By James Cullum
alexandrianews.org
Chef Keith Calhoun runs a Personal Chef service called Just For You. (Photo: Regan Kireilis)
After a long day at work, cooking dinner can be a chore. Wouldn’t it be nice to get home, preheat the oven and follow the instructions on a meal you took out of the freezer before you left for work that morning. In 20 minutes you could have spicy North African meatballs, couscous and peas or lamb and sweet pepper lasagna.
Hiring a personal chef may be considered extravagant during a recession, but it has saved Judy and Tom Parkins money and time.
For 20 years, Judy prepared meals for a family of four to six. “It’s just really hard to plan meals for two people,” she said. “I would go grocery shopping and plan meals and then either Tom or I would have a late meeting or I would get home from work late and just not feel like cooking. I found that I was throwing away a lot of food.”
So, late last year, Judy began researching what was involved in hiring a personal chef. “I basically wanted the convenience of having the meals prepared and brought to my home,” she said. “That’s how I found Keith Steury. Now, I spend about $450 a month for 20 dinners for two. Keith comes to my home and spends an entire day cooking the food. My only up-front cost was the purchase of some Pyrex containers, which work well in both the freezer and the microwave.
“The menus are varied and the food is terrific. I would never go back,” Judy said.
Chef Kieth Steury the Food Sherpa is a personal chef to clients throughout northern Virginia. (Photo: Regan Kireilis)
Steury, known as the Food Sherpa, works as much as he wants. “Since my son was born 15 months ago I haven’t been looking for additional clients,” he said. “I only have one slot available.”
A native of Fauquier County, Steury graduated at the top of his class from L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg. “I got my business license in June, 2007. It’s going well. The first year really went better than I expected,” he said. “I noticed the economy, I would say, in January of this year. It wasn’t that people quit using my service, but they said, ‘Hey, do you have a smaller package?’ or ‘Can you come less frequently?’ and then the emails of people interested kind of flatlined for a while.”
Steury begins his relationship with his clients with an assessment meeting. “I find out, generally speaking, what the client is interested in, send them an allergy assessment form and some other forms and then the meeting takes between 30 minutes and an hour and a half” he said. “My strengths are French and American. I do quite a bit of Asian food, particularly Chinese and Thai. I do a lot of Mediterranean stuff. My food is very eclectic. There’s a nice mix of ethnic variations. I can meet a lot of different needs.” In March, for example, Steury’s menu for the Parkins’ included: beef kabobs, skillet-barbecue pork chops, shrimp Pad Thai, Mexican chicken enchiladas and split pea and barley soup.
Steury said that having a personal chef can be extravagant. “I remember I saw this lady at the meat counter at Whole Foods and she scoffed at me. She asked me what I do and I told her and she said, ‘Can’t people cook for themselves?’ The thing is that everyone has their priorities. What I have found is that a good number of my clients have strict guidelines on what they can eat. For them it makes really good sense. My goal is to leave their kitchen clean and with a full refrigerator or freezer and a house that smells really good.
Tomato, basil, and fresh Mozzerella seasoned with Pesto by the Food Sherpa. (Photo: Regan Kireilis)
“The most popular package I sell right now is a five-by-four package, which is five entrees with four servings of each, which is 20 total servings of food, which will serve a family of four for about a week, a couple for a couple of weeks and an individual for up to a month, assuming that they’re eating the food Monday through Friday,” Steury said.
Steury is a member of a number of business associations and online groups. He is also a member of the American Personal and Private Chef’s Association. The association lists 29 personal chefs that do business in the City of Alexandria.
Alexandria based personal chef, Kieth Calhoun of Just For You. (Photo: Regan Kireilis)
Alexandrian Keith Calhoun owns “Just For You – Personal Chef” and has experienced a drop in clientèle since the recession began last year. “It hasn’t been because of my cooking, it’s been the economy. Even though I haven’t had the consistent clients lately, I still get catering jobs that come in, ” Calhoun said. “The funny thing is that with some power couples who work 10-12 hours a day, what are they gonna do? They’re going to McDonald’s and ordering pizza. It’s expensive, wasteful and, a lot of the time, it’s unhealthy.”
A native of Oakland, California, Calhoun has been cooking all of his life. He moved to Alexandria in 1997. “When I was 15 years old I was preparing meals for my seven siblings…I mainly made what you consider to be country food – pork chops, meatloaf, barbecue – food that sticks to your ribs.”
Calhoun graduated magna cum laude from the Stratford University Culinary Arts program with an emphasis on French and Italian cooking. Calhoun said that his goal is not to stuff his clients. “I want you to eat my food because it tastes good and I want it to be healthy for you,” he said. “With a personal chef you have someone who is on point with your health needs. If you’re lactose intolerant like I am, then you have someone cooking your food who knows this and you don’t have to worry about it when you eat dinner.”
Chicken breast, string beans and basamati rice with black-eyed peas from Just For You. (Photo: Regan Kireilis)
When a client hires Calhoun, the process begins with an informal consultation at the client’s home. “I talk to clients about their dietary restrictions and I usually take a sample meal with me,” he said. “My most popular package is a five day deal, which is ten three-to-four-course meals for two people. That costs $250 a week. I think I’m offering a good product at a reasonable price. Some people may say that I price myself too low, but in the long term it will serve me better to do it this way.”
Calhoun spends an entire day cooking at the client’s house. “What I do is a service,” he said. “All I require of them is that their kitchen is clean. I leave it cleaner than when I came in. I even mop the floor.”