Cleveland Caterers Cleveland, OH

Cleveland personal chefs discuss their services

What services do you offer?

Anne Lancione: "I cook meals in my clients' home. I also do dinner parties and cocktail parties."

Carolyn Hamilton: "I usually cook for a week or two for a family. I do catering in home for up to 100 people. I also fill refrigerators and pantries."

Michelle Louise Jalowiec: "I offer personal chef services. I do dinner parties and catered events. I've also done cooking lessons."

How do you charge for your services, and what's the cost?

Lancione: "My fee for five dinners is $250 plus the cost of food. Four dinners are $225 and three are $200."

Hamilton: "It's a fee plus groceries. For catering, it's hourly plus groceries. A week's worth of meals ranges from $175 to around $300, plus groceries."

Jalowiec: "An average cost for five dinners serving four people starts at $385, and that includes the cost of groceries, meal planning, shopping and food preparation."

What's your experience in the industry?

Lancione: "I joined the American Personal and Private Chef Association about a year ago. I'm a self-taught cook. I'm a mom of four, and I've been cooking for my own family since I was 12."

Hamilton: "I went to cooking school in the 1990s, but it's hard to raise kids and work in restaurants, so I became a personal assistant and got bored with that. So I started to do in-home cooking as well."

Jalowiec: "I got started almost six years ago. I've always enjoyed cooking and entertaining."

What types of food do you make?

Lancione: "Home-cooked meals such as pastas, chicken entrees - homestyle cooking."

Hamilton: "There's no particular genre outside of healthy and delicious comfort food with an exotic twist."

Jalowiec: "I guess it leans more toward a California fresh cuisine with a lot of fresh herbs."

What dish is your specialty?

Lancione: "I would say my turkey-apple meatloaf. I usually make that first and people tend to love it."

Hamilton: "Beef. When you get a piece of good beef in your mouth it's like really good sex."

Jalowiec: "I do enjoy cooking Mexican food. I love to make pulled pork tacos with a green salsa."

What's one spice or ingredient you couldn't live without and why?

Lancione: "It would have to be garlic. I'm married to an Italian and he could eat it breakfast, lunch and dinner."

Hamilton: "Fresh herbs. Fresh is something that makes everything just taste better and on a higher note. I grow my own."

Jalowiec: "I love my fresh herbs so I think without them I'd be pretty limited. Special salts and fresh cracked pepper is pretty good, too."

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