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.