Personal chefs help clients get out of the kitchen

Personal chefs offer customized menu planning, grocery shopping, in-home meal preparation, storage and cleanup.

The American Personal Chef Association estimates there are 9,000 working personal chefs in the United States. The APCA predicts there will be more than 20,000 personal chefs working within the next five years, the growth fueled by busier lifestyles, an increasing senior population and health concerns such as diabetes and obesity.

“There’s a big demand out there for people who need and want someone to cook for them,” said Dixie Lee Hart, who started Dixie’s Country Cookin’ in Springfield in January.

Her customers include professionals who don’t have time to cook, families with kids on the go and senior citizens. “They’re tired of eating out, they’re tired of pizza in a box, and they want real, home-cooked meals,” Hart said.

Hart meets with clients to discuss their preferences and any dietary restrictions, and a customized menu is created.

“On cooking day, I go get the groceries, bring them in, cook everything up according to what their menu selections were, package everything up in containers and label them with cooking instructions, and leave them with a nice, clean kitchen,” Hart said. “All they have to do is reheat them and have a nice meal.”

Hart recently cooked in the Bolivar home of John and Maria Kallenbach. “Our house smelled like Thanksgiving Day,” Maria Kallenbach said.

John Kallenbach is of counsel at Douglas Haun and Heidemann law firm. The Kallenbachs own A-1 Tool Inc., and Maria Kallenbach is a stay-at-home mom to their 6-month-old daughter.

“I’ve never been much of a cook, and we like to eat good food,” Maria Kallenbach said. “In Bolivar there really aren’t that many places to go eat besides fast food places. We’re busy, and we end up going out to eat somewhere at 8:30 or 9 at night when they’re ready to close.”

Catering to clients

Hart stresses that she is not a caterer. “I can do small parties, but I’m not into large parties and weddings,” she said.

Two other personal chefs in the area do offer catering services.

Terri McDowell started Catering Your Way in Branson three years ago, and added her personal chef service, Homemade Your Way, a year ago.

Andrea Benzen runs her personal chef business, Gourmet Goodness, in Springfield and is in startup mode with a new catering company. She is also working with Steve Bingham, owner of Emack & Bolio’s, to operate Frisco Catering from the kitchen he leases at the Frisco Building, at Chestnut Expressway and Highway 65.

Benzen, a graduate of Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Arizona, returned to Springfield two and a half years ago. She also worked as a personal chef and caterer in Los Angeles.

“It’s hard work,” Benzen said. “The only way you can make money is to be able to cook five or six things at a time. It’s hot. It’s not glamorous. You’ve got to put a lot of thought into menu planning, being organized and watching your time. I always joke that I have a little (attention deficit disorder) so I can work on 10 things at a time.”

Kathy Ehly opened Wild Fork Catering in Nixa five years ago. For the two years prior, she offered personal chef services, but phased it out a year into Wild Fork’s operations.

“If there are people out there that are interested in it, it’s a good little moneymaker, but it’s a very time-consuming thing to do,” Ehly said. While she prefers to cater from her commercial kitchen at 1013 N. Kenneth St., Ehly occasionally offers personal chef services, preparing meals at Wild Fork instead of at clients’ homes.

Ringing it up

To prepare four meals for a family of four (16 meals), Hart’s prices start at $180 plus the cost of groceries. Benzen charges an average of $210 to prepare 16 meals. McDowell charges about $7 per meal.

More important than the money, Benzen said, is the clients’ time.

“Some of my best clients are professional women who have families and would rather spend the time with their family than cooking at night. It’s smart women who know that their time is better spent somewhere else,” she said, adding that some of her customers are single men, as well.

Get it to go

Willard McIlwain, a lawyer, and wife Kathy, a nurse, offer another option for homemade meals. The McIlwains opened Why Cook? at 550 W. Mt. Vernon, Ste. A, in Nixa, three months ago.

“Probably half of our customers are doctors or doctors’ wives,” Willard McIlwain said. Customers purchase the food the McIlwain’s cook Monday through Saturday in their commercial kitchen, and store in freezers and coolers in the front of the store. Entrees start at $8 for two servings.

“We started out with a lot of high-end stuff, and we’ve gone more with the home-cooked food,” McIlwain said, adding that pork chops, chicken and dumplings and pot roast are popular.

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