We've moved our blog!

Hello Food Lovers!

We are so proud to announce that we recently launched a brand new website, with a great new look and feel. With our site now being 100% mobile friendly, you'll be able to easily browse our site from any device, tablet, smartphone, or laptop. Also, with a new interface and updating tools, we'll be able to put more content available on our site, and keep up to date with all our latest menus, offerings, and specials. We've added a bunch of new photos too! 

Check out our new site here: www.AtlantaPersonalChefService.com

We also will be posting all blog posts going forward on our also brand new blog. You can catch up on the blog posts that you've missed by clicking here, and be sure to check in regularly or subscribe to not miss any future posts.

We'll leave up this blog so you can continue to reference past posts, but we'll be sharing all new posts only on the new blog.

Cheers!

-Amy & the entire Atlanta Personal Chef Service team

Taste VS experience VS art

Have you ever seen those pictures of food that looks way too good to be true and wondered if the food would taste any good?  Food photography is a big deal in the culinary world. Chefs go to extreme lengths to make sure their food looks like a fine dining restaurant commercial. However, a lot of the times the food does not taste that good. It’s like a very expensive wine. Was it worth spending 100 dollars for the wine? Probably not, but if you bought the bottle and you waited three years to drink the wine, then  it was likely worth the price. 

Food is about taste, experience and art. I put the three words in order of what matters the most. Food needs to taste good. If the food does not taste the good then the chef has failed. I've had plenty of bad looking dishes in my life that tasted fantastic and I always end up going back for more. Its like a good taco place. You are not looking for something fancy. You just want that tasty taco that you know you can get in that specific restaurant.

Experience is also a big deal. Experience is what will make a customer spend a lot of money at a expensive restaurant or catering company. Everything from the wait staff's smile to making sure that the food is hot. Going above and beyond to remember guests names is a big deal. Remembering someone's name is probably the biggest compliment you can pay someone.

Finally art. Art is what sums up the clients experience.  A good looking tasty food with a great experience will make the client go back time after time to the restaurant.

Atlanta Personal Chef Service's food combined with the experience is one of kind. One cannot go wrong in hiring our services. Our reviews speak for itself.  Want try what is like to hire a personal chef or catering company and have experience great food, experience and art? Give Atlanta Personal Chef Service a try!  

Personal Chef Life in Atlanta

The life of personal chef it’s not easy. We deal with traffic all day long going from client house to client house. We often work independently (meaning you are responsible to send menus, grocery shopping, and cooking what THE CLIENT wants). I emphasize the word client because a personal chef cooks what the client wants! A lot of chefs come into the personal chef industry thinking they will cook what they want and it does not work like that. If a chef wants to make chefy food, then this is not the industry for them. We make food for what the client wants and lot of times it’s as a simple spaghetti and meatballs meal.

 Also, this job you have to be focus. The people you cook for enjoy different dishes from each other and you have to remember that.  You also have to remember what spices each client has in their cabinet and what allergies they have. Also, you do a lot of cleaning! In the restaurant you have a dishwasher. In the personal chef industry, you are the dishwasher combined with personal chef.  You wear multiple hats every day.  A lot of the times you are nutritionist and other times you are the dishwasher.  This is not an easy job, which is why it pays better than the average industry.

There are perks on being a personal chef. Working independently can be a great thing! You have more autonomy on your everyday life.  It can be very peaceful.  You don’t have people cursing in the kitchen like in the restaurants. You get to know your families, which for me is the best perk of the job.  Some clients they go above and beyond to be such a great people. In turn, you do want to cook great food for them!  You make extra snacks or birthday cake.  The clients that I work for through Atlanta Personal Chef Service are the nicest people I’ve ever met. You do your job well and they will support you.

Atlanta personal chef service does catering events, dinner party services, and cooking lessons apart from their weekly services. So, they will keep you busy! The dinner party service is where you apply the chef skills and cook some fine dining food. This is not an easy job, but Atlanta Personal Chef Service will sure help you succeed!

We Are More Than Just a Personal Chef and Catering Company

Atlanta Personal Chef Service is more than just another catering or personal chef company in Atlanta. We will never compete on price to give a less quality product to our clients. We spend hours perfecting our skills. Our food is combination of mixing the right ingredients with art. We take each of events like we were planing the events for us.

Our dinner parties is where our skills truly shine. For every dinner party that we do, no matter the size, we will have a meeting to discuss the best approach. We see which would be the best fit for the party and come up with a plan.

For our catering events, the same thoughtful process that goes into the dinner party goes to our catering events. But, catering events tends to be less formal. They tend to be less focus around the food and more focused on the atmosphere.

For weekly clients, we spend everyday going over on how can we improve our services. If the chef we sent you is not a good fit, then we will send another. With the weekly service, we really focus on what the family wants to eat, including the kids.

For our corporate lunches, our service is very professional. Our prices are very reasonable and competitive. We are easy to work with and we still maintain our quality.

  

From a Chef’s Point of View

Like many careers in the food service industry, being a personal chef takes a combination of training, attention to detail, and technique to succeed. While there is much in common with being a restaurant chef, personal chefs face many additional challenges when it comes to private dinners and personal meals for families. As a personal chef we handle many behind the scene adjustments and organizational matters such as; menu planning, food prep, food cost, and customer relations, in addition to the quality of the food and the organization process.

Menu Planning

Even at the most basic level of planning a menu we keep a lot of things into consideration. Is the produce seasonal, if so how can we use it in a memorable way? Do the seasonal ingredients flow nicely with the rest of the menu? Once we tackle the premeditated questions of the produce/ ingredients we also have to keep in thought of clientele and type of dinner we will be cooking for. The pre-planning is a necessary measure for a successful dinner party.

Food Prep

Depending on the type of dinner/ party we need all hands on deck! Even if it’s just prepping ideas, all are welcome in this process. Communication is key to keep organized as there are a lot of courses and additions to the menu to remember. Most likely everyone on staff is accountable for the parts and pieces to bring together the entire dinner. With food prep we also keep track of the type of dishware, silverware, physical menus, place settings, and wine / specialty drinks.

Attention to detail

As a personal chef we are also in charge of décor, table arrangements and food presentation. Setting up, cooking, running and clearing the dining room all a part of the process. Creating a great first impression to our client and all of their guests is what we strive for.

Flexibility & Creativity

Recipes may need to be adjusted to cope with food allergies, and cooking methods may have to be altered to conform to religious and or dietary requirements or personal preferences. Having an imaginative and adaptable chef team allows us to achieve a well-balanced dinner party event in these situations, and instill complete confidence in our clientele.

Leadership?

As a team we all wear many hats when it comes to leadership roles within a private dinner or event. One must be accountable for the supplies, food ordering, on-site cooking at the home or event, and much more. The beauty of having a well diverse team allows others to strive and grow where their natural leadership thrives. strive and grow where their natural leadership thrives.

The Good Fat and Bad Fat Dilemma: the problem may just be too much food

 In a most recent food research study done by Martijn Katan ( Professor of Nutrition at the University of Amsterdam), suggests that saturated fat (fat found in meat, butter, and dairy) may not be as bad for your heath as you think. Of course, don’t go celebrating by eating a whole stick of butter. The whole purpose of the study was to challenge the idea that doctors have told us our whole lives to replace saturated fats with unsaturated fats, but after all the problem may not be the fat but how much we eat of it.  The problem with past studies is that they were unable to find the link between the bad fat (saturated fat) and the increase of cholesterol. Now, that both fats cause cholesterol to increase is beyond doubt. The study found that in the end the problem is not that fat itself, but how much we eat of it. Food is cheap and access to it is easy. Most of our important occasions or celebrations involve food. For many, food may even be used as a pastime. We are surrounded by food and tempted by it. That’s what is making us fat and our cholesterol high. So make the right choice and control your eating.

Here at Atlanta Personal Chef Service, we cook healthy and tasty meals. Quit going to restaurants every night. The amount of sodium that these places add to their food is in ridiculous amounts and they do that with reason. They must preserve the food and salt is the best way to do that. Here at Atlanta Personal Chef Service, our chefs go grocery shopping everyday in order to bring our clients fresh produce. We are here to help you maintain good heath without giving up on taste. Right now we serve cities around Atlanta including Marietta, Roswell, Buckhead, Dunwoody, Vinings, Brookhaven, and other cities surrounding Atlanta. We do weekly meals, dinner parties, cocktail parties, and more. So, contact us and find how we can help you eat right. Find us on Facebook.  

Atlanta Personal Chef Service warns about six common food misconceptions

   At Atlanta Personal Chef Service, cooking healthy is very important to us.  We know that it is possible to make great tasting food that is healthy too.  It's amazing the difference that fresh food with high quality ingredients can make on the taste of a dish.  Read below for some common misconceptions.  Our insider tips will help you keep it healthy when you do your own grocery shopping.

Lean meat: Meat labeled lean can be misleading. It doesn't matter if the label says lean, its the fat percentage that matters. When they advertise 80% lean meat, the fact is that its 20% fat, which is very high. 80% lean just sounds better, so that's how meat is labeled. Stick with meat that is lower in fat or ask the butcher from your local meat store to remove the fat (if possible) of whatever cut you buy.  Unless you're gunning for a nice, juicy burger, it generally stick to meat that's 90% lean or more.

If it’s organic than it must be healthy! That’s false! Organic food (or its ingredients) are grown without antibiotics, hormones, or pesticides. A cookie or ice cream brand may claim that they are organic (made with real sugar, farmed milked, and real flour), but they are still just as unhealthy as their non-organic friends. Just because its organic, it does not mean its healthier.

Its fat free and it has zero calories: Unless you are buying water, everything else has calories. Companies these days try everything to fool the customers to buy their product. A big example of this is Nestlé’s Fat Free Coffee Mate. Why are they are allowed to do that?  Because they decrease their serving size to ridiculously small amounts, such as one level tea spoon for Nestlé’s Fat Free Coffee Mate. That amount rounds down to zero, which why the FDA lets companies get away with such misleading statements.

It’s sugar free! If its sugar free and still tastes sweet, then there is probably high-fructose corn syrup present. Many food experts believe that high-fructose corn syrup or fructose in general has a strong link with America’s growing obesity. Try to minimize your sugar intake. If you can’t, than go for the real natural sugar and not processed ones.

Fruits or Vegetables in a bottle: Fruit juices that people buy in the stores are usually concentrated and filled with fructose or sugar. What about the ones that has different types fruits mixed together? Well, they are more likely using a variety of concentrated fruit juices, which are filled with fructose or sugar. What about vegetables juices? Well, they are mostly tomato, so you are not getting a variety of vegetables. Looking for fruits juices or vegetable juices? Buy them whole and blend them yourself at home.

Water with vitamins: If a company is advertising water with vitamins in it, it’s a probably telling the truth, but it comes with a calorie price (usually around 80 to 150). Also, the vitamins that are in it are C and B, which most of us get enough of in our regular diets if we're eating healthy.

      At Atlanta Personal Chef Service, we're helping families eat healthy week after week.  If you'd really like to maintain a healthy diet, you'll have to stay committed to it.  Once way that we help, is by creating customized menus for families around Atlanta, including in Buckhead, Marietta, Dunwoody, Vinings, Midtown, Decatur, and more.  Let a Personal Chef help keep you eating healthy, and still looking forward to dinners cooking right in your own home kitchen.  Contact us today for more information on our Personal Chef Services.

Why is it hard to maintain a healthy weight?

The answer to this question lies in the history of mankind. Long ago when human being used to live in caves, it was essential for them to eat as much they could, so they could store energy (fat) in order to survive. They never knew when or what their next meal would be. They had to spend a lot of time hunting (exercising) and going after their next meal. So, to eat a lot and get fat was a survival tactic, especially during the winter months when food was scarce. Also, most of what our ancestors ate was a diet based of protein (meat and nuts), vegetables, seeds, and fruits. A much better diet than what most people usually have today. 

Once humans learned about agriculture, they spent less time running or working for their food. Still, agriculture was a very hard job. Today, most of our jobs are not physically demanded and food is everywhere with easy access. We no longer need store energy during the winter months in order to survive, but still our biology has not changed since the Stone Age. Our bodies still wants to store fat because it was made that way to survive, but we don’t spend enough energy anymore running after food (exercising) in order to keep a stable balance diet. People that live in big cities such as,  Atlanta and the cities surrounding, such as Marietta, Kennesaw, Dunwoody, Buckhead, Vinings, Brookhaven, Decatur and Alpharetta, they are always in a hurry eating fast food or big proportion restaurant meals. With easy access to food and less exercise we are bound to increase our weight.  

So, what should we do then? Essentially, we should try to live like our ancestors did. Eat a balance diet and exercise. Our bodies were made for survival. It wants to store fat and that is normal. It is part of our nature. We just need to make sure we put in our exercise as well. To maintain a healthy weight it is not rocket science, it is a change of habit. This habit should not be hard to change because we did it throughout most of our existence, only in the past one-hundred-fifty years that it has changed. Atlanta Personal Chef Service is also here to help. We provide healthy delicious meals to our clients in the right proportions. We can’t do the exercise for you, but we sure can help you in the eating healthy part. Give us a try and we will prove to you how delicious meals can be healthy and desirable.  

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.