I’ve had this book in my head for at least 10 years.
I had written and rewritten the stories you are about to read here in my head for over ten years. Either while lying in bed about to sleep, driving home after a long day of cooking or telling my husband, of 30 years, about what I had just experienced at someones house. This was usually in the form of, “So, this happened today…”. My husband would reply, “You need to write a book.” to which I would sarcastically reply with a, “Yeah, like, when I have time.”. The problem was I was ALWAYS grinding and ALWAYS hustling. It was either trying to get more clients (a gnawing, constant grind), trying out new recipes (a joyful grind), cooking on TV in Durham, NC (an exciting, nervous grind) or catering parties (thee MOST stressful grind). And so, it never ended. Then it was relocating from NC to Baltimore MD in 2012 to rebuild my little Personal Chef empire, as well as, *take a breath*, opening a record store cafe. As soon as we had opened that business I was beyond my limit of cooking for clients in their homes. Thus, I built a commercial kitchen and hired two chefs to help me cook on a near daily basis. If that wasn’t enough, then I was contacted to do food styling for a Netflix series called House of Cards. An opportunity I couldn’t pass up. That enabled me to land more food styling gigs for various shows on HBO, Apple+ and Paramount+. Aaaaand theeennnnn….nah, I’m just pulling your leg, but you get the point. So, as you can see, the grind never stopped.
That is, until my husband and I, along with our little dog, Mr. Shivers, decided to get me off the hamster wheel of GO-GO-GO in March of 2023. We had planned to uproot our lives and sell off everything to make the move to our new home of Lisbon, Portugal, which is where I sit to write this. I thank my husband every day for dragging me into this semi-early retirement and for trying to save my body and soul from my workaholic self.
Why Write A Memoir About Being A Personal Chef?
You know, it was most likely drinks at a bar with friends that got me started on this journey. No, seriously, hear me out. I remember early on when I first started cooking for people, I had friends who thought the idea of having someone cook for you in your home either completely strange and/or privileged or decidedly a dream come true. It was one or the other. So, friends would ask what my clients were like. “Are they mega wealthy?” or “Are they lazy?” to which I would usually answer a firm “NO” to both questions. My service was completely affordable (but that’s for another story down the road). I would usually explain that I specialized in special diets/allergies/restrictions, etc. Or that my clients usually had problems cooking the meals they needed because they weren’t into cooking or it seemed too complicated for them to cook. All solid reasons. Some folks however were grinding harder than me, working 60 hours a week, and needed help preparing meals for their families or even just themselves. I understood that better than anyone. Hell, at one point I even considered hiring a personal chef for myself! So, after years of telling people what I did for a living, and getting the same repeated questions about what it was like cooking for people, and having recently sold my personal chef business and getting out of the game, I decided that now was the time to spill the spice, so to speak.
What Will Secrets & Spice Look Like?
Well, first, please know, by all means, this won’t be some trashy tell-all about how dirty some peoples homes were, or how they left their kitchen a mess before I showed up. Well, there will be a little of that, but it will be more like stories of new love, new life, incomprehensible dietary restrictions, OCD, deaths, the honor of care taking, nannies gone wild, unruly animals and yes, the demandingly privileged.
As a free subscriber, you will receive a weekly story in your inbox. If you however would like to support this endeavor by becoming a paid subscriber you will get to participate in a number of ways. You will have the ability:
To have a personal Q&A session with me about that weeks story.
To get tips and tricks regarding cooking from me. Maybe even some recipes.
For serious chefs considering this line of work, you will be able to ask questions concerning your own Personal Chef service, or how you might go about starting a PC service.
And lastly, you will get a shout-out letting folks know you support my writing, and have my undying gratitude!
Why subscribe as a paid subscriber?…well, as Holly Whitaker states on her blog, Recovery, “This is one of my jobs, and I put a lot of work into it. I believe in an ethos of paying people for their work (especially in recovery spaces, where work is undervalued and, therefore, resources are limited). If you love this newsletter, get value out of it, and believe in paying people for their work, consider a paid subscription.”
I feel the same as an artist (and a veteran, always underpaid, musician), that this is one of my jobs. A calling, even. So, if you value the work I am doing here please consider a paid subscription. And Thank You!
Paid Subscriber Shout Out:
Shout Out to my first Paid Subscriber, fellow musician and artist friend, RobinLee Garber! Thanks so much Robinlee!
Photo credit- Shirlé Hale. Food Styling for the Netflix Series House of Cards - 2018