What did you eat last night for dinner?

[mgm9128]

gazpachooo

 

[javyn]

Behind on dishes so dinner last night was on an ancient chipped plate. Nothing fancy just ground beef patties.

 

[RedLantern]

I love the black ones too. Made a tart from some a few weeks ago, but had to supplement with regular raspberries since they were unfortunately not as abundant as in years past. View attachment 1221148 View attachment 1221149

I dont think I've ever seen a sliced raspberry. How do you manage that without crushing them at least a little bit?

 

[mgm9128]

I dont think I've ever seen a sliced raspberry. How do you manage that without crushing them at least a little bit?

Sharp knife and not too ripe raspberries.

 

[mgm9128]

I now realize how fortunate it is that I can consider this my “work” environment. I remember when I first started posting on this forum years ago with the mere conception of doing this sort of private chef thing..lo and behold it came to be, pleasantly, in a way I never would have predicted.

 

[jcman311]

My buddy is a personal chef for a family. I've tried to drag him away to start a restaurant (its a stretch for me but I enjoy a challenge) but he has ZERO desire to leave. Doesn't want to go back to nights and weekends or the stress. I don't blame him.

 

[mgm9128]

In the right circumstance (with the right family), and depending upon your sensibility, it is more advantageous to cook privately. For economic reason, the cost is fixed, that is you know exactly what you are earning on a daily basis because your income is not customer dependent. As opposed to a restaurant, obviously there are no overhead costs, maintenance fees, rent, payroll, etc., and depending on the nature of the contract you have with your employer/family, you can pretty much stop cooking and take off whenever you feel like it without financial detriment, which is a sort of flexibility I've always valued. For creative reason, depending on the nature of your customer's palate, there is an extraordinary freedom to create new menus on a daily basis, and make the fun sort of Robuchon dishes that take an extraordinary amount of time and labor to produce that in a typical restaurant setting would be otherwise impractical.

Perhaps the greatest advantage I see is the overall quality of the working environment, which, if you've spent a modicum of time in a restaurant kitchen, is easily understood.

One disadvantage, and something I've noticed after spending the summer working for one family alone, is that unlike a restaurant setting where you entertain new customers every night and thus gain the definite satisfaction of feeding your food to a greater number of people, cooking privately fixes you with feeding the same mouths every night. It is fairly crucial then that you generate some rapport with the family outside of just being their cook, since you will inevitably spend a significant amount of time around them, and, regardless of how much money you are being paid, being around and/or cooking for ****** people is not really pleasant.

 

[erictheobscure]

what about the hanky panky

 

[mgm9128]

be careful when the mrs. asks you to drive her into town..

 

[romafan]

Who washes the dishes?

 

[mgm9128]

I have the daily assistance of 4 housekeepers. I wash nothing. It's wonderful.

 

[jcman311]

Yeah, he manages the estate as well so he has a few people to delegate to. He basically gets double off time (Their vacations plus his own vacation) and gets to dabble in gardening. His biggest gripe is cooking for some large parties that they throw. But for those he can contract an assistant or two. Obviously he is also a little more stressed around the holidays but his family is fairly flexible.

 

[mgm9128]

so why in God’s name are you trying to make him open a restaurant?

 

[brokencycle]

I wish I had the assistance of four daily house keepers. I don't even need the cook.

 

[jcman311]

so why in God’s name are you trying to make him open a restaurant?

Well, he started the idea first. It was right after he started with his family and they were urging him to think bigger in his career/ have a backup plan. They all settled in though after a while. Then it was my idea after my job turned to crap and I needed a change. But now I'm moving on to greener pastures so it all worked out.