Atlanta’s Valentine’s Day Chefs

Not sure about what to get that special someone for Valentine’s Day? How about the unique and memorable gift of choosing Atlanta Personal Chef Service to cook for you and your special someone right in the comfort of your own home? Avoid the hassle of reservations, waiting for a table, traffic, and limited menus, and have the professional come to you! If you book a chef for Valentine’s Day, we’ll work with you to design the perfect menu for your tastes. And if you need some inspiration, we’ll offer some menu suggestions. Our Valentine’s Day packages include a four-course meal (soup, salad, entrée, and dessert). Pick out your favorite wine or champagne for the special occasion, and your chef will pour it for you at the table. We’ll take care of everything related to dinner – the shopping, the cooking, the serving, and the cleaning – so you can focus on enjoying a memorable evening with your special someone. Special Valentine’s Day rates apply, so please call Atlanta Personal Chef Service for pricing.

Already have plans for the big day, but still looking for a perfect gift? We sell gift certificates too! Call us today to surprise that special someone with a give they are sure to love!

An Afternoon with Atlanta Personal Chef Service’s Chef Patricia

The typical work day for a personal chef is varied, but all aspects of it are centered on providing tasty and healthy food. While morning time is usually a bit more relaxed, Patricia usually spends a few hours each morning researching new recipes in her personal library of cookbooks and online. When she finds ones that might interest her clients, she’ll look for ways to enhance the recipe so that it’s personalized to their tastes and preferences. Also, for most clients, Friday is their dessert day. Since Atlanta Personal Chefs will only repeat recipes if they are absolute favorites, Patricia works on finding unique and memorable desserts to make the end of each work week special. By mid-week, Patricia is usually nearing the completion of next week’s menu creation for her clients.

With her client’s menu already established for the day, Patricia is ready to make the first stop of the day: the grocery store. Today, she’ll be cooking butternut squash soup followed by herb-crusted lamb chops. She puts on her chef jacket and heads out.

Each day for an Atlanta Personal Chef starts with a trip to the grocery store for the freshest ingredients possible. Today, Patricia is headed to Publix to pick up her ingredients. Her shopping list is as follows:

• Lamb Chops, Sweet potatoes, Parsnips, Asparagus, Garlic, Onion, Butternut squash, Carrots, Cream

She ordered the lamb chops in advance to ensure that they will be fresh and available today, since it’s the featured dish on the menu. Once she’s picked up all her ingredients, Patricia goes to see Terrence, who works at the checkout in Publix. After he rings up the food, Patricia is off to her client’s condo in Buckhead to cook dinner.

When she arrives, everything is already neat and clean. She cooked for them yesterday, as she does every day, and she left the kitchen clean when she left. She carefully prepares the workplace she’ll use to prepare today’s meal, and gets started right away on preparing the soup. She prepares that first, since it will be served as an appetizer. Once the soup is on the stove and cooking, Patricia starts preparing the main course. She takes a break from the cooking to set the table where they’ll be eating. She puts out napkins and wine glasses as well, since they like to enjoy a small glass of wine with their meals.

By 6:30, her clients are sitting at their dining room table (already set by Patricia), waiting to eat one of their favorite meals. Patricia starts off by serving them the soup. While they enjoy their first course, Patricia returns to the kitchen to finish preparing the lamb chops.

Patricia returns to clear their soup bowls once they’ve finished. Since she cooks for her clients on a daily basis, they really view her as part of the family. In between serving the courses, they fill her in on the day’s happenings, and catch up on what’s going on with her. With the first course cleared, Patricia brings out the lamb chops.

While her clients are eating, Patricia is cleaning up all the dishes used in the food preparation, the stove top surfaces, and the sink. By the time they finish their food, she’s nearly finished cleaning already. She puts the final plates in the dishwasher, turns it on, and grabs the trash on her way out. If there is any unfinished food, she’ll place it in Tupperware. The kitchen is now spotless and is ready for her to return tomorrow.

What’s on the menu for tomorrow? Seared salmon with orange caper salsa served with citrus quinoa.

Quinoa – The Cherished Incan Superfood

You’ve probably heard of quinoa by now.  But what exactly is it, and what makes it so great?  Quinoa was once revered by the Incans living in the Andes Mountains.  This grain (in fact, it is really a seed) contains all eight life-sustaining amino acids, including lysine, which is lacking in many other grain crops.  Quinoa also delivers a great source of protein.  In one cup of cooked quinoa, you will find 8 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber.  All for about 220-calories.  Quinoa is also low on the glycemic index, a 35 compared to brown rice’s 50 and whole wheat pasta’s 40.  This means that your body will increase its blood sugar levels slower when eating quinoa, making you feel fuller, longer.  

Quinoa is cooked similar to rice, and its faint nutty flavor can be boosted by cooking it with some olive oil, or adding some vegetables or chopped nuts to the dish.  It’s a great choice for both vegetarians (with all its extra protein) and for those on a gluten-free diet (since it contains no gluten or wheat).  Next time you’re thinking about making rice, swap in quinoa instead, for a healthier choice.

At Atlanta Personal Chef Service, we often include quinoa in our menus. Our clients love it, and we know you will too! Check out our sample menus here.

Choosing the Best Pasta Sauce

Pasta with red sauce is a staple meal in so many households.  It’s easy to make, it fills you up, and everyone loves it.  But for those that don’t have the time or know-how to make their own pasta sauces, the aisle in the grocery store offers too many options, each calling out their own claim: “Heart Smart,” “Low-Sodium,” “Extra-Virgin Olive Oil,” “No Sugar Added,” “Two servings of Veggies” and more.  So with each bottle crying out for you to purchase it, which one is really the healthiest?

First things first, you should always read the nutrition facts, and most importantly, note the serving size indicated.  A typical serving of red sauce is listed at ½ cup, while a serving of white sauce is only ¼ cup, and a serving of pesto can be seen as low as 2 tablespoons.  That’s barely enough to moisten a small serving of pasta.

When considering sauces, you should always note the sodium content.  Since an increase in salt will raise your blood pressure, you should stick with sauces that have 300mg or less of sodium.  Also, keep an eye on the saturated fat content in pink and white sauces.   Some cream sauces can contain up to 26 grams of saturated fat (over a day’s worth) and are best to be avoided all together.

Don’t worry about claims regarding veggie content, or extra-virgin olive oil.  Everyone knows that red sauce is made out of tomatoes, so eating the ½ cup of sauce fulfills the two servings of veggies alone.  While some sauce brands do add in carrot juice, or other concentrates, it’s best not to rely on sauces to provide your daily intake of vegetables.  And there’s so little olive oil in tomato sauce that neither your taste buds nor your body will know the difference.  Same holds try for “no sugar added” claims.  When sugar is added, it’s usually less than 4 grams (about one teaspoon).  It’s a much better idea to keep your eye on the salt content than worry about small amounts of added sugar.

Atlanta Personal Chefs make our sauces fresh. That’s the only way to ensure that you’re going to get a great tasting, low-sodium, healthy pasta sauce. While some store brands are tasty (try Dell’Amore) they can run upwards of $8-$10 per bottle. For that price, why not make your own sauce?


Check out some of our sample menus here.

Up the Veggies and Lower the Calories – Purée!

Seared Scallops over Sweet Potato and Parsnip Puree 

Looking for an easy way to skim some extra calories from the food your family loves?  Add puréed vegetables in place of other ingredients to up your veggie intake while reducing total calories.  This trick is helpful for moms with picky kids or even wives with picky husbands.  But you must puree completely, or you’ll be left with tiny chunks of vegetables that picky eaters can detect.  Carrots, spinach, cauliflower, yams, squash, beans, peas, parsnips, and more; they all easily lend themselves to puréeing.  Try it in mac-n-cheese, lasagna, casseroles, pancakes, cookies and more.  According to a study done at Pennsylvania State University, people will consume the same amount of food whether or not it contains puréed vegetables, and report feeling just as full and satisfied.  So why not give it a try?  You can easily load in up to four times the normal amount of veggies, and see if anyone even notices a difference.  

Atlanta Personal Chef Service is Giving Back

Atlanta Personal Chef Service has decided to support the Atlanta Mission.  The Atlanta Mission, an organization that feeds over 950 of Atlanta’s men, women, and children each day, also provides essential services for the less-fortunate to get back on their feet.  Food is one of our essential needs.  We need it day in and day out, and it is a cause of stress when we don’t know where our next meal is coming from.  For that reason, we’ve decided to make sure that we’re supporting the Mission, a non-profit dedicated to doing just that.  If you’re thinking of having some friends over for dinner, I’ll give you one more reason to do so: For each guest that attends, we’ll donate a meal to the Mission.  Do you already use our services on a daily basis?  We also make regular donations to support the mission and ensure that meals are being served to all those in Atlanta, even the less fortunate.