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.



Executive Business Dinners - The New Way of Business Entertaining

Atlanta Personal Chef Service preparing Seared Scallop Appetizer

A new spin has emerged in the realm of business entertaining--invite guests into your home for a personalized meal. A dinner hosted in your home is a sincere way to show your hospitality, and exudes confidence as well.

“But I’m not a great cook--and I don’t really want to cook either.”

That’s where companies like female-owned Atlanta Personal Chef Service fill the gap. They specialize in business dinner parties, and allow the business to take place over a menu of sophisticated food served with perfect timing to create an environment suitable for the dinner’s agenda.

The chef team may have drafted a sous-chef, serving help, or even a professional sommelier. The sommelier, which only some folks opt to have, can present and explain wines as they are paired with courses. A server ensures that all glasses are filled, plates are cleared, and warm food is served without anyone needing to leave the table. Its just like a fine dining restaurant, except you don’t need to worry about spotty service.

Personal assistants and event planners are turning more and more to personal chefs to provide a unique and personal touch on business entertaining. Even the fanciest of restaurants can be

loud, crowded, and lacking in privacy for any confidential business discussions that may need to take place. Personal chefs can provide more a personal touch to an event, with customized coursed menus and the wonderful aroma of the food cooking the home kitchen. With groups with fine tastes in liquors, a personal chef can even be a cheaper option, as the beverage mark up in a restaurant can be outlandish.

“We will recommend wine pairings, but our clients purchase their own alcohol. Most clients prefer this, since they don’t have to pay restaurant prices, yet still have their drinks served to them,” Chef Patricia of Atlanta Personal Chef Service explains.

Atlanta Personal Chef Service makes hosting a dinner party easy. They will suggest menu options, that you can then customize or tweak to your preferences. The chef will come to view your kitchen prior to the event, to make sure to bring any missing equipment that will be needed. On the day of the event, the chef will do all the grocery shopping and arrive about 3-4 hours before the scheduled dinner time. You’ll be served an appetizer or hors d’oeuvres while your guests arrive and mingle, followed by a salad, entree, and dessert.

“The best part of serving a meal is hearing the guests reactions. Just last weekend, I heard a client say, ‘Now I’ve had plenty of great halibut in my day, but this is by far the tastiest.’ When you hear comments like that, it motivates you to keep cooking bold food with high-quality ingredients,” Patricia recalls.

If you are searching for a class way to receive important guests in your home, consider hiring a personal chef team. Contact us today to learn more about how it works.

Atlanta Personal Chef Service Welcomes Chef Mayhayla to the Team!

We are excited to introduce our newest Chef, Mayhayla, to the team.  She’s been cooking in Atlanta for over 9 years, and now she’s joining our team as a personal chef, cooking dinners during the work-week for our clients around the city.  Read more about Mayhayla below: 

From a young age, Mayhayla had a passion for cooking. Growing up, she would often cook dinner for her family and test out new recipes on them. She knew she wanted to be a chef from childhood.

Mayhayla graduated in 2005 from the Art Institute of Atlanta with an Associate degree in the culinary arts. The Associate Degree program covers skills such as knife handling, food safety and sanitation, international cuisines, nutrition, and food industry management. While receiving basic overall culinary training and cooking techniques, Mayhayla completed her degree with a focus in Nutrition.

Mayhayla launched her culinary career at the Westin Atlanta Hotel full-service restaurant Palio. While there, she gained experience in sautéing, grilling, pastries, and banquet parties. She later left the kitchen to become a shift manager in the front of the house. She loved the customer service side of the business and was good at it too.

In 2009, Mayhayla become the general manager at Boneheads in the Peachtree Battle Shopping Center, where she worked with ordering and receiving product, profit and loss, marketing, and advertising. Mayhayla’s responsibilities included overseeing the chefs and training new chefs as they joined the team.

With Mayhayla’s passion for food, culinary knowledge, chef experience, and food industry management experience, she has the unique set of skills it takes to be a great personal chef. She loves to prepare fresh salads with homemade dressings, grilling of any kind, and preparing wild game.

In her free time she loves gardening, canning, pickling and reading.

Read more about our team at Atlanta Personal Chef Service 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!

A Unique Surprise Gift Idea

Here's a great idea for a surprise birthday, anniversary, holiday, or "just because I love you" gift.  Hire a personal chef to cook a romantic dinner-for-two in your own home.  Both men and women always struggle to come up with meaningful, yet out-of-the-ordinary, personalized gift for that special someone.  Here's why a dinner-for-two for in your home makes such a great gift:

• Personalization: All of our menus are customizeable, so you can special order his/her favorite dish, even as silly as it may be. Want to please a mac-n-cheese lover? Let us cook our homemade version, with high quality cheeses and other ingredients, served hot right out of the oven. Whatever the preference, we can handle it.

• Authenticity: While planning a dinner with us is easy, its not as easy as picking up a gift card from a department store. We'll need to talk details (at least enough to plan the menu and schedule the event itself). This shows your special someone you're willing to put in time and effort for them to create a truly special gift.

• Food Warms the Heart: Sharing meals is a timeless tradition, which also builds intimacy and relationship. Sharing a meal is a great way to connect with another person, and is always reserved for those who are deemed an important and esteemed companion.

 

• Homemade Touch: Our service includes special table decorations to make your dining table look beautiful and dressed-up for the special event. We'll also print your customized menu, and put a unique name for the event on the top of the menu. It can be as creative as you wish, or as simple and honest as "Because I love you, ____" (fill in the name of that special someone). Personalized gifts don't come much better than this. 

Hiring a personal chef to cook dinner in your home is also a unique idea for an engagement proposal. You can coordinate with your chef the timing of the meal, the delivery of the ring (should you want it delivered in a creative way), or any other aspect of the evening. Plus, you won't have to deal with the crowds, lines, or curious on-lookers once you pop the big question.

 

Any questions about our personal chef service? Please, contact us today! Also, keep in mind that if you'd like to leave the menu planning up to that special someone, you can also purchase an Atlanta Personal Chef Service gift certificate, and let him or her have a say in the final details.

 

 

 

Açaí--is it worth the hype?

If you haven’t heard of açaí (pronounced ah-sigh-EE), the superfood which comes from the açaí palm, a tree native to the Amazonian rainforest, you certainly haven’t been keeping up on the latest trends in food. This deeply rich purple colored, grape-like fruit is high in antioxidants, vitamin C, and boasts many super power properties such as helping weight loss, arthritis, cancer, cholesterol levels, fight aging, and cardiovascular and digestive health.

Açaí is also rich in fiber, amino acids, and healthy fats, and chocked full of nutrients following the rule of other deeply colored fruits and vegetables--the richer the color, the more nutrients inside (think kale and blueberries, for example) The berry is also touted for its energy boosting abilities, making it a great pick-me-up snack for mid-afternoon.

Acai na Tigela served with banana, granola, honey, and of course, two spoons!

On my recent travels through Brazil, açaí was nearly everywhere, most commonly in a sorbet-like manner served “na tigela” (in a bowl) with sliced banana and granola, or as a juice. A picture of a typical “açaí na tigela” is to the right. What a delicious and tasty snack! I rarely saw a day go by on vacation without a sweet indulgence of açaí.

Like many other tasty fresh fruits, açaí is high in sugar, and for this reason should be consumed within moderation. This is a general rule of thumb that Atlanta Personal Chef Service advises their clients--enjoy all foods but in moderation. Açaí can certainly be incorporated into a healthy diet, but don’t be fooled for a minute thinking its going to add 10 years to your life or make your wrinkles disappear.

If you want to purchase açaí in Atlanta, it is becoming readily available in juice form in most large grocery stores. The juice is typically blended with other fruit juices, but also available as just açaí for a little bit more. You can also find the frozen pulp (which is great for mixing into smoothies) or taste the typical “açaí na tigela” pictured here in Brazilian grocery stores or eateries in the Marietta area.

If you ask me, “Yes, its worth the hype!” I you haven’t tried açaí yet, treat yourself one day.

How and Where to Buy Fresh Fish in Atlanta

As personal chefs here in Atlanta, we’re cooking fish on a weekly basis--if not more frequently. Its uber-important that we serve fresh and tasty fish to our clients. If you’re going to pay more for fish, make sure you get a great tasting fish by following these simple tips for purchasing fish.

First, only buy fish from a store that sells a high-volume of fish, thus helping to ensure that no fish stays on their shelves longer than a day or two maximum. When you approach the fish counter, it should, in no instance, smell like a briny waterfront. We recommend purchasing fish at Whole Foods, which has various locations around Atlanta. There are plenty of other suitable stores in the area as well, just make sure they are receiving fresh shipments daily.

When selecting the actual fish, it too should have no discernible fishy odor. Second, take a look at the eyes. If the eyes are cloudy looking, the fish has been sitting too long and should not be purchased. Make sure the skin of the fish looks bright and shiny--it should look a bit metallic. If the skin has lost its luster, don’t purchase it. Lastly, look for red gills, and move away from any fish with dark red or reddish brown gills, which indicates an old fish.

When selecting a fillet the fish should be moist, with a watery coating, but nothing that looks white or milky. This is a signal to steer clear. Also, touch the fillet to test for firmness and resilience. Your fingerprint should disappear on a good fillet. Of course, your fillet shouldn’t smell weird or fishy either.

Atlanta Personal Chef Service cooks fish frequently for both weekday meals and for dinner parties. Since we have a working relationship with the area Whole Foods, we always order our seafood in advance to ensure fresh fish, and enough of it. We special order the best cuts of the fish for fillets, so our servings are uniform, will cook evenly, and will look beautiful on the plate. You can easily pay well over $20 per pound for fresh fish, so make sure you know how to pick what will be the tastiest and freshest option. Fish is so versatile and so tasty, we hope this article provides you with the guidance you need to enjoy that fresh fish fillet!
Pictured below is seared halibut in a beurre blanc sauce served over homemade ravioli, which was served at a recent dinner party. For more information on our dinner party or weekly meal services, click here.

Seared Halibut served over Haricot Verts and Shrimp Ravioli