste the food for yourself. Chefs typically start a new client relationship by taking a food inventory. What are your food preferences, which foods you love, do you have any allergies, how much spice do you prefer, what foods do you avoid? A good chef will continue to learn about your food preferences and tastes as she continues to cook for you.
Finally, make sure you understand the type of service the chef provides. Some chefs come to your home once or twice a month. They prepare and freeze foods to be reheated later, which is also the more economical option. Other chefs will visit your home daily to prepare meals, so you’ll always be eating fresher and tastier meals and won’t be bothered with meal planning, grocery shopping and cleaning.
Hopefully this brief guide helps you to better understand personal chef services. You may even decide to join the growing ranks of Atlantans who have found—and hired—their own personal chef. We’re happy to help you with any questions. Want to share your comments? Please feel free to post them here. Bon appétit!
If you’re reading this, you’re likely exploring the personal chef option. But how do you find a great personal chef—one who’ll cook great food and also have a great working relationship with you and your family. A personal chef may spend many hours per week in your kitchen—your home’s nerve center. So you want to invest thought and effort into finding the right private chef.
Looking for a personal chef is not unlike looking for a good doctor. You’d prefer to have a friend recommend the trusty professional they’ve been using for years. But sometimes you can’t get a good recommendation. More likely, you don’t know anyone who’s already using a personal chef. In that case, the internet is a good place to start looking.
If you search “personal chefs” in Atlanta, you’ll get tons of results. It may be overwhelming at first, but look carefully at the following criteria:
1. Credentials. Anyone can call himself a chef, but if you’re paying someone to cook for you, you want a professional. Make sure the chef has some formal training-- ideally a degree in culinary arts. Professional training ensures mastery not just of cooking skills, but also of safe food handling and storage techniques.
2. Experience. Like anything else, kitchen skills improve with practice. Many chefs start their careers working in restaurants. Some have worked in the fine dining rooms of country clubs or top hotels, which demand excellent service and food presentation.
3. Meals. Read sample menus, and view on-line pictures of the chef’s dishes. Be aware that some websites don’t picture the chef’s own dishes, but use purchased images of someone else’s food or photos of colorful fruits and vegetables. If you’re going to be eating a chef’s food on a regular basis, make sure it looks appetizing and appealing. Also, consider how healthy the meals are. Does the chef use heavy cream-based food, or heavily breaded or fried dishes? Or does the chef focus on balanced meals, full of vegetables and cooked nutritiously?
4. Professionalism. Check whether your chef runs his business in a professional manner, is organized, and can be easily contacted. He or she should carry liability insurance to protect against the rare event of a kitchen fire or other potential problem.
Once you’ve narrowed your list, start calling a few of chefs to see whether they sound like someone you’d enjoy working with. Remember, this chef is going to be coming to your home on a regular basis, so should be friendly, polite and easy to get along with.
When you find a chef who seems promising, hire her to prepare a meal for you and taste the food for yourself. Chefs typically start a new client relationship by taking a food inventory. What are your food preferences, which foods you love, do you have any allergies, how much spice do you prefer, what foods do you avoid? A good chef will continue to learn about your food preferences and tastes as she continues to cook for you.
Finally, make sure you understand the type of service the chef provides. Some chefs come to your home once or twice a month. They prepare and freeze foods to be reheated later, which is also the more economical option. Other chefs will visit your home daily to prepare meals, so you’ll always be eating fresher and tastier meals and won’t be bothered with meal planning, grocery shopping and cleaning.
Hopefully this brief guide helps you to better understand personal chef services. You may even decide to join the growing ranks of Atlantans who have found—and hired—their own personal chef. We’re happy to help you with any questions. Want to share your comments? Please feel free to post them here. Bon appétit!
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Deconstructed Salads: An Artful Food Experience
Trends are emerging among fine dining restaurants around the country to serve deconstructed salads (also referred to as decomposed salads). A deconstructed salad is like any other deconstructed dish; one that takes food and flavors that are normally served and eaten together, rearranges them, and serves them in a different manner. Deconstructed salads offer a fresh way to think of that sometimes overly typical array of lettuce, veggies and dressing. A deconstructed salad will oftentimes have different proportions of tastes (less lettuce, for example) and drastically changed appearance. The salad pictured below is a deconstruction of a typical summer salad, yet, it’s far from typical. Indeed, it is a work of art.
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| Deconstructed Salad |
At Atlanta Personal Chef Service, we don’t just focus on serving healthy and tasty food, but we make sure that the food looks great as well. Deconstructed salads are also a fun way to get the meal started at dinner parties, since the salads look so interesting and spark conversation. Visit our Facebook page to see more artful food presentations.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Unique and Personalized Mother’s Day Gift Idea: Atlanta Personal Chef Service Gift Certificate
Do you live in the Atlanta area and need a unique gift idea for that special mother in your life? Don’t forget that Atlanta Personal Chef Service sells printable gift certificates, perfect to show your love and appreciation for all she’s done for you.
We sell gift certificates for a three course in-home dinner for two (or for more people if you prefer), which we will email to you the same day to print out and gift wrap in time for Mother’s Day.
After you purchase your gift certificate, you can contact Atlanta Personal Chef Service to reserve the date for your special meal, and also select a menu for the evening. We have sample menus for you to choose from, or we can design a customized menu to fit your taste preferences. Then, you can just sit back and relax on the day of your dinner, since our chefs will do all the work for you. They’ll do the grocery shopping before coming to your home, arrive a few hours in advance of the meal to cook and prepare everything, set the table, serve your food (clearing the dishes between each course), and clean the kitchen before leaving. Select your favorite bottle of wine, relax, and enjoy the best food in Atlanta from the comfort of your own dining room table.
It’s an evening you’re sure to enjoy. A real Mother’s Day treat! Call us or email us to purchase your gift certificate today.
We sell gift certificates for a three course in-home dinner for two (or for more people if you prefer), which we will email to you the same day to print out and gift wrap in time for Mother’s Day.
After you purchase your gift certificate, you can contact Atlanta Personal Chef Service to reserve the date for your special meal, and also select a menu for the evening. We have sample menus for you to choose from, or we can design a customized menu to fit your taste preferences. Then, you can just sit back and relax on the day of your dinner, since our chefs will do all the work for you. They’ll do the grocery shopping before coming to your home, arrive a few hours in advance of the meal to cook and prepare everything, set the table, serve your food (clearing the dishes between each course), and clean the kitchen before leaving. Select your favorite bottle of wine, relax, and enjoy the best food in Atlanta from the comfort of your own dining room table.
It’s an evening you’re sure to enjoy. A real Mother’s Day treat! Call us or email us to purchase your gift certificate today.
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| Sample Gift Certificate |
Friday, May 4, 2012
Juicin’ – The Latest Craze
I’ve heard of so many people who’ve taken to juicing in the past few months. I’ve heard of everything from a one day “cleanse” to a 30 day juice-only diet (popularized by the movie “Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead”), from citrus juice only, to anything you can put inside a professional $300 juicer. While fruit juice isn’t bad for you, many people misunderstand the contents of popular “juices” lining the aisles and fridge cases of our common grocery stores.
Juice bottles claim all sorts of things. “Heart-Wise.” “All Natural.” “Energy Boost.” “50% Less Calories.” But the reality is that these are just over-priced, over sugared versions of the true all-natural, low sugar, heart-wise, energy boosting option: water.
Juices that claim energy boosting features use caffeine from coffee beans – so why not drink the coffee itself and cut out the rest of the sugar and calories you’re in-taking with the juice? Juices that claim low calorie or sugar content are usually watered down versions of the original juice, with an artificial sweetener added. So why not drink half a cup of sugar, and half a cup of water instead, leaving out the artificial sweeteners altogether? All Natural claims are often quite misleading. If you pick up a sparkling blackberry drink that claims it is “all natural,” would you expect to see that a majority of the juice is actually that of grape and apple, both inexpensive and not-so-nutritious?
If you’re going to drink juice, then make it count. Fresh is best. Don’t spend an arm and a leg at the grocery store on juices that are full of waters and unwanted additional sweeteners. The best juices, according to a ranking done by Nutrition Action Newsletter, are carrot, orange, tomato, and grapefruit. But even 100% natural juices contain calories and sugar, and most people don’t adjust their food intake to compensate for calories consumed in liquids. For this reason, its recommended to drink about 6 oz of fresh fruit juice per day, and avoid all those over-marketed juice claims in the grocery store.
At Atlanta Personal Chef Service, we always strive to inform our clients about healthy eating habits. Some of our clients do enjoy juicing fresh fruits and vegetables, and we encourage that, and will even assist in buying fresh, seasonal produce and preparing it by washing and cutting. However, many attempted juice diets fail because they result in a high-sugar, high-calorie intake – just the thing you want to avoid when dieting. So instead of dieting, incorporate fresh fruits and vegetables in a healthy way into your normal diet, and if you do choose to juice, do so in moderation. If you’re looking for a personal chef to help you maintain a healthy diet by preparing wholesome and nutritious meals, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Juice bottles claim all sorts of things. “Heart-Wise.” “All Natural.” “Energy Boost.” “50% Less Calories.” But the reality is that these are just over-priced, over sugared versions of the true all-natural, low sugar, heart-wise, energy boosting option: water.
Juices that claim energy boosting features use caffeine from coffee beans – so why not drink the coffee itself and cut out the rest of the sugar and calories you’re in-taking with the juice? Juices that claim low calorie or sugar content are usually watered down versions of the original juice, with an artificial sweetener added. So why not drink half a cup of sugar, and half a cup of water instead, leaving out the artificial sweeteners altogether? All Natural claims are often quite misleading. If you pick up a sparkling blackberry drink that claims it is “all natural,” would you expect to see that a majority of the juice is actually that of grape and apple, both inexpensive and not-so-nutritious?
If you’re going to drink juice, then make it count. Fresh is best. Don’t spend an arm and a leg at the grocery store on juices that are full of waters and unwanted additional sweeteners. The best juices, according to a ranking done by Nutrition Action Newsletter, are carrot, orange, tomato, and grapefruit. But even 100% natural juices contain calories and sugar, and most people don’t adjust their food intake to compensate for calories consumed in liquids. For this reason, its recommended to drink about 6 oz of fresh fruit juice per day, and avoid all those over-marketed juice claims in the grocery store.
At Atlanta Personal Chef Service, we always strive to inform our clients about healthy eating habits. Some of our clients do enjoy juicing fresh fruits and vegetables, and we encourage that, and will even assist in buying fresh, seasonal produce and preparing it by washing and cutting. However, many attempted juice diets fail because they result in a high-sugar, high-calorie intake – just the thing you want to avoid when dieting. So instead of dieting, incorporate fresh fruits and vegetables in a healthy way into your normal diet, and if you do choose to juice, do so in moderation. If you’re looking for a personal chef to help you maintain a healthy diet by preparing wholesome and nutritious meals, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
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