There is an uneasy compromise occurring daily in so many American households today.
So many of us are stretched incredibly thin as we work demanding jobs, try to squeeze in our exercise routines, cultivate meaningful relationships, keep up with domestic duties, shuttle our kids to sports and after-school activities, and a multitude of other demands which seem to come our way each day. At the same time, most of us are coming to understand the need to consume healthy, nourishing, home-cooked meals using whole foods and natural ingredients.
The challenge is that we often cannot find the time or energy for this activity at the end of a busy day. Even before we set foot in the kitchen to prepare these wholesome meals, we will have spent time to plan the meals out, research, and shop for the proper, healthy foods for a given recipe. Then there comes the time and care it takes to prepare the meals properly, and of course all of the post-meal cleanup work that goes with this.
As a result, busy professionals, entrepreneurs, and working parents frequently feel that they need to opt for unhealthy convenience foods to put dinner on the table each night. We may sense on some level that in the process we are compromising our health, and the health of our loved ones. Yet somehow we accept this as a trade-off, to get through the day, power through our to-do lists, and at least maintain our basic caloric needs.
This compromise is understandable, considering all the time and energy that often goes into preparing clean, fresh, and nourishing home-cooked meals.
Frequently, we find ourselves short on the resources needed for this process, and thus resort to take-out or pre-packaged, store-bought meals and meal delivery services. While such options may better fit our schedule, these choices are not the best suited to meet our nutritional needs, and are often lacking in variety, flavor, and nutrient-density. Further, these packaged, convenience foods also contribute to ecological waste, with the plastic containers ending up in landfills, or in our oceans and waterways.
As we continue these hectic daily routines week after week, month after month, we may begin to notice nagging health issues arise or feel our energy levels dipping throughout the day. We might even begin to feel a sense of overwhelm, and be left wondering if there is a better way to both maintain our busy lives and nourish ourselves and our families.
The good news is that there is a solution. Enter the role of the personal or private chef.
A personal or private chef works for families or individuals to plan and professionally prepare nourishing, home-cooked meals, personalized to their clients’ unique needs and preferences. Personal chefs typically visit their clients’ homes once each week, where they prepare health-promoting, whole-food-based, meals that can be stored, reheated, and enjoyed throughout the week or as desired. Personal chefs will commonly work with multiple clients.
Private chefs perform essentially the same work as personal chefs, but these professionals typically work for a single household on a daily basis to prepare the meals for clients with more intensive, or more frequent, culinary needs.
Personal or private chefs who receive professional training through the Natural Chef program at Bauman College are well-trained in health-promoting foods and the culinary arts, and are taught to spend time to fully understand the unique dietary needs and preferences of their clients, as well as their budgetary considerations.
A professional personal chef aims to go the extra mile, preparing the optimal menu plan for their customers, which include fresh, nutritious ingredients while excluding processed foods, refined sugars and carbohydrates, and harmful additives. Over time, these chefs become highly skilled at understanding their clients’ unique palates, brand preferences, grocery budgets, and more, catering directly to the specific needs of each family or individual.
Bauman College trained personal and private chefs are also incredibly useful when it comes to preparing meals for those with special dietary needs, such as for clients with autoimmune diseases, food allergies, Type II diabetes, gluten sensitivity, cancer, and many other unique dietary considerations.
In an age where we are facing near-epidemic levels of highly-preventable chronic diseases, and as people are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of proper nutrition and of consuming a whole-foods diet, the market for personal and private chef services continues to grow rapidly. This widespread understanding of the need to maintain our physical health, combined with the psychological stress many of experience today, trying to “fit it all in,” are both contributing factors to the soaring demand for these vital careers in 2020 and beyond.
This sounds good, but can I afford to hire a personal chef?
Once considered a luxury that only the wealthy could afford, personal chefs’ clients are often delightfully surprised to learn how affordable this professional service can be, highly manageable within their monthly food budget.
Compared to the rising costs of take-out and meal-delivery services, the marginally higher cost of employing a personal chef could be considered a great value, especially when considering the higher quality meal ingredients. Alternatively, compared to all of the time and energy that consumers would need to spend on these activities if they did it all on their own, depending on how much one values one’s time, hiring a personal chef could be seen as delivering extreme value for the high level of service that is received.
People who begin using personal or private chefs are thrilled that they no longer need to sacrifice their health, or the health of their loved ones, due to time or budgetary limitations. In fact, after a short amount of time, clients typically start to experience the array of benefits from hiring a personal or private chef: improved health, more free time, increased energy, peace of mind…and more!
To learn more about becoming a personal chef, and to hear from personal chefs who are doing this as a career, please click the link: What is a Personal Chef?
For over 30 years now, Bauman College has been renown as a leading educational institution offering training in holistic nutrition and the culinary arts. Through the Natural Chef program at Bauman College, we train culinary professionals to launch their career as personal or private chefs, meal-delivery chefs, and dinner-party caterers.
We invite you to explore the newly redesigned Natural Chef program at Bauman College HERE.
Are you considering a career as a Personal or Private Chef, Meal-Delivery Chef, or Dinner-Party Caterer? You’re in luck! We will be hosting a free informational webinar coming up on Wednesday, February 12th, at 12pm PT to educate you about these in-demand, rewarding careers. We will also have time for Q&A at the end, so please have your questions ready. To reserve your spot and join us on the 12th, please click HERE.