The sacred time of eating a meal

There is something about human nature that we love eating and being around people. We love the company of friendships and family, especially around food. In the past, some called it breaking bread together. Eating a nice meal with people its often a synonym with comfort, laughter and good times. However, in our modern times, this practice seems to be fading away little by little.

Work these day demands a lot from people and we can' help our selves but to rush through this sacred time. We are always stressed about meeting the next deadline at work and planning the next vacation that eating becomes just another box in a big check list. We are too busy doing life, instead of living it. Very rare you see people praying before they eat, even less so taking their time.

I want to challenge you today to have a nice meal with your family, friend, or co-worker. Take your time savoring your food and be thankful for what God provided you. If you are eating alone, call a friend or a family member that you haven't talked with for while and let them know you were thinking of them. Then, put you phone away and observe your surroundings. This is not meant to be easy, but rather an exercise to improve your life. Once you do this often, maybe you will see the benefits and never again rushing through a meal.

He at Atlanta Personal Chef Service we want to help you cherish your meals and celebrate your good times. We have many services that can help with that such as our catering branch, dinner party services,in home weekly service, and cooking lessons.

Let us know how we can help you or your family to get back to cherishing again the sacred time of eating a meal together.

Working as a Personal Chef vs In a Restaurant

Working in a restaurant versus as a personal chef in a home can be very different in some ways. In both restaurants and in homes, we always, without a doubt make food taste delicious. There’s a huge difference, however, in how that happens. When working in a restaurant, you want the guests to continue to come back, so for instance, the mashed potatoes will be loaded with gallons of heavy cream. It may not be good for you, but in reality, it tastes really good. If a guest doesn’t finish their meal, and decides to take it home, you don’t have to worry about giving reheating instructions, unless they ask for them. Fine dining can get very hectic on an everyday basis, so sometime cooks may not put the amount of love into preparing a meal like a private or personal chef would.

When a personal chef is working in a client’s home, the food also will always taste great, however, we won’t load heavy cream in our potatoes or use a ton of oil to sear a chicken breast. We always have to be mindful of what and how much of an ingredient is going into our client’s food, especially if there are any health restrictions. Leaving proper and complete reheating instructions are very important too. Some people really do need instructions on how to use their oven. Also if a filet mignon is reheated too long, you have one component of a great meal gone to waste. We are great cooks and we know how to make food very tasteful without all of the extra fat. Using the freshest ingredients, we can make that happen.

One of the similarities of working in a private home versus a restaurant is that you have to clean up. The same way that you would wipe down the line in an industrial kitchen or wipe the handles of your walk-in, we clean the handles of the refrigerator and make sure to clean the island and any other surfaces that are dirty. We may be working in slightly different settings, but we always have to make sure that your kitchen is clean and tidy when we’re finished cooking.

In a lot of ways, skills acquired in restaurants are carried over to the world of being a personal chef, but there are many things that personal chefs need to change to be successful. Since we’re providing so many meals, they need to taste great without all the extra fatty ingredients, so we rely more on fresh herbs and spices for great flavor without all the fat.

This post was written by Atlanta Personal Chef Service’s Georgena Mason. Below, you’ll see some of the dishes she’s recently cooked for families around Atlanta. To find out more about our services, please visit our website at www.AtlantaPersonalChefService.com.



Atlanta Personal Chef Service - Basic Service Family Style Meal

Atlanta Personal Chef Service - Basic Service Family Style Meal

Atlanta Personal Chef Service - Basic Service Family Style Meal

Dinner Party Season Is Here!

Holiday season is upon us and Atlanta Personal Chef Service is ready for it. Being one of busiest season for dinner parties, Atlanta Personal Chef Service has come up with a great fall menu.  The Holidays is a great season to show loved ones gratitude and spend time with them. Why go to a restaurant, when you can have a better dinner party experience from the privacy of your home. Enjoy fine-dining, relax and let us entertain your friends and family from the comfort of your own dining table. We will cook, serve, clean and much more. Our chefs have all graduated from great culinary school and all of them have fine dining experience. So, if you live in Buckhead, Dunwoody, Atlanta, Decatur, Marietta, Sandy Springs, Vinings, and other cities surrounding the Atlanta area, then contact us. 

Fall Dinner Party Menu Options

Soup or Starter (choose one)

Roasted Root Vegetable soup garnished with Nutmeg Creme Fraiche and Rosemary Brioche croutons

Wild Mushroom Soup drizzled with Truffle Oil served with Parmesan Spinach Flan

Shrimp Bisque garnished with sautéed Shrimp and Cilantro Oil

Caramelized Onion and Cana de Cabra Cheese Tartlet with lemon infused Arugula and Balsamic glaze

Steamed Mussels with White Wine garnished with fresh Herbs and Tomato served with French baguette

Seared Scallop with Carrot Ginger puree and Tarragon sauce garnished with fried Leeks

Salad (choose one)

Candy Beet salad with pickled Onions garnished with Honey Pecan Goat cheese tossed in White Balsamic

Red Wined Poached Pear tossed with Mixed Greens garnished with Stilton Blue cheese and a Raisin crouton

Spinach Warm Brie salad with Apples and Walnuts tossed in Champagne Vinaigrette garnished with a Buttered Crostini

Entrée (choose one)

Roasted Cornish Hen with Cherry Demi sauce over Roasted Root Vegetable and Farro medley with braised Brussels Sprouts

Herb Crusted Lamb Chops with Cabernet Sauce over herbed Parmesan roasted Potatoes and Tomato Provencale

Seared Beef Tenderloin with Mushroom Demi sauce over smoked Corn Polenta and roasted Asparagus

Dessert (choose one)

 Chocolate Lava Cake with Assorted Berries and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pot de Creme with Vanilla Biscotti and Chantilly Cream

Mini Apple Pie served with Caramel sauce and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Strawberry Shortcake served with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Creme Anglaise

The Truth About Multivitamins

Recently articles from the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune warned its readers about taking multivitamins pills. Those articles were based on the trend of people who take their vitamins as a substitute to fruits and vegetables. Some people even believe that taking those vitamins might prevent them from getting a heart attack, cancer, and other diseases. “In the Physicians’ Health Study II, we found no evidence overall that taking a multivitamin for more than a decade prevented heart attacks or strokes or any more than taking a placebo, but it didn’t increase risk, either,” says Howard Sesso, a Harvard epidemiologist who conducted the study.

The problems is that the majority of people who take multivitamins believe they don’t need to eat as many vegetables or fruits, since they are consuming their vitamins through supplements. Also, they believe that the supplements will prevent diseases. These people are obviously wrong. Its common sense that eating healthy, balanced meals with fruits and vegetables and exercising is the best way to be healthy, but people are lazy and always trying to find that magic pill so they don’t need to worry about their heath. It does not exist. There’s plenty of research that has already been proved that eating healthy and exercising is the best way to prevent diseases. There are many health components in fruits and vegetables (many that we still don’t know about it) that a multivitamin pill does not have.  The fact is that taking a multivitamin pill can be good, only if taken as supplement to a healthy diet and not as a substitute for one. Unfortunately for many lazy people out there, eating healthy and exercising is still the best way to be healthy and no amount of supplements can substitute that, at least for now.

At Atlanta Personal Chef Service, we know the value of eating healthy, well-rounded meals, and we help families make this a part of their regular routine.  Clients have told us that they feel better and more energized after eating our meals.  Most people are fully capable of eating healthy, but they don’t have the time or energy to devote to shopping, cooking, and cleaning.  We love cooking for families and share a sense of enthusiasm about helping families eat healthy, wholesome, great tasting foods.  For more information about our weekly dinner service, visit our web page here.  We serve families in Buckhead, Vinings, Midtown, Marietta, Dunwoody, Decatur, and more.

Grocery Shopping with Atlanta Personal Chef Service

Have you seen Atlanta Personal Chef Service's team of chefs shopping in your local Publix and Whole Food's stores?  We do most of our shopping in the early afternoon hours, so that dinner is ready when you come home from work.  But we also shop over the weekends to get the freshest ingredients for our dinner parties around Atlanta.

Take a look at the photo's below as we follow one of our Personal Chefs, Kym, who joined the Atlanta Personal Chef Service team in early January.  Kym cooks dinner three nights a week for a family of four in Buckhead.  With two working parents, and two school-aged children, there's just not enough hours in the day to prepare healthy, home-cooked meals as well.  But you don't have to give up that family time of dinner each night.  For many families, its the routine of enjoying a meal together every night that binds the family together across everyone's busy schedules.  Our service allows busy families to return to the dinner table, and create a lifestyle of eating together, and eating healthy, tasty meals.

If you'd like to find out more about Atlanta Personal Chef Service, please visit our website here.  Take a sneak peak into one of Kym's latest shopping trips.  Menus are customized for each family at the beginning of each week, and chef's bring the menus to guide their shopping each day.  Of course, we also always select the freshest ingredients, so you'll always see seasonal items on the menus.  Here, Chef Kym is shopping in Publix, but we also shop at Whole Foods, Harry's, and some specialty stores on occasion.

Executive Chef Patricia to judge local Culinary Competition

Atlanta Personal Chef Service's Executive Chef Patricia Homma will spend next weekend juding the 2013 Georgia Culinary and ProStart Management State Championships at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school.  This one day competition is a chance for aspiring young chefs to compete for the chance to move on to the National ProStart International competition in April in Maryland.  The competition is judged by some of Atlanta's top chefs, including Master Chefs, Executive Chefs, and restaurant executives.  Winning young chefs will receive thousands in culinary scholarships.

Chef Patricia started Atlanta Personal Chef Service after working in some of the fine dining restaurants of Atlanta.  Having received a culinary scholarship herself from winning the "Best Teen Chef in America" competition, the chance to give back to the community in this sense is extremely meaningful.  Patricia was the first-ever female winner of the national competition, which she won in 2003, which earned her a full scholarship to the Art Institute of Atlanta.

Interested in having Chef Patricia or one of Atlanta Personal Chef Service's team of chefs cook for you in your home?  We cook family dinners during the work week, and also serve up fancy, multi-course dinner parties to make that special occassion really memorable.  Contact us here for more information on our personal chef service.

What's cooking at Atlanta Personal Chef Service?

This week will be another busy week for Atlanta Personal Chef Service!  Among many of the fine dishes that our personal chefs will be cooking this week for our clients are these two-course meals:

 Baked Brie with Orange Marmalade

Seared Seabass with Edamame, Succotash, and Butternut Squash Puree

 

Veggy Slaw with Lemon Vinaigrette

Grilled Pork Loin with Chimichurri Sauce, Potato Hash and sauteed Yellow Squash

 

Grilled Corn Salad

BBQ grilled Salmon with Sweet Potato Puree and Roasted Asparragus

 

Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese 

Cilantro-Lime Marinated Flank steak with Brown rice and Caramalized "Burned" Broccoli

 

Caesar Salad with fresh Croutons

Homemade Turkey Meatballs with Tomato Sauce, Linguini Pasta and sauteed Snow Peas

 

Each family has one chef paired to cook their dinners during the work week.  Personal Chefs go grocery shopping each day, arriving to our clients homes with the freshest produce, seafood, and ingredients available.  With a chef in your home, that means no menu planning, shopping, cooking, or clean up!  Just time with the family at the dinner table, and the enjoyment of home-cooked food.  Oh, and of course a kitchen filled with the aroma of home cooking.  For more information about our services, click here.



Hire a Personal Chef to bring your Family Back to the Dinner Table

The summer months are just about over, that is if you have school aged children. The kids are getting ready to go back to school and that means even busier schedules, more transporting the kids around, and typically a heavier workload in the office. How do families these days find time to enjoy healthy meals together at the dinner table? Personal Chefs.

More and more families are depending on personal chefs to provide healthy, family meals one to seven nights of the week. With a personal chef, you don't need to worry about planning menus, going grocery shopping, following recipes, or cleaning your kitchen. All you need to do is show up, and enjoy the food, which is cooked in your own home.

There are a few different types of personal chef services, most notably the "fresh cooking" and the "freeze-and-go" styles. Atlanta Personal Chef Service cooks fresh, visiting clients homes every day the family plans to eat at home together. They start the day picking the freshest ingredients and then cook the food to be enjoyed that evening. "Freeze-and-go" personal chefs will visit a clients home less frequently, and one day may make up to five different entrees, which they will freeze for their clients later consumption. While this is typically the cheaper option, unfortunately the food isn't as tasty nor can it deliver the nutritional quality of fresh meals.

If you're worried that your family will be strapped for time this fall, and you're looking for a practical solution to bring your family together for home-cooked dinner every night, look no further than Atlanta Personal Chef Service. We have a team of professional personal chefs, who each hold a degree in the culinary arts and years of cooking experience, who can help bring your families back to the dinner table. Please contact us if you have any questions!