Chapter 15: Case Studies
Chapter 15: Case Studies
Case study: Allison J. Coia
Allison J. Coia
Owner/Chef
Cook A Doodle Doo Personal Chef Service
After 911, I was furloughed for a corporate job and was searching for a new career. I came across this industry after conducting some internet searches. I stumbled upon Personal Chefs Network and I have not looked back since.
I was raised in an Italian kitchen, growing up with a parent who was the “queen” of the family cooks. She had a keen eye for new and innovative ideas and through my careful watching and helping, it caught on. We owned a deli and catering business growing up, so being around food was a constant. I also dabbled in cooking for a food service company after high school, but decided I wanted to work a “normal” job.
I serve three to four clients on a weekly basis. These clients mostly consist of monthly clients, along with a few bi-weekly clients. On open days, I try to fill with one-time gigs, like a personal chef gift certificate.
Being featured in newspapers and local magazine articles has been a great confidence booster and a wonderful marketing tool. I also have had the pleasure of cooking for a Philadelphia 76er basketball player. This experience has been great exposure for me. His involvement in the community is inspiring and right up my alley, since I love others who can spread their kindness.
I love my schedule. I use Mondays as my planning/office day and specialty shopping day. I only cook Tuesdays through Fridays, and I am done my work day by 5 p.m. like everyone else. Since I have an established personal chef business, I no longer offer a party service. There are no nights and weekends for me. Also, the people I have had the opportunity to meet have been awesome. The worst part is the isolation that this job can bring. There are days I do not see any clients and my only interaction are the people at the grocery store.
Be willing to put yourself out there. The cooking part is easy, but like any other business, you need to market and be very diligent about it. Just because I am established does not mean I can stop marketing and getting my name out in public. I also suggest joining a reputable organization. I have found that being “certified” by some organizations is unnecessary. It is not required in any state and in over six years of business, I have never been asked for it.
Case study: Chef Darnell Harness
Chef Darnell Harness
Owner, SimplyDine Personal Chef Service
702-768-0010
I wanted to help people who were not able to cook quality food, especially the elderly. I also wanted to prepare food for those who have health challenges, such as diabetes and heart disease.
My background is in the medical profession as a Sonographer. After I decided to venture into the culinary field, I enrolled in UNLV’s Professional Chef Certification Program, through Creative Cooking School.
Generally, clients do not request many changes to my menu items. The reason for this is that I ask my clients to complete a very comprehensive questionnaire before I start preparing their menus and cooking for them. The questionnaire covers their personal preferences, dietary restrictions, allergies, and so on.
I like being able to provide people with more time, quality food, choices on when and where to eat, and how they like their food prepared. It is very rewarding to see my clients enjoy their food. I do not appreciate it when people do not see the value of a personal chef service and haggle on the price of services. I think there is a big misperception that either personal chefs are only for the rich or that personal chefs should be paid the same as fast food workers.
If you are just starting out in the personal chef business, be patient, do plenty of advertising, and continue to learn and hone your skills as a chef. Try to align yourself with as many good organizations as possible, such as the Celiac Foundation, the Diabetes Foundation, and the American Heart Association. Go to different stores and do cooking demos – these are good advertising opportunities. Ask some of the culinary arts schools whether they need teachers.
Case study: Doug Janousek
Doug Janousek
Home Cookin’ LLC
706-410-0541
After 25 years as a working journalist, and a lifetime of cooking and traveling all around the United States as well as writing about food, I attended culinary school at the Orlando Culinary Academy where I received my AAS and my Le Cordon Bleu certification. I graduated in December 2005 and officially launched my personal chef business in January 2006.
I started my personal chef business so that I could have the immediate satisfaction of cooking for clients rather than work in a large kitchen and never see the folks who eat my food. I enjoy the more intimate setting of cooking for individual clients.
Initially, when I launched my business in 2006 it took about three months of daily marketing and public relations efforts to attract my first clients. After relocating to Georgia, I had my first cooking gigs within a week or two of physically relocating, though to be honest, I had done a fair amount of advance publicity before the move.
One of the greatest successes I have experienced as a personal chef was when I was hired to prepare an authentic Austrian meal at the Austrian Consulate in Orlando, it was a great honor and a fun challenge. Another great achievement was when I published my first cookbook with other personal chefs. I am now working on a second cookbook that will feature Georgia artists and my menus and recipes. I am also working on a high-end chef’s tasting menu event with a local restaurant as a way to create “buzz” and make a little money.
If I had to start my personal chef business over again, I would evaluate advertising differently. I allowed myself to be talked into certain kinds of
advertising that in the end cost a lot of money and did not pay off – to be exact, I found Yellow Pages advertising to be the least effective. Online, targeted newspaper ads and publicity events have worked the best for me.
Case study: Chef Kimberly Oropeza
Chef Kimberly Oropeza
A Taste of Thyme Cheffing Services
407-341-9234
I started my personal chef business because I was looking for something that I could do to make some extra money and have a flexible schedule. I had heard about personal chefs and at that time I was becoming more and more interested in cooking. Finally my family convinced me that I should give it a try.
The number of clients I serve varies based on the season and my schedule. When I am working my business part-time I usually have one or two per week. When I am working full-time I may have four.
It took just a few weeks to find my first client. When I first started as a personal chef, I joined the Personal Chefs Network, which posts your information
on their Web site. That is where my first client found me. Now, I receive numerous referrals from existing clients, and many of those referrals hire me as their personal chef.
I have had a number of great moments as a personal chef. In addition to the personal chef service, I added catering services to my business a few years ago. Each large event that I have catered has been a success. When a bride or a party’s host tells you that they loved everything, it is a great feeling. Other milestones include personal chef and catering services for well-known people or companies. I have catered a dinner party for winners of a Real Simple magazine contest, and I have provided chef services for a well-known musical group, as well as a professional basketball player.
Being independent is the aspect of being a personal chef that I like most; however, it is also the aspect that I sometimes like the least. I generally like to work on my own and being a personal chef gives me that opportunity. However, there are times when I need a gentle push to get things done, or someone to get advice from, and I don’t have that.
If you enjoy cooking, and you think you might like to try a career as a personal chef, just go for it. It does not take a lot of training, and it takes very little investment to get started. Just a set of pans, some kitchen utensils, and some pantry items and you are good to go. You can always try it on the side and build up business if you are not ready to jump in full force.