Lately I’ve been daydreaming about having a personal chef at my beck and call, ready to whip up whatever I’m craving when I want it. I even started an Evernote note listing a bunch of the dishes and types of food I like so my future chef can be prepared for all that I may request. While my desires aren’t particularly hard to meet since my tastes are simple, it would be so nice to be able to eat exactly what I want without the normal restrictions of either having to cook the dish myself or finding that the restaurant offering that dish is not in the vicinity or is closed. After all, I’m not a very good cook and unfortunately my favorite dishes are scattered around the country at various restaurants that I usually don’t get to go to except for special occasions.
This all started when a friend was telling me about one time when she had a business meeting with an affluent businessman who she was pitching an idea to. He met with her at a restaurant that he owned and the chef asked her about the foods that she liked, then went to the kitchen and whipped up what she remembers as one of the best dishes she ever had. That sort of planted this whole fantasy into my head about a personal chef, since I often crave things that I don’t have access to and/or am unable to make myself. Most recently I had a lovely Northern Chinese style seaweed dish that is a traditional cold appetizer or side dish, which had a really lovely sauce that I wouldn’t know how to replicate. I could track down some dried seaweed at an Asian market and mix it up with some of the sauces at home, but it wouldn’t taste anything like what was provided at the restaurant.
Wouldn’t it be great if someone could figure that all out for me? Much like people with perfect pitch, I’m sure there are those out there who can taste a dish and replicate it almost exactly. Then I not only save the effort of trying to figure out how to make it taste like that, but I also get to skip the whole preparing and making it process. I’d definitely need a capable chef who can make close imitations to my favorite dishes in a broad scope of styles, including Northern and Southern Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Ethiopian, Mongolian, Italian, French, British, and American spanning everything from appetizers, soups, salads, side dishes, entrees, and desserts. Oh, and in just about every cooking method as well… baking, stir frying, broiling, steaming, dehydrating, sizzling on a platter, and who knows what else.
What I wouldn’t want is someone who is too classically-trained, since they’d probably be happier making some weird dishes that are way too classy for me. I like simple foods – comfort food, finger food, and plain old tasty food. I’ve never really been into steaks, I don’t like lobster, and I hate caviar. I don’t go for “weird” body parts (I’m sure that’s all relative) and I generally am perfectly happy eating as a pescetarian, though certain dishes just aren’t the same without meat. Oh, and I love desserts, so that’s a total must! With that said… any takers? 😉 Well, I’m sure that one day down the line I’ll make this dream come true to some extent. I might have to hire a couple of chefs to handle the variety though!
