As seen in the June 2010 Issue of Main Street Magazine.
Copyright, Rain Enterprises/Main Street Magazine, 2010.
Interview with Personal Chef Jen
Tilly Rivers
Culinary history has not officially recorded when the first personal chef opened their
doors for business. Was it hundreds of years ago, when a talented cook offered sweet morsels to
several affluent families, traveling from one estate to another? Or the first in-house chef-for-hire? While history of the personal chef may be undetermined, there is no doubt that personal chefs are now one of the hottest new cooking trends for those in whom love to entertain.
“Cooking is at once one of the simplest and most gratifying of the arts, but to cook well one must love and respect food” this phrase was quoted by Chef Craig Claiborne (1920–2000), author and New York Times food critic. MSM caught up with just such a Chef: Introducing Personal Chef Jennifer Mattka
Chef Jen, owner of Imagination Culinary Services, has been in the background of the industry for some time as a hospitality consultant helping restaurants, hotels and individuals develop everything from menus and dietary plans to full marketing and costing control assistance. Recently she has taken a leap out of the kitchen and is working on a cookbook that some say is the next cooking revolution after Julia Child's The Art of French Cooking. In the meantime, she is working as a Personal Chef and Caterer as well as a cookbook advisor to other writers both new and established.
Let’s get to know Chef Jen…
MSM: Please tell the readers what a 'personal chef' is.
JM: My sort of Personal Chef is a Chef/Cook/Nutritionist who does everything from food shopping to small dinner parties to meal planning and nutrition advice. Typically people who hire Personal Chefs are health aware individuals who do not have the time to cook for themselves and require an alternative to living out of fast food cartons. For a typical client a Personal Chef will consult with the client to discover what their nutritional requirements are, if they have any unique health issues, and provide a meal plan as required (daily, weekly, monthly). If the client does not have the time, the Personal Chef will shop for all of the ingredients required after working out an extensive food budget with the client. The Personal Chef then goes to the client's home, prepares all meals and properly stores the meals so that the client has healthy, nutritious, selections every day or as required. For some clients a Personal Chef will cook fresh every day and for others a week's worth of meals are prepared in one day and then stored at the client's location so that the client can pick and choose their variety for each day. A Personal Chef will also be called upon by clients to prepare and serve unique meals for intimate dinners or small dinner parties. The possibilities and reasons to have a Personal Chef in the list of professionals you keep in your contact list is endless. We even take calls for quick cooking tips in the middle of those "oh no I ruined it" moments and will give in-home cooking lessons here and there.
MSM: Why did you choose cooking as a career?
JM: That's simple - I'm passionate about food. I come from a long line of very passionate foodies, cooks and bakers. Every amazing memory I have from childhood forward is surrounded by some sort of equally amazing food experience. I'm lucky enough as well to have been raised in a way that always expanded my pallet to knew and interesting flavours and textures. I give credit to my Mother for seeing the passion in me at an early age and allowing me to experiment like a mad scientist in her kitchen whenever the mood stuck. She allowed the artist to thrive and from there the passion was born. To stand on your feet for hours preparing every sort of food you can imagine requires a passion that transforms the work into a joy. Cooking is an absolute joy for me and my greatest art form. I'm also very nutritionally aware. I love when I'm able to get people excited about vegetables. It sounds odd but when you can take a person who commonly eats just meat and starches to jumping up and down over broccoli and kale, you know you're doing something right. One of my greatest joys beyond creating my own unique art/recipes is when I watch their faces light up like children at Christmas as the plates are placed on the table and their eyes sparkle more and more with every bite. There is so much you can do with food that it is only limited by the imagination - colour, flavour, texture, appearance - the passion is always fuelled in some way every day and the reaction to your art is instantaneous.
MSM: As a Canadian chef, do you find the seasonal offerings of food to be an asset or hindrance?
JM: Ontario is a treasure chest of produce and I encourage people to buy locally and organically whenever possible not just because of the fact that traveled fruits and vegetables are often chemically altered in some way to make the trip, but to keep our local farmers in business providing the best of the best. And before anyone starts an argument of cost - the more we buy local the less expensive local will become. I don't think the seasons hinder us so much as challenge us to keep creating unique dishes for every season. The one thing Chef's in this area need to learn is canning - to have a wonderful red tomato sauce made with perfect Ontario organic tomatoes in the dead of winter requires that we have honed our skills in preserving. Every good Chef should know how to do this regardless.
MSM: What are the differences in the industry you face as a woman?
JM: As a woman? I am actually treated with greater respect. Women (sorry guys) have a much more complex and sensitive pallet and therefore our ability to taste is much more heightened. We have a tendency to be allowed by our superiors to be much more experimental with sauces and so forth than that of our male counterparts. That being said, women in this industry have to work a little harder still to reach higher planes in the field and that's really ok because the pressure to put more effort into your art the better you become. We're still learning however to do what the men in the industry do - market ourselves. We're learning to get out here, get our faces and personalities known, and gain the trust of the people who take an interest in our food and skills. Men have paved the way for the do's and don'ts in this area.
MSM: Chefs at one point in time where considered male domain, do you ever run into this now? If so how do you handle it? If not, why do you think that is?
JM: Well it is a very male dominated industry still - even as the last great generation of cooks enters retirement there are still more men entering the industry than women. That's a result of a number of factors - the highest of which is mobility. Fact is however, way--way back it was exclusively a female dominated field but the men in the industry took it to the next level - so you must respect them for where we are today. Yet, as the times are changing we're seeing more and more female Executive Chefs who own their own part of the industry - for every Escoffier there is a Julia Child - For every Jamie Kennedy there is a Lynn Crawford. Gone is the Chef who yells and screams and tries to break up and coming cooks that would quickly chase the females out of the commercial kitchens. Yes I know you still see it on TV but any Chef today knows that the way to grow and enhance a person's skills is by guiding them confidently and not berating them until they leave the industry. The screaming that you see going on in Kitchens today is typical of old school - Women have a great deal to do with changing the method of correcting cooks by being often more diplomatic and encouraging than reactionary - but then again I've seen my share of female Chefs lose it in high stress service times. We also have a tendency to stand up to tyrants instead of backing down, holding back tears, and trying to make it through the day. This confidence that we are just as good as our male counterparts is directly related to the role models we have out there now like Lynn Crawford, Monica Pope, Elizabeth Falkner, Susan Feniger and Deborah Reid to name a few.
MSM: Do you think personal chefs get the same credit as other chefs?
JM: No. I think a lot of people see Personal Chefs in the light of food-maid, basically because there is still a lack of understanding for what a Personal Chef is and what they can do for the individual household. We're the Nanny-911 in the food industry - it will just take some time for people to understand what impact we actually have on health standards, food safety, and proper eating within the home environment. A Personal Chef is your personal Nutritionist, Meal Planner, Cook, Caterer, and Party Planner - try getting another sort of Chef to do that for you personally and within your budget.
MSM: What are the major differences in your opinion between your career as a personal chef and that of a chef in a restaurant? Good and Bad
JM: It takes much longer to become known as a Personal Chef and much more effort in the area of marketing and getting the word out. When you have a restaurant as your base to get your name out there, provided your food and service are top notch, people talk about you more often. On the other hand, a Personal Chef's career can't be killed from one bad review. We don't have the constant headaches of restaurant reviews, critics, and pressure to beat the guy down the street. Location, parking, rent, landlords who don't fix things, big industry equipment - all are not an issue for us because we cook in the client's home and plan around what is available in their kitchen. There's a lot less pressure in many respects.
MSM: What are your long term plans?
JM: That's quite a loaded question. I'm working on a cookbook of course that I plan to launch in the next year or so which I feel will revolutionize meal planning entirely. Beyond that I'm continuing to grow my Personal Chef and Catering business. I'd like to eventually have a nice cafe/bakery/catering company with a sweet homey feel by the water and I plan to teach nutritional cooking at some point.
MSM: What are you known for? {Signature dish}
JM: I'm very slanted toward Mediterranean and vegetarian dishes - I have a wonderful Italian Vegetable Stew that is a star in my collection as well as Muscles Mariniere and I'm always asked for my Chocolate Mocha Mousse, Vegan Apple Pie, and Vegetarian Lasagnas. As of late my braised Lamb Shank has become quite popular and I have my own unique sauces that I'm quite proud of. My Contadino Patate (Peasant Potatoes) is a previous signature dish that I now share with anyone for the asking - you can get the recipe for by going to http://rouxbe.com/recipes/1375-caspacci-contadino-patate-peasant-potatoes/text and I'm extremely fond of my fresh pastas.
MSM: Anything else you would like to add?
JM: Yes. Cook Happy. Food is not a chore - it should be a joy and the joy you put into it's preparation is reflected in it's appearance and taste. Never enter a kitchen in a bad mood or prepare food while upset and angry - your energy is transferred directly to your final product. Always take the time to breathe, plan, and enjoy the ride through preparing yet another successful meal - and you will succeed. An include your family in the food decisions and preparation - I'd love to see everyone go back to the kitchen and give their children the wonderful childhood experiences of happiness and good times around healthy food.
My online portfolio can be viewed on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/jendechef