Upcoming cooking demo, and 3x6 menu on Wednesday

I am working with Healthy Connections to include a healthy cooking demo and tasting in their health and wellness fairs. It is a great way to promote both healthy lifestyle and my personal chef business, show off my fancy pots and pans, meet new people, and make some money in the process.

Next week I will be doing my demo for a Silicon Valley company of 100 employees. The menu includes my Quinoa and Mushrooms Pilaf, and Daikon and Zucchini Salad with Lemon Dressing from USPCA recipe forum. To perfect the recipes and timing, I include one or both of these in all my clients menus these days. They don't mind.

My Wednesday clients already had the quinoa pilaf a while ago, loved it, and learned to cook it, so they were happy when I offered to repeat it this week. Most other recipes for this menu come from the last issue of Fine Cooking magazine and from their website.

Salad:

Zucchini and daikon with lemon dressing

Soup:
Cream of broccoli soup with almonds
Entrees:
Beef braciola with mozzarella and basil
Coriander-crusted pork tenderloin
Five-spice glazed salmon

Sides:
Quinoa pilaf with mushrooms
Roasted Brussels sprouts with lemon and parmigano
Seasame green beans

I was too busy to photograph everything, and the lighting was not the best, but here here is the beef brasiola, without the sauce.

Here it is covered with a sauce of onion, tomato, mushrooms, and red wine.

Now is the short season when you don't have to choose between using tomatoes of any kind available, but fresh, or real San Marzano variety, but canned. Fresh San Marzanos were $2 a pound at San Mateo Farmers Market, and the overripe "softies" (perfect for the sauce) $1 a pound. I wish this season never ended...

Party appetizers for 20

Shrimp cocktail with basil-mango sauce
Sun dried tomato and goat cheese tarts
Mushroom empanadas
Summer fruits salad with arugula and almonds
Cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls, marinated eggplant, garlic lemon mushrooms on skewers
Aioli

3x6 service on Monday for a new client

Salad:
Caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes

Entrees:

Roasted Cornish hens with rosemary and thyme

Pork chops with ginger peach sauce

Beef carbonnade

Sides:

Garlic “smashed” potatoes

Quinoa pilaf with mushrooms

Roasted tomatoes

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I found out why my cookdates has been so long. I blame the soups.  I always try to make the soups interesting and unique; as a result, I add almost two hours to each work day! The new client didn't care for a soup. I was done by 2:30, free to explore kitchen and grocery stores the rest of the day.

These clients live in a couple of block from County Restaurant Supply store. If they decide to hire me on a regular basis, I should be careful not to spend all my earnings right away!

Todays 3x6 service menu

Salad:

Summer fruit salad with arugula and almonds

Soup:

Tomato and fresh basil

Entrees:

Lamb with pears
Roasted Cornish hens with rosemary and thyme
Garlic shrimp

Sides:

Green bean ragout
Steamed cauliflower
Saffron rice

4x6 service menu for tomorrow

Salad:
- Summer fruit salad with arugula and almonds

Soup:
- Pepper and tomato soup

Main:
- Pan fried halibut in white wine sauce
- Free range chicken saltimbocca
- Goulash
- Roasted leg of lamb with Mediterranean herbs

Sides:
- Rosemary fingerling potatoes
- Ratatouille
- Saffron rice
- Carrots and beans

3x6 service 8/18/2010

Salad:
Classic Greek Salad

Soup:
Summer Minestrone

Entrees:
Mediterranean sole with tomatoes, olives and green beans
Goulash
Pork chops with ginger peach sauce

Sides:
Roasted summer squashes
Polenta
Glazed carrots

Extra:
Mixed vegetable salad with lemon vinaegrette dressing - crew lunch for the housecleaners

3x6 service 1/8/2010

Salad:
Wild arugula and mizuna with roast beets, blue lake beans and zucchini ribbons

Soup:
Cream of peppers

Main:
Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic
Braised lamb shanks
Halibut with lemon-herb salsa

Sides:
Rosemary roasted fingerling potatoes
Marinated eggplant and peppers
Wild mushroom red quinoa pilaf

I got to use my client's new Tec Infrared grill! It's fantastic.

I'm a movie star!

My friends I. and V. had been playing recently with creating and editing videos, so the last time we had a dinner together at me place they recorded me doing two simple cooking demos, and now I have them on video:




I got so excited about the videos that I put them on my cooking website and in both my blogs, and now I am thinking of what else I can do on camera: boil water? crack an egg? make Turkish coffee?

Client frustration, and other start-up issues

I got a first call from my website yesterday. The lady was inquiring about a house dinner party of 14, which is perfect for me. She left me her phone number, and promised to call to discuss the detailes after she gets home from work at 6:30.

She didn't call, and at 7:15 I dialed the number she gave me, and after 7 rings there was someone either very young or very old, who didn't understand what I was talking about.

I'm so frustrated: I already started planning this dinner party...

Caliblini Personal Chef Service had done a hell of a lot of networking recently, and is running out of business cards. So I went to Vistaprint website and ordered 2,500 of them. That's more business cards then I ever had in all my corporate life.

USPCA Bay Area chapter meeting

The US Personal Chef Association local chapter meeting was the most fun of all the networking events I've been to so far.
The ladies are friendly and supportive; just as I suspected, there are so few of us, and we are spread over such a huge territory, that there is no fear of competition (although there are jokes about it); and, of course, the food is great.
The meeting was in Chef Dawn's beautiful home in Dublin, and consisted of a 3-hour long continuous friendly chat, some of it even about business. The current business is getting the chapter website properly redesigned, with the goal of it becoming the best site in the Association. Of course I was made very welcome, and added to the website work group right away. With Chef Garbo's beautiful pictures and knowledge of advertizement, and my technical background, I'm sure we can do it!

There was also a guest speaker - a digital videographer - and a talk about getting all of us cooking on camera, and then producing one large video for the chapter website, and short individual clips for chefs' websites. Love the idea.

Celebrating the Personal Chef Appreciation Day

According to the message I got from USPCA, today is the Personal Chef Appreciation Day.

I am celebrating by participating in another BNI meeting (Peninsula Connections in Belmont; very small cozy group; the impression that most members are new start-ups with few customers, just like myself, but pretend to be bigger, is still there, but not so strong as in other chapters; humane meeting time - 8:30 on Fridays; awful food; Russian CPA that I may or may not know from my previous life; good looking personal trainer; I'm still not sure that it's worth the fee), California Sauvignon Blanc, figs with blue cheese, and making piroshki for the local USPCA chapter meeting tomorrow.

I got myself invited to the local chapter meeting, and the president told me that it's in one of the members home in Dublin, and, after I asked, that it's OK to bring food. She didn't tell me much more. It appears that most PCs are as introverted as I am, and I rather like it. We'll see.

So I figured that it's my chance to start on my mission of making Russian cuisine one of the recognized World cuisines. I'm making piroshki with beef and with mushrooms. A lot of kneading, grinding and chopping involved. After watching Food, Inc. I don't buy ground meats anymore. I didn't like them before, and I used to complain that you can taste pieces of skin, hoof, and horn that go into them. But after seeng how durty these grinders are, I don't even want to taste the ground meats in order to complain. So I buy top round or chuck roasts, wash, dry and grind them. Even in my temperamental old fashioned manual grinder it only takes a few minutes (+ 30 minutes for the clean-up).

In recognition of local tastes, I am making everything much spicier than my grandma used to make. The beef piroshki filling is seasoned with red onion, garlic, bacon, red wine, oregano, smoked paprika, and a lot of salt and pepper. Mushroom filling got white wine, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and white truffle oil. Yes, I have run out of onions; otherwise it would be mushroom-onion filling.

Practice cooking dates menus

The two practice dates that I've done so far were both 3/2 (3 meals, 2 servings each) and they took about 7 hours each, including shopping and chatting with the "clients". I've done lots of extras for these two, just because I love them. The menus:

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One:

- Heirloom tomato salad with mozzarella fresco and balsamic vinaigrette

- Pan fried sturgeon in white wine sauce
Sautéed fingerling potatoes and summer squashes

- Tender braised pork shoulder
Quinoa, garlic green beans

- Free range chicken saltimbocca
Mushrooms and green peas risotto

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Two:

- Salad of baby greens with goat cheeses and orange

- Wild salmon fillets en papillottes with wild mushrooms and fava beans

- Braised lamb shanks
Garlic mashed potatos

- Rosemary roasted Cornish hens
Roasted seasonal vegetables, quinoa

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Everything was refrigerated, and neither of the guys had to freeze anything, they just ate it fresh.

Cooking date this Sunday

I have a cooking date (practice with friends again, they only pay for the groceries) for my food start-up this Sunday.

The menu:

- Cream of carrot soup

- Summer vegetable salad, sherry vinaigrette dressing

- Halibut en papillottes with wild mushrooms and spring onions - 2 fresh servings

- Goulash, garlic mashed potatoes - 2 servings refrigerated, 2 frozen

- Pork chops with ginger orange sauce, red quinoa - 2 refrigerated, 2 frozen.

It doesn't make sense to freeze the quinoa, I'll just put it in the fridge.

I am also going to make them a large stockpot of chicken stock, and freeze it in 1 quart freezer bags. The guy likes to cook himself, but he's super busy, and he's been complaining that he never has time to make stocks. I think he just doesn't have a right technique. When done right, the stock doesn't take any time, it just cooks itself.

See if I can do it all (including shopping at the farmers market and two grocery stores, one regular, one Asian) in 7 hours.

My friend who disappeared after my last test cooking date is fine, and says he enjoyed the food a lot, and lost a couple of pounds in the process. It was just a phone glitch. However, he still hasn't returned the containers. So I got another set of beautiful Pyrex containers for the coming one.

Networking

I went to a business networking breakfast for NAWBO (National Assotiation of Women Business Owners) this morning. Wonderful Marin County ladies, from a real estate lawyer to a meditation instructor, well dressed, well spoken, friendly, mean business. Does it have to be 7:30 in the morning?

One of them invited me to the local BNI (Business Network International) meeting tomorrow. It's at 7 am. I am going.

Yes, your own business means that you set your own hours. As long as it's 7 am to 12 midnight.

Photo session

After making my culinary business website public, I sent it out to everyone I know to evaluate.


So it's been reviewed by food stylists (seems to be OK), chefs and food enterpreneurs (very little response yet, looks like everyone is on vacations), a few food fans, and a number of Internet security specialists. It appears that from the point of view of Internet security, browser compartability, usability, and other technical issues, I'm all right - I've been checked by the best.


On the other hand, the response from USPCA message board is limited and mostly critical - I don't know whether they have seen too many personal chef sites, or just use old computers with obsolete browsers, - but they complain about too small fonts, old boring content, and drab colors.

After my friend M., neither food nor Internet professional, but a charming lady with lots of connections, saw my site, she wanted the buckwheat pancakes from the top picture so badly that she arranged for two friends, one photography inthusiast, another a new home owner with a nice kitchen with a view, to have a photo session where I made the pancakes, and they photographed me.

So last Saturday M. and the guys got the pancakes, and I got photos for my website. I tend to get very stiff and forget to smile on the camera, even though I don't get a stage fright. Luckily, a glass or two of wine relax me just fine. On Sunday I brought snacks to Y.'s sailboat, and got photographed again.

This Sunday I had my friends I. and V. over for dinner, and they videotaped me dressing a salad and grilling vegetables. I haven't seen the videos yet, but I bet I forgot to smile again. The salad and vegs came out great though.

Hello, World!

This blog is dedicated to my dear little culinary start-up, Caliblini Personal Chef Service.
It's my first business enterprise ever, and I am going to write about my adventures, joys and pains of developing the business as I go.

People say that in terms of time and effort required, starting a business is like raising a child. I am in the delivery phase now: after almost a year of taking classes, developing a business model, doing paperwork and working on the website, I sent out the information about Caliblini to most people I know who are interested in food last night. The response is mostly positive, and it's encouraging. I am out of the closet now, and ask my friends to spread the word.

I also did a beta test: provided a free personal chef service to two of my best friends last Saturday and Sunday. It looks like they are both still alive, although one doesn't answer his phone and his voice mail box is full, which worries me enormously. I have two more couples lined up for testing, but I won't cook for them until I find out what happened to Y.

The business cards arrived today. They are super cute, with a picture of a paella, and "Eat well. Eat at home." and my contact info on one side, and "Delicious homecooked meals" and www.caliblini.com on the other. I used stock template from www.vistaprint.com, it just happened to fit my business image perfectly.

I am out in the world.

Wish me luck.