When you think of a personal chef, you might picture someone working independently in a client’s kitchen—planning menus, shopping for ingredients, cooking, packaging meals, or preparing a beautiful dinner for a special occasion.
And while independence is certainly part of the job, the chefs of Bay Area Personal Chefs know something else is just as important:
We don’t have to do it alone.
Bay Area Personal Chefs is a small group of select professional chefs serving clients throughout the greater Bay Area. Our businesses are as diverse as the chefs behind them. Some specialize in in-home meal preparation, others in meal delivery, private dining, catering, cooking classes, or other personalized culinary experiences.
That diversity is one of our greatest strengths.
We each bring different experiences, specialties, ideas, resources, and perspectives to the table. And every so often, we make time to step away from our own kitchens and gather around one table together.
A Day in the Garden—and Behind the Camera
This summer, we gathered at the home of our president, Elizabeth Bourget, in Scotts Valley for a day of food, friendship, photography, and professional collaboration.
We started with something that comes naturally to chefs: food.
Everyone brought something to share, and we toured our host’s vegetable garden before sitting down together. There is something particularly fitting about a gathering of personal chefs centered around a garden and a shared meal. We spend our professional lives thinking about how to nourish other people, and for a little while, we got to simply enjoy being nourished ourselves.
But there was work to do, too.
We are in the process of refreshing our website and updating our professional headshots, so the cameras came out.
Our photographer, Ronnie Guinto of Ronnie Guinto Photography, who brought his talent, energy, and sense of humor to the day. Having someone who understands how to make a group of chefs feel comfortable in front of a camera made the whole experience considerably more fun.
And Then Came the Elevator Pitch
Because apparently professional headshots weren’t enough of a challenge for one afternoon, we decided—at the last minute—to challenge ourselves to create and film a 30-second elevator pitch.
Thirty seconds.
It sounds easy until someone puts a camera in front of you.
There was a lot of laughing. There was a surprising amount of forgetting our own organization’s name. There were starts, stops, do-overs, and plenty of, “Wait—what was I supposed to say next?”
I found myself helping Jonathan write and rehearse his pitch. Eventually, I made him cue cards. And when we filmed, I stood beside Ronnie, enthusiastically gesturing to Jonathan to remind him of his next talking point.
It was not exactly a Hollywood production.
But it was very us.
And somewhere between the headshots, the garden tour, the shared food, and the laughter, you could see what makes this group special.