CookScanner Blog - where personal chefs and foodies connect

The Biggest Mistakes You Make Trying to Secure a Client

There are countless skills a training chef must learn to master: food safety, knife skills, presentation techniques, and inordinate preparation methods. And that’s just the beginning.

Most chefs, both in the private and public sectors, attend some form of culinary school.

But many also work their way up: Rachel Ray, famed celebrity chef, tv show host, and author of numerous cookbooks, started her career behind a candy counter.

Regardless of how one becomes a chef, though, one undeniable fact remains: passion alone won’t get you customers or clients. Continue reading “The Biggest Mistakes You Make Trying to Secure a Client”

How Chefs are Giving Back to Hurricane Victims

In a series of a few weeks, unprecedented hurricanes have ravaged Texas and Florida and flooded bordering states of Louisiana and Mississippi. And while hurricanes are not uncommon this time of year, the damage Irma, Jose, and Harvey have inflicted is.

An ABC news report estimates that damages could amount to nearly $300 billion; Harvey’s impact on Houston has been declared the most expensive weather disaster in United States history.

And while these numbers themselves may seem formidable, the real devastation is the numbers of families without homes. Estimates suggest that 30,000 residents have been placed in shelters for Harvey alone.

Irma, which is still active, has already left nine dead and left millions without power. With homes, streets and businesses flooded and the hurricane season expected to continue at an unprecedented and devastating scale, livelihood, including food security, is under continual threat for millions of Americans.
Continue reading “How Chefs are Giving Back to Hurricane Victims”

Fall 2017 Trend Forecast: What’s Cooking in New York

In almost every industry, the message is clear: be ahead of the consumers, or you’re already behind.

The fashion industry is notorious for this: by July, Bazaar Magazine had already published a review of New York runway fashion-for this coming Spring.

But it’s not limited to the fashion world. In fact, personal and private chefs would do well to stay ahead of the current season and plan ahead what for what their clients may be craving. Continue reading “Fall 2017 Trend Forecast: What’s Cooking in New York”

Three Red Flags that You’re Spending too much Time on Presentation

The name alone conjures the ambiance of high art. The Art of Plating, LLC has a mission to promote culinary art, featuring high quality photography of plated dishes on its website, Facebook, and Instagram pages.

With over 560,000 followers on Instagram alone, The Art of Plating serves as a celebration of food as an art, and showcases the importance of color, balance, and plating.

David Wynne, an instructor at the Culinary Institute at Seattle, revealed in an interview that he emphasizes the importance of presentation with students. In fact, students are even delegated time to visual plating, sometimes with the unconventional methods of using play-dough, before cooking.

And while presentation and proper plating is integral to a personal or private chef appearing professional and for attracting clients (see our full article on plating methods here), chefs can make a colossal mistake. Continue reading “Three Red Flags that You’re Spending too much Time on Presentation”

Boredom is a National Crisis: Four Meals Clients are Sick of Eating

Eating Out: Health Crisis?

Six years ago, Timi Gufstafson, a registered dietician and founder of an online health network offered a solution to America’s obesity crisis. And it didn’t involve specific workout or diet plans.

Her advice was simple: Americans need to eat at home. Continue reading “Boredom is a National Crisis: Four Meals Clients are Sick of Eating”

Four Reasons why New York is a Great Place for Personal and Private Chefs

New York, with its nickname as “The Big Apple”, has long been known as a hub from arts to politics to everything in between. But while most people think about the allure of New York City, few appreciate what makes this state unique: its diversity in both demographics and culture.

In some ways, the third most populous state is a state of contrasts: with a dairy industry of over 18,000 farms, the robust wine industry in the Lower East End, and the main metropolis of New York City, home to over 8.5 million people and roadways with the notoriety of being the most congested in the nation.

But maybe because of these contrasts, it is also one of the best places for a personal or private chef to work. Here’s why. Continue reading “Four Reasons why New York is a Great Place for Personal and Private Chefs”

Three Power Ingredients to add more Vegetables to Clients’ Meals

For most personal and private chefs, catering to clients’ schedules, tastes, and preferences are central to a well run business.

But what if their preferences are detrimental to their own health?

National guidelines recommend that Americans get, at minimum, four to six cups of fruit and vegetables a day. Continue reading “Three Power Ingredients to add more Vegetables to Clients’ Meals”

Cooking Chinese? Chances are, you really Aren’t

There are more Chinese restaurants in the United States than there are Burger Kings or McDonald’s.

And there are only signs that love for Chinese food is growing: last Christmas, the number of Americans ordering Chinese at Christmas increased by over one hundred and fifty percent from the previous year.

But most chefs aren’t preparing anything close to what you’d find in China. It’s actually most likely a blend of several cuisines, including Japanese and Italian, that reflects much of the cultural infusion emblematic in the United States.

The private or personal chef hoping to execute authentic cuisine that sets themselves apart from commercialized need to understand the most common mistakes made when preparing Chinese. Continue reading “Cooking Chinese? Chances are, you really Aren’t”

Baking Hacks: Reinvent Iconic American Desserts

Let’s face it: not everyone’s a pastry chef. Not everyone knows how to construct the elegant millefeuille, the iconic french pastry with layers of airy, delicate pastry sheets.

For personal and private chefs focused on savory dishes, desserts are often an afterthought. Go to treats, like brownies, cookies, and simple sheet cakes, are well loved by many and run little risk of culinary disaster. But they also can be expected, bland, and, at worse, deter from an otherwise expertly executed and unique meal.

The good news? Not everyone has to be a pastry chef, or even go to elaborate dessert recipes to execute a memorable dessert. With these tips, chefs can elevate ordinary American classics to something elegant and worthy of an occasion Continue reading “Baking Hacks: Reinvent Iconic American Desserts”

You’re Making Salsa Wrong: Quick Fixes

While hamburgers seem quintessentially American, it turns out that they are less popular than a simple dish that didn’t begin as American at all: Tortillas, with a side of salsa.

For personal and private chefs, salsa is usually an afterthought, a side for a Tex-Mex or Latin American inspired meal. But even chefs who go a step above and beyond and make salsa from scratch, are likely doing it the wrong way. Continue reading “You’re Making Salsa Wrong: Quick Fixes”