Personal Chef Brings Fine Cooking to Your Home

As family schedules become more and more hectic every day, there is an alternative to takeout food and hastily microwaved dinners: food prepared by your own personal chef. Matthew West doesn’t live in a servant’s room in your house, but his Home Chef of Fairfield County service might be the next best thing.

“Cooking has been a passion of mine for 25 years,” the Stamford native says. But it wasn’t until he lost his job in software sales in 2009 that he turned it into his profession. In business since June 2010, West now provides dinners to couples and families who want to eat healthy but just don’t have the time to do the necessary shopping, preparing and cooking.

“I start by doing a dietary profile, finding out what a client likes and doesn’t like, if they have any restrictions or requirements,” he says. West uses those results to choose from his list of 800 recipes to create a one or two-week meal plan. After it’s approved or modified, he shows up at the client’s home, ready to cook.

“By procuring just the ingredients required, there’s no waste – no produce rotting in the crisper or chicken going bad in the back of the fridge,” he says. After several hours of work with a mobile cooking setup, Matthew has prepared 20 entrees, two weeks’ worth of dinners for a couple or enough to last a family of four a week. The meals are put on special plastic trays that are frozen but can be reheated in an oven or a microwave, and contain no biphenyls.

“People hire landscapers and cleaning services and don’t even think about it,” says West. “Having someone do your cooking is just an extension of that. The last thing you want to do is try figure out what to eat every night.

“I’m not just delivering food,” he said. “I’m delivering time. Quality time better spent with your family.”

 

Have you ever used a personal chef service? What was your experience like? Share your thoughts here, or email Meaghan, the Food Editor, at mmorelli@mainstreetconnect.us. If you use a personal chef you love, introduce me!

 

 

 

 

 

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