[blindcooks] Re: Higher Help--Washington Post Article About Chefs Who Cook At Your Home

  • From: "Vicki" <j.ireland@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <blindcooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:13:57 -0700

Oops sorry about that I meant that to go to Carolyn only. Now you all know I'm getting my kitchen re-faced. (smiles) It's all good though.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Vicki" <j.ireland@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <blindcooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 12:53 PM
Subject: [blindcooks] Re: Higher Help--Washington Post Article About Chefs Who Cook At Your Home 



Interesting.
Hey, I haven't forgotten. We need a long visit. I've just been so out-of-pocket with this kitchen stuff. When dealing with older home, ugh!!!!!!!!!! But this too will get done. May have a kitchen but may have to live at your house. Lol! 


----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Ranker <carolynranker@xxxxxxxxx>
To: blindcooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 3:33 pm
Subject: [blindcooks] Higher Help--Washington Post Article About Chefs Who Cook At Your Home 




    Article below about in-home chefs.
Washington Post Jan. 21, 2015
Higher help   .
Bonnie S. Benwick. Mike Isabella is fast building a posse of
restaurants, but none
of them may rival what the fame-kissed chef says is the ultimate
dining experience:
serving his food at your house.
"It's what the client wants, where we can go and cook for two to eight people. A raw bar, a spit-roasted pig. Maybe a cooking class," he says, in his New Jersey, 
anything's-possible manner. "That's the new style.
Amy Brandwein, the popular Washington chef who's opening Centrolina in
the spring,
has done plenty of dinners and cocktail parties in private homes over
the past few
years. "It's a more personal connection," she says. "They hire me to
get that, plus
a knockout meal in their homes. And it's fun going outside my normal element. 
They could be onto something. Does the new Going All Out mean staying
in, inviting
a handful of friends, interacting in your own kitchen with a chef you
admire, and
doing no more at evening's end than wish everyone a fond farewell?
Personal cheffing has long offered convenience for consumers; its most promising 
incarnation might be Kitchensurfing, a service offered in six cities
across the country
to date, including the District of Columbia. Its online roster of
talent features
profiles that detail the chefs' work experience and cuisine strengths.
Chief executive
Jon Tien says that in New York, his company is piloting a weeknight
program in which
customers can book as late in the day as 3 p.m. and have a chef shop,
cook and clean
that evening for $25 per person.
Kitchensurfing doesn't deal in big names, though you can choose
someone who might
have worked at, say, the French Laundry.
But now that chefs and their Michelin stars have become firmly affixed
in pop culture,
the public is hungry for dinner and a show, an intimate brush with celebrity. 
Food Network "Chopped" host Ted Allen sees that appetite growing.
("Top Chef" cruise,
anyone?) He has been at enough private dinners cooked by celebrity
chefs to understand
who can afford them outright: the 1-percenters and corporations clued
into the lure
of high-profile cuisine on home turf. A chef who has earned
name-recognition status
might charge an appearance fee of several thousand bucks - on top of the cost of 
a private meal, a sous-chef or two, servers and any tableware rentals.
"If you hire Mario Batali, of course you want to taste his food. But what you're really after is his sparkling repartee, a few photos and being able to introduce 
him to your friends," Allen says.
Not all chefs want to be like Mike.
"Dinners in private houses are not something I want to do," says Le
Bernardin's Eric
Ripert. "It distracts me from my restaurants, and I want to keep that
very high value
for our guests. Still, the super-luminary chef admits he was caught a
few years ago
when a very persistent woman asked him to do a private birthday dinner for 12 in 
Las Vegas.
"It went on for three weeks," he says. "I said no 20 times, and then I gave this 
crazy price, one that was absolutely irrational. And she agreed! Now,
I won't even
give a crazy number.
Ripert makes one exception. For the past 20 years, he has cooked a
"re-creation of
the Le Bernardin experience at home" for the bidder who wins his
services via the
annual fundraising auction for City Harvest, a group dedicated to
ending hunger in
New York.
The cause is dear to Ripert, who is a vice chairman for the
organization's Food Council.
In 2013, his dinner for 20 plus an appearance by his friend Richard Gere set off 
a bidding frenzy that escalated to $220,000; Gere immediately got the
chef to agree
to do a second dinner for a separate bidder, for the same amount.
The mind reels at how such a menu might read; Ripert ticks off a
vaguely remembered
list of lobster, caviar, truffles. But he says those private dinners
are hardly about
the food. "I'm easygoing. If people want to come into the kitchen or
invite me to
sit at the table, that's fine. Ultimately . . . it's about how many
people we can
feed through City Harvest.
Bryan Voltaggio, of Volt, Range and Family Meal restaurants, says he
also turns down
compensated dinner opportunities, focusing his extracurricular efforts
instead on
charity auction dinners for No Kid Hungry, a Share Our Strength campaign. "For a 
business person, I have a hard time taking people's money," says
Voltaggio. For the
charity dinners, he brings an entire kitchen crew and every plate and
glass needed
for a 21-course production, a la his Table 21 at Volt. "It's a mission that made 
sense to me. Since 2009, we have raised almost $1 million.
Demands on her time and constant travel cause Carla Hall of "The Chew" to refuse 
at least four requests a month to cook at private events. "I guess I'm
at the age
where I really value my free time. I'd rather spend it with my
family," she says.
Her high-roller price? "It would have to be $25,000.
The former caterer is on the verge of opening her own restaurant,
which would make
it easier for her to prep for and staff a small charity dinner. But she says she 
might stick with how she's learned to redirect those requests. "I go
out to eat with
someone rather than cook a meal," Hall says. "It's two hours of my
time versus 10
hours and less stress. More of my attention is directed at the guests.
The 32 dinners that chefs cooked and served in private homes for
Washington's own
Sips & Suppers last year raised more than $500,000 to benefit D.C.
Central Kitchen
and Martha's Table. Hosting a dinner is another way to get a culinary
wizard like
David Chang in your front door, but not just any kitchen will do. It has to pass 
muster beforehand in a visit from event co-host Joan Nathan. Working
appliances and
enough space to accommodate a sizable team are a must.
The Sips & Suppers chefs don't have to donate ingredients - local and
national food
suppliers have stepped up - but "they are so generous with their
time," Nathan says.
"They really love doing this fundraiser.
Chang will work his magic at the Alexandria home of Evan and Tracy
Morris for this
year's event on Jan. 25. "I'm dying for that to happen," Tracy says.
Ever since the
couple hired Roberto Donna to cook for a private birthday party some
five years ago,
they've been hooked on the experience. Since then, chefs Isabella, Kaz Okochi of 
Kaz Sushi Bistro, Scott Drewno of the Source, Jordan Lloyd of the
Bartlett Pear Inn
in Easton, Md., and Nick Stefanelli of Bibiana have cooked for the
Morrises' parties,
mostly through charitable causes.
"I love to cook, and we do love eating out," Tracy says. She still has
a visual memory
of "exactly" how chef Donna showed her to make ravioli. "For me, it's
like having
a new friend in the house. Each time is a different adventure. Nick
Stefanelli showed
my 8-year-old daughter how to roll out dough. I had to take pictures of that! 
Brandwein knows that sharing her expertise is part of deal. Thirty
minutes before
the first canape is delivered, though, she asks for no company in the
kitchen: "I'm
in concentrated mode," she says. The chef has devised a detailed
system to ensure
that things go smoothly, including a spreadsheet checklist for prep and pack-up, 
and reserving a little of the food for late or unexpected guests.
Still, she knows things can go wrong, like the water-main break that delayed her 
arrival and forced her and crew to unload and roll all their materials
some six blocks
to the home. Tracy Morris says her oven stopped working the day of the
Scott Drewno
dinner. Unflappable, he cooked on the outdoor grill instead - souffle
included. It
made her love him all the more.
For a recent celebration at the home of Del Ray resident Mary Jane
Volk, Brandwein
and host agreed on a small-plates-and- pasta theme, due in part to
Volk's small entertaining
space. The menu: shots of cauliflower soup; roasted sweet potato with
eggplant and
Greek yogurt; little meatballs; charcuterie and cheese; egg raviolo
with Swiss chard;
pappardelle Bolognese; and seared scallops with celery root.
A friend of the chef's, Volk hadn't thought to hire her before and was
thrilled with
the results. "My guests were really excited to meet her. Her takeaway:
"You don't
have to spend a lot or have to have space for a sit-down for 12. You
can still do
something fabulous.
Price points for Brandwein's and Isabella's services seem reasonable,
considering
the chefs' experience and stature. Brandwein quoted a range of $85 to
$125 per person,
and Isabella $75 to $125 per person, based on a party of 8 to 10,
excluding wine,
service and rentals. Isabella can't guarantee he'll always be the one to run the 
show; maybe George Pagonis of Kapnos (this season's "Top Chef"
comeback kid) might
be there instead.
Isabella wants to cater to everyone, he says. To that end, he is
soft-launching Catering
by Mike at the end of the month, promising to cook in any kitchen situation: "We don't want you spending a lot of money. I definitely think it's the new way. His 
own appearance fee? "Negotiable.
bonnie.benwick@xxxxxxxxxxxx



As Always, Vicki

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