photo: chef serving soup to couple at table

A Restaurant at Your Door

Some chefs specialize in Indian or Italian food while others do macrobiotic cuisine with aplomb. New Jersey chef Ted Kanterman, however, doesn't feel a draw to any particular kind of cooking. So what's his area of gourmet expertise?

Chef Mark travels with a suitcase filled with food.

"My specialty is personal cuisine," he says. "I make what you like."

A personal chef's job is to make a meal extra memorable - and to take the grunt work out of dining at home. To some, having a stranger cook for you in your own home might seem overindulgent, but without the overhead a fancy restaurant carries, hiring a personal chef to come now and then can be economically more conservative than eating at an upscale restaurant.

According to the United States Personal Chef Association (USPCA), there are 5,000 USPCA-personal chefs in the USA and Canada. Chicagoans dial up chef Diedra Johnson-Miller; in Florida, there's chef Jose Alvarez. Most will either come and prepare a week or two worth of meals, which you can then freeze and serve, or they'll prepare a special meal for a dinner party (whether it be for two people or 20). They usually take pages of notes before they start cooking to ensure that no one gets served anything they don't like. Light meat or dark? Decaf or regular? When they're done with the meal, they'll leave the kitchen as it was when they arrived - if not cleaner.

New York City personal chef Mark Tafoya, president of the USPCA's New York chapter, believes there's no reason for people not to get pampered in their own home. He goes from kitchen to kitchen with a rolling suitcase filled with food and a tackle box of cooking utensils. He's prepared everything from roast turkeys served on private beaches to simple romantic dinners that a couple can enjoy without having to worry about the groceries or the dishes.

"It's all about getting pampered in your own home," he says. "But sometimes when I'm cooking for two people for a special occasion like an anniversary or a proposal, they'll get so curious about me and what I do that they end up asking me question after question and I want to say 'No! Stop talking to me! This is a romantic dinner. Focus on each other.'"

Posted on February 13, 2006