Wholesome meals for families: it's personal

When you hear the words “personal chef,” you probably envision rich celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey as the only ones who could afford such a service. But according to three local personal chefs, that would be the wrong assumption.

“For busy families who want to have good-tasting, wholesome meals, having a personal chef is a necessity, not a luxury,” said Hethyr Pletsch, owner of Everyday Gourmet Colorado. She has been a personal chef to about a dozen clients  for the past four years.

So what exactly does a personal chef do? Typically, they do the grocery shopping, cutting and dicing — and they clean up the kitchen and pack out all the garbage. You come home to a freezer or refrigerator with a week’s worth of meals ready to be heated and served.
Pletsch came to the personal chef business after working in the mortgage industry and getting burned out.

“I’ve always loved cooking, and one day I was watching the Food Channel and heard about personal chefs,” she said. “I did some research and found out about the Culinary Business Academy, and I signed up for their course.”

The Culinary Business Academy, based near Albuquerque, N.M., offers several culinary courses, including the personal chef course that Pletsch took.

“I came home and started practicing on friends,” she said. “I was amazed at how fast my business took off. My clients are either too busy to prepare meals at home or they don’t like to cook.”

Pletsch considers herself “an absolute food snob.” She shops only at Whole Foods Market and get all her meat from Ranch Foods Direct.

“I use fresh, seasonal vegetables as much as possible,” she said. “With all the food recalls, people are interested in where their food is coming from and how it is being prepared.”
Her fee for preparing five meals for four people is $250, plus about $135 to $150 for groceries.

However, because she was spending three to four hours a day packing and unpacking equipment to service her dozen or so clients, she recently changed her business model.

“I have rented commercial kitchen space at Gotta Love It Kitchens,” she said. “I can leave all my equipment in one place and prepare my clients’ meals there. Then they can pick up the meals the day I prepare them. I’m hoping to double my client base by saving so much time by not having to pack and unpack equipment.”

For Leigh Welch, of Global Consulting, who works from her Colorado Springs home, using Pletsch’s service is a must.

“I used a personal chef before when we lived in Baton Rouge for about 2 to 3 years,” Welch e-mailed. “Because of the good success with that relationship, when we moved to Colorado Springs I decided to ‘try it’ again. I found Hethyr through hire -a-chef.com. She is so good at her job. She has never dropped the ball on anything in the 11/2 years I have had her cook for us.”

Another personal chef you can find on hire-a-chef.com is Corey Wilson. He had been a chef or general manager at some of the finest restaurants in the Springs for more than 15 years. For health and lifestyle reasons, he left the restaurant business in favor of being a personal chef. He started his business in September and, like Pletsch, took the Culinary Business Academy personal chef course. His business name is A Personable Chef.

In line with improving his own diet, Wilson said he prepares “healthy foods that are lower in salt and fat. I stress using lean meats and fresh vegetables.”

As for figuring out what to charge, he did some simple math.

“When I got interested in being a personal chef, I figured the average family in Colorado Springs was spending more than $700 a month on eating out,” Wilson said. “It costs a family of four $80 to $100 to eat at a place like the Olive Garden for dinner. And they might be doing that a couple of times a week.”

The basic personal chef standard package of meals is called 5 by 4, he said.

“I come to my client’s home with all my cooking equipment and the food to prepare five meals that will feed four people,” he said. “That equals 20 individual meals. My fee is $250 plus the cost of the food, which is roughly $100, depending on their meal selections. That averages to about $70 per meal, right in line with what they would be paying at a casual-fast dining place.”

You can get a sampling of what Wilson offers by attending one of his “interactive dinner parties,” he said. “I charge $150 for the class plus the cost of the food. Classes are for about six to 12 people. Once the cost of the food is added in, it averages out to be about $50 per person. I love teaching, and everyone gets involved. It’s a lot of fun.”

Robert Brunet, owner of The House Chef of Colorado Springs, has created a niche here with his Cajun and New Orleans dishes. He relocated to Colorado Springs with his family after Hurricane Katrina and he turned to his passion: Louisiana-style home cooking.

“I have no formal culinary training, but I grew up in New Orleans in a family with 12 children and my mother’s good cooking,” he said. “I had been a software engineer for 30 years and decided I could make a career out of cooking.”

He started up in March.

“I started making gumbo that I sold at farmers markets,” Brunet said. “Then I put a coupon in The Gazette for the Deal of the Day. It was for a three-course meal for eight people — a $227 value for $49. I sold 114 meals. That has really helped me get more business. I have had about 10 percent repeats.”

Though his strong suit is southern cooking, he has worked in Mexican and Japanese restaurants and will be offering those cuisines on his menu soon.

“I didn’t want to call myself the Cajun chef, because I want to grow the business,” he said. “I want to have multiple chefs doing more cuisines.”

Find a personal chef
• The House Chef of Colorado Springs
Chef Robert Brunet
964-0234; coloradohousechef.com; chef@coloradohousechef.com
• A Personable Chef
Chef Corey Wilson
649-1931; chefcoreywilson.com; info@chefcoreywilson.com
• Everyday Gourmet Colorado
Chef Hethyr Pletsch
287-9715; everydaygourmetcolorado.com; info@everydaygourmetcolorado.com
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Call Farney at 636-0271. Hear her “KVOR Table Talk” radio show noon to 1 p.m. Saturdays on 740 AM.