Press  Release

Getting personal with chefs

Suzanne Starr/The Arizona Republic Some one else cooks for Michelle January (left) and her family -- personal chef Toni Belveal.

Karen Fernau
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 19, 2003 12:00 AM

Michelle January jokes about earning a frequent-flier card from Taco Bell. Her nickname is Microwave Girl.

"I know my family needs to eat, but I am not too nifty in the kitchen," said January, owner of a political-media buying company and director of the annual Gene Autry Courage Awards.

January's culinary shortcomings prompted friends to give her a $1,000 gift certificate for Christmas to hire a personal chef.

Gone are nightly meals served out of paper bags. January, her children and husband, political-advertising executive Chuck Coughlin, dine on homemade pot roast, spaghetti with meat sauce, and steak kebabs. Every entree comes with side dishes and dessert.

"The vegetables are fresh, salad dressing made from scratch. The food is unbelievably good, and more nutritious than we had been eating before," she said. "The unexpected surprise is that the meals have created old-fashioned family time. We sit down for dinner together."

January's not alone. An increasing number of families struggling to get dinner on the table are hiring personal chefs to cook three to five meals a week.

Today, 7,000 personal chefs are cooking for 72,000 clients nationwide, according to the American Personal Chef Association in San Diego. Within five years, APCA predicts the number of such chefs to increase to nearly 200,000, serving meals for 300,000 clients.

Once considered an upper-crust luxury, personal chefs are baking and mixing their way into upper-middle-class households, APCA executive director Candy Wallace said.

"The surprise to many is that they can afford a personal chef," she said.

Prices vary, according to the type of food and frequency of meals. The cost of a personal chef who cooks five meals a week for a family of four is about $325, including food, APCA estimates. This package deal could be stretched out to feed a couple for one month.

"It's cheaper than eating out all the time, or buying and wasting food you don't have time to cook," Wallace said. "You don't have to be a celebrity, or wealthy, to eat well. People hire someone to clean their house and mow their yard, so why not hire someone to cook dinner?"

Professionals tired of eating fast food, frozen entrees or bags of microwave popcorn are behind the increase in personal chefs. They also want better nutrition.

"People are starting to look at the way they eat, and realize that if they keep eating fast and prepared foods, their kids will consume enough preservatives and chemicals to glow in the dark by age 10," Wallace said, joking.

Personal chefs first meet with prospective clients, gathering a smorgasbord of information such as diet restrictions, food preferences and allergies. The chef then creates a menu subject to client approval.

For Toni Belveal, a personal chef whose business is called Petits Fours, the partnership between cook and client begins with meal planning.

"It's the most creative part of my job. I really try to come up with meals the whole family will enjoy," said Belveal, personal chef for January's family.

After agreeing on a menu, the chef shops for the food and prepares the meals in the client's kitchen.

"I bring my own pots and pans, and clean up after I am done," Belveal said. "All I need is a working space and working stove to do what my clients don't have the time to do - cook meals from scratch."

Reach the reporter at (602) 444-4779.