Kitchen Aide Busy families, singles finding personal chefs perfect way to get healthful, no-fuss meals

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When Tammy Boynton is making the hourlong trip home after work, she is thinking about what card games she might play later with her husband and their 14-year-old son, not about what she might make for dinner.

That decision, along with the steak salad, fish chowder or shepherd’s pie sitting in the refrigerator, has already been made for her.

Boynton works as many as 65 hours a week and her husband owns his own business. They are among the wave of working people hiring personal chefs to cook their meals.

Once considered a luxury for the rich, personal chefs have become popular among working families, on-the-go singles and busy professionals willing to pay extra to make sure they eat healthfully.

“I didn’t have time to cook. We were eating pizza and chicken nuggets,” Boynton said. “It just feels good to be able to come home, sit down and, within 10 minutes of coming through the door, have a meal.”

According to the American Personal Chef Association, there are more than 6,000 personal chefs working in the United States today. Collectively, they serve 72,000 clients and generate $52 million a year in revenue.

The U.S. Personal Chef Association, another support network for the profession, expects the field to increase tenfold over the next 20 years.

Locally, personal chefs say they are finding plenty of work.

Karylyn Bayerdorffer of Monson, owner of The Maine Ingredient, said some of her clients can be described as well off but most are middle-class parents who would rather spend their time doing something other than cooking, planning meals and shopping for food.

“They know they can come home and get other things done,” she said. “It is a matter of priority on what they can do to make their family run smoothly. You have to keep it all in check or you’re going to go crazy.”

Hilary Rackliff of Rockport, owner of Entrez, cooks for the Boyntons every other Wednesday. She travels to their home in Cushing, with groceries and cooking utensils in tow, and prepares in one day enough food to last two weeks.

Her minivan is loaded with measuring cups, cooking racks, oven mitts, knives and cutting boards, anything she might need for a full day of cooking in someone else’s house.

She might make pasta salad, braised beef, orzo with mushrooms or macaroni and cheese made from scratch. Customers tell her what they like and dislike. After about six hours of slicing, stirring and seasoning, she packs the foods into labeled containers and stocks the freezer. She cleans up after herself and leaves behind reheating directions.

By the time she’s finished, she has put in an eight- or nine-hour workday.

“It is physically demanding,” she said. “But I love it. I’ve always been a foody. But I’ve found [this job] is not just a food thing. It’s about the people. I like taking care of them.”

It’s not cheap to hire a personal chef, and fees sometimes vary depending upon how frequently chefs cook and how expensive the ingredients are.

Brian Krum, owner of Dinners by Design, might charge a bit more if his ingredients are all organic or if he’s cooking something like chateaubriand or roast duck. Normally, five different entrees for four people costs $300.

Rackliff’s standard service is $350 for eight entrees and eight side dishes. Bayerdorffer also charges a flat rate, $400 for seven entrees and 16 side dishes. That might include chicken alfredo lasagna, spicy peanut soup, risotto or whatever a customer requests.

Others, like Linda Hunt of Winter Harbor, charge on a per-meal basis, typically $14 to $18 per meal. The more meals she cooks at once, the lower the price goes.

Most people ask her to prepare 10 entrees at a time. Sometimes she makes curried peach pork or ravioli Parmigiana. Other times it’s jambalaya and chili.

Hunt, who wears an apron decorated with pots and pans and grows her own herbs, started her part-time personal chef business, called The Wicked Whisk, about three years ago. Since then, she has cooked for new parents busy caring for infants and people on restrictive diets. One of her regular clients is a Boston researcher who slips into a pattern of eating junk food when her job gets hectic.

Generally, she said, her customers are people who are “tired about worrying about what they eat.”

“I love to cook,” she said. “It’s fun and I feel very good when people like my food.”

Krum, who lives in Union, said most of his regular customers are summer vacationers from New York or New Jersey. Other times, people have purchased his services as gifts for friends.

A restaurant-trained chef who started his own business about two years again, Krum said the best part of the job is creating interesting menus.

“I like meeting with people and planning a menu for them that will please them,” he said. “Most of the clients are more interested in comfort meals, things they liked from their childhood.”

Boynton said having a personal chef has been well worth the extra expense. Her family has more time to spend together and is eating healthier foods.

“It is a necessity because we eat right,” she said. “And it is a luxury for me to have that time. My son is eating brussel sprouts and asparagus. He never ate that for me.”

Those who work as personal chefs say the job is as appropriate for them as it is for their customers.

Rackliff, who is married and has two boys, ages 3 and 6, said she earns more with her cooking business than she did working in social services for 10 years. More importantly, she has more time to spend with her sons.

“I always wanted my own restaurant but I also wanted family time,” she said. “I wanted to go to their soccer games and piano recitals.”

Bayerdorffer said the job also gives her the flexibility to be with her own family, which includes four children between the ages of 10 and 2. And at the end of a busy day, the smiles and thank-yous she gets from her customers are the biggest reward.

“It is so much better than a big paycheck,” she said. “I could do this for the next 50 years and be happy.”

To find a personal chef in your area, visit the American Personal Chef Association at www.personalchef.com, the U.S. Personal Chef Association at www.uspca.com or do a search at www.hireachef.com

Recipe for Success

According to the American Personal Chef Association, there are more than 6,000 personal chefs working in the United States today. Collectively, they serve 72,000 clients and generate $52 million a year in revenue.