Office E-Newsletter of American Personal & Private Chef Association

From Candy Wallace,
Executive Director

I hope everyone experienced a wonderful and joyous Thanksgiving!

Your association has much to be thankful for. Our Personal Chef Summit in San Diego in October was a huge success, filled with quality presentations on prevailing issues, inspiration and assistance with growing a personal-chef business, professional development, great food, and non-stop learning and networking. Thanks to all members and presenters who committed their time to making our 2006 Summit a truly wonderful experience for all.

Thanks also to our dedicated sponsors and partners: DuPont and Teflon, The Insurance Exchange, Academia Barilla and Chefwear, Inc..

The biggest news to be unveiled at our Summit was the result of our six-month rebranding effort. I am honored to announce our new name and organizational change to: American Personal & Private Chef Association.

This news and new direction are truly exciting for all of us. We will be embracing and representing an additional, and compatible, segment of the foodservice industry, private chefs.

We are the ONLY organization to represent both of these specialized segments of the foodservice industry. Once again, we are there to lead the parade and move the career paths forward to acceptance by the general public and the foodservice industry as a whole.

Why? Private chefs, like personal chefs, are dedicated to the production of healthy, custom-designed, delicious meals for their clients that meet the standards and parameters of clients’ lives and likes. Celebrating the commonalities of the two career segments will strengthen and forward the action for both careers and enable them to grow and thrive as vibrant and viable career choices for culinary professionals.

How? By developing and offering training materials and programs to assist aspiring private chefs, representing current private chefs who are exploring new employment opportunities, and providing places and methods for private chefs to network and exchange information and ideas, as well as to provide a framework for clients seeking a private chef.

What else is new about APPCA? Lots!

New logo
New Web site
New opportunities for students to learn and grow with us through student membership
New opportunities through scholarship programs:
- One annual scholarship through Women Chefs & Restaurateurs
- Four annual scholarships through the U.S. Military
- Two annual continuing-education scholarships for APPCA members
- One annual full-training scholarship to a student member
New Summit experiences: in even-numbered years, an annual Summit in the United States; in odd-numbered years, an international culinary/food tour for APPCA members and guests.

The new APPCA is here to support its members, old and new, so help us celebrate our new organization. We invite you to participate in the new APPCA, and enjoy building and operating your personal-chef and private-chef experiences with APPCA.

Please don’t hesitate to be in touch, and remember to keep it personal!

APPCA announces new member category.

Calling All Students!!

Now, students enrolled in foodservice- or hospitality-training programs of accredited postsecondary institutions, Job Corps programs or recognized culinary- or baking/pastry-apprenticeship programs may join APPCA for only $75 a year.

Mangia! Join APPCA in Italy

Join APPCA in Italy for the 2007 Personal & Private Chef Summit

Chef-members and their guests are invited to attend the American Personal & Private Chef Association’s interactive culinary-training Summit at Academia Barilla in Parma, Italy, November 4-9, 2007

Post-Thanksgiving recipe

Sweet Potato & Turkey Hash
by Chef Sara Foster

Foster’s Market, which opened in 1990 by a caterer and former chef to Martha Stewart, is a specialty and takeout food store that offers casual dining. Customers keep coming back for lunchtime gatherings and special-occasion takeout dinners.

Audrey Heckwolf, on being a private chef

A Michigan chef expounds upon the joys and challenges of working exclusively for one family.

By Brent T. Frei

Audrey Heckwolf was a private chef in Grand Rapids, Mich., for more than six years before joining Grand Rapids Community College in January 2006 as assistant professor for advanced tableservice through the school’s fine-dining restaurant, The Heritage, which is open to the public. In her new role, she oversees evening service for the award-winning restaurant and teaches service to students enrolled in GRCC’s culinary- and hospitality-degree programs.

Personal Chef Training

Two-Day Personal-Chef Training Seminar at L’Academie de Cuisine, Gaithersburg, Md., Feb. 3-4

The personal-chef industry has expanded enormously and blossomed into a recognized career path, with the demand for high-quality food and service growing each year in the Washington, D.C., area. L’Academie de Cuisine is pleased to partner with APPCA to deliver a dynamic two-day, high-intensity seminar providing the best tools and educational materials in the industry for you to operate a successful personal-chef business.

Member Musings: Dress for success

Be “One” with the Chef Coat: the Zen of an Image

By Chef Terry Riesterer
Paragon Chef, Hoffman Estates, Ill.

When I started my business six years ago, I worried that potential clients would pick my brain about cooking techniques, demand which culinary school I went to, and test me somehow on the different sizes of a small dice, julienne or batonnet. Well, they didin’t. No one asked me about the mother sauces (often called the grand sauces) or even the many bacteria I had to learn about. No, they took one look at me and were reassured that I knew my stuff. This perplexed me for some time, and then it hit me. It’s the uniform. It’s the chef coat.

Side Dish

Candy Wallace is “Chef of the Month” on Chef2Chef.net
Italian cheese dubbed a “lactic orgasm”
Free recipes using convenience-added products
Open a can, win a grand
Get the spin on citrus flavors and aromas
Spirit of the harvest: Native American recipes
APPCA Partner: Chefwear, Inc. Order official APPCA apparel!..