Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Hello to "Everyone" and I hope this finds all of you having a wonderful and joyous Holiday Season. There are so many reasons to be thankful, but for me especially this year, because we are celebrating the birth of a new baby Granddaughter! For the last couple of weeks, my friends have all been calling me "Grandpa", so I'm starting to get used to the idea! Thanks everyone for all of your kind words and support!

Does anyone have a food-hang-over? After the traditional ten-course Christmas turkey and ham dinner, along with the pumpkin, fruit and cream pies, it's no wonder we don't go out on Christmas night, it's because we can't get up to walk! I cooked Christmas diner for a family with about 20 guests and it was fun. It can be a lot of work for one guy, but never the less, it's always a learning experience! Thank you Brad, Tom and Gloria Stewart, for inviting me to spend the evening with all of you and it was a privilege serving your family Christmas dinner!

Talking about food, I wanted to give the "gift of food" to my closest relatives this year, so I sent my Parents and my Daughter, pre-paid "gift cards" for a nation wide food franchise called, "Dream Dinners." This company, is one of the new "assembly kitchens" that are sprouting up all over the U.S. and in my opinion, have filled a niche' market where the individual family can reduce the amount of time, preparation and labor required to have nightly meals at home.

Since this new and thriving industry has appeared on the market, there have been all kinds of styles for these services. Some of these companies promote themselves as cooking-schools. Others, offer wine and cheese tastings, while you listen to classical music and "assemble" your Chicken Cordon Blu'. While others stores are configured to give more of a home-made meal approach, where you can get a (six-serving) quantity of food that represent a fair and reasonable price compared to the actual cost of the groceries. In either case, these make-a-meal assembly kitchens, represent a formidable form of direct competition to my business as a Personal and Private Chef. The personal chef "tag line" is, "So that the individual or family can reduce the amount of time, preparation and labor required to have meals made for them at home." * That line absolutely describes the service of both industries.

If you thought I was thinking about how my Daughter, (with the new baby and all) might enjoy having the relief of meals prepared for a few weeks, it's true. But, my real motive is to let my family members try out the make-a-meal service, then develop an unbiased opinion about the meals, the process and the overall quality of the experience. As this develops, I will be able to impart their experiences with all of you.

At some point, I could see an alliance between the personal chef and the make-a-meal industry, in order to offer a more rounded offering of services. For example, personal chefs "on call" from meal assembly kitchens may be another point of sales. Another option is for a client who may not physically be able to go to the assembly kitchen. I have a visual of a Mother of four, taking all the kids into the assembly kitchen with them, YIKES! I am very curious as to how this will effect the food service industry on the whole. It's impact could be felt at restaurants, fast food establishments, pizza delivery and yes personal chefs around the nation. More to follow........

For all of you who have read this far, you deserve the answer to the "Creases in the Chef's Hat" trivia question. Q; "Why does a chefs hat have 100 folds or creases in it's shape?"
Some time in the late 1800's, the traditional "French Chef's" hat, (also referred to as a "touge") all had to be creased with 100 folds in them, to represent the 100 methods of cooking an egg! That was a chefs required knowledge and one of the signs of the being "real" Escoffier Chef. The first image that comes to mind when someone says "chef" has always been the tall, pristine white, hat.

As a side note; The actual chefs hat tradition was created by Napoleon during the French Revolutionary War. When they say, "An Army travels on it's stomach," they were deadly serious. So with that in mind, the soldiers fighting against Napoleon and their snipers, began shooting all of the cooks that were preparing the meals for Napoleon's Army! As a last ditch effort to appease his starving troops, Napoleon decide to put "Popes hats" on all of his cooks in order to fool the opposition forces into thinking that these were actually "clergy men." Seeing these "holy men" moving around amongst the ranks after a battle was not that uncommon and after all, no God fearing Frenchmen had ever shot a priest. It worked and he was right, they stopped shooting all the cooks. Napoleon was able to feed his troops and the tall hat stuck and rest is history!

Thanks for stopping by and I see I have a comment to respond to about meringue. I hope this question wasn't before the Christmas dinner..?
Your Personal Chef,
Bill