How to Cook Like a Personal Chef

I watch the same the cooking shows and read the same cooking magazines that you do, so I know the clichéd expectation.  You think that because I am a personal chef, on my days off I must ride my whimsical 60’s-era beach cruiser bicycle down to the Farmer’s Market where I carefully handle and consider some seasonal produce, some grass-fed filets, perhaps some unpasteurized cider before pedaling off, ruddy-cheeked and with a baguette peeking out of my knapsack, into my afternoon of slicing and dicing because I am that passionate about good food.

Oh, puh-lease.  I don’t have time for that nonsense!

Look, I most assuredly am passionate about good food.  I cannot imagine loving any vocation more than I do this one, of creating and executing personalized menus for all kinds of wonderful people, but, holy cow, there are so many nagging little details of daily life, so many obligations outside of the workplace, that having a day, even a weekend day, that resembles a miniaturized culinary vacation is a treasured rarity.  On the contrary, the details of grown-up life have me twirling as chaotically as the rest of my busy peers.  The bottom line is sometimes I don’t feel like I have time to cook…at least not for myself.  But somehow I do.

So, how do I, as a personal chef, do it?  How do I cook all day and not find myself reduced to standing in a carryout line 5 nights a week?  How do I manage to make wholesome dinners for my household without dropping the ball on my other obligations?  Well, trust me, it’s not talent or some specialized training that keeps me out of the drive-thru.  It’s just a commitment to wanting to eat well coupled with the occasional (and re-energizing!) creative idea that gets me through.   Here are some tips I have come up with to get good stuff on the table with a minimal investment of time.

1. Make Your Grocer Your Prep Cook:  Buy your onions already chopped.  Buy your garlic already peeled.  Have the butcher trim your meats.  See if the prepared foods counter makes fresh stock each day.  This is not unhealthy pre-packaged convenience food…it’s still your home cooking…you’ve just taken some time-robbing chores out of the recipe.
2. Think of Easy Favorites:  I love chicken Caesar Salad.  I can grill a chicken breast in a few minutes (or get it done ahead of time on the weekend) and there is even a bottled Caesar dressing I find acceptable.  That’s a dinner I can get on the table in about 5 minutes!  There are too many quickie dinners to list here, so don’t you dare turn your nose up at those cheerful magazines with house-wifey, D-list food celebrities promising you recipes with dinner in 10 minutes.  Their recipes are often quite good, and lets face it…most nights all you have is 10 minutes, so you are not above their advice!    
3. Do Double Duty When You Can:  If there is one night you are able to muster up the energy to cook, then capitalize on it.  Double your recipe and freeze half of it for later.  Or make two dishes at once so you’ve cooked tomorrow’s dinner, too.
4. “Italians Do it Better”  Remember that slogan?!  Well, they might do it better.  At the very least, Italians might make pizza dough better than you.  And they might sell it at their neighborhood market.  Along with great pepperoni that they cure themselves.  And maybe a top-quality 3 ingredient sauce (Tomatoes, Garlic, Herbs).  If you stock up on some of their raw materials once a week, you can have the best gourmet pizza in town in less time than it would take to pick up the phone and call for delivery.
5. Breakfast:  It’s What’s for Dinner:  Little kids go crazy for breakfast foods at night.  Almost everyone can scramble and cook some eggs in less than 5 minutes.  And ounce for ounce, there is no finer or more easy-to-assimilate protein on the face of the earth than the humble, affordable egg.  Put together a quick salad  to go with your eggs and pair it with a light red wine and you are practically dining en Francais.
6. Bake Your Own Bread…Sort Of:  Did you know many grocery stores and a few bakeries sell frozen dough?  Freezing protects the raw ingredients from spoilage so that the dough is not packed with chemical stabilizers like already-baked commercial breads are.  Just thaw the dough overnight in the fridge and put it into a hot oven for 20 minutes.  You’ll feel like an artisan baker and the house will smell heavenly.
7. Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle:  OK, fine. You caved and bought a rotisserie chicken.  It’s alright.  Just don’t throw away any bones.  Stick them in the freezer until you have time.  Because when you do, you are going to boil them in a big pot of water later in the week, maybe with some onions, celery, or carrots thrown into the pot.  Maybe you’ll even use the leftover rice from Chinese take-out night.  There!  Chicken-rice soup.  You just got another meal out of the dregs of your leftovers.  And I promise you, it will actually be amazing.  So doggy-bag everything.  It might come in handy!
8. Set Yourself Up For Success:  When you are not doing a quickie-dinner-in-10-minutes meal…when you have a little bit more time and motivation to try a more ambitious recipe...then cook like they do on cooking shows and in professional restaurants.  They read the ingredient list and measure everything out first, setting it aside in little containers, before starting in earnest. That way, when you have vegetables on the cooktop, on the verge of burning and you see the recipe command: Add chopped chicken pieces, you are not thinking, “oh, no!  I forgot to chop the chicken!”  Instead, the chopped chicken is already waiting for you to calmly add it to the pan and keep cooking like a pro.

Finally, just shrug it off and forgive yourself if life gets away from you and a couple times a year you wind up eating a McBurger or a Kentucky Fried Heartburn.  After you’ve gotten a few home-made meals imprinted on your palate you’ll come to be semi-allergic to those poorer choices and you will find that those emergency bail-out meals become more and more of a rarity in your healthy, gourmet-inspired life.  And when you are on vacation, or by some miraculous twist of fate, your schedule is completely clear, feel free to pedal your beach cruiser to the Farmer's Market and play TV chef for the day!