The Journey Begins
Welcome to my first of what I hope is many blog posts. I want this to be an exploration of food and the food industry, as well as general observations on things I find interesting. I will highlight different cuisines, specific dishes, and even chefs and cooks that I find fascinating. These are obviously my own personal opinions, but I enter this project with a completely open mind and a child like wonder, and I hope to learn as much as I can through this journey. Each post will be a shallow but hopefully thorough dive into a subject with my own musings and input, and will include a recipe at the end that will relate to that subject and hopefully help you explore the concepts on your own as well. I appreciate all feedback and suggestions. You can reach out to me at chefjeff@gourmetinyourhome.com if you have anything you want me to check out or highlight. I hope that you enjoy the content as much as I am going to enjoy creating it.
For the first subject we are going to explore, I'm going to be a little introspective and highlight a little about my current journey. I am a Personal Chef. What exactly does that mean? What do I even do? That's what I'm hoping to shed light on in this post. A little background on me. The food world has always been a part of me. Almost every job I have ever held has been in and around the food world. An I have held nearly every title. From Dishwasher, to line cook, to Executive Chef, and everything in between. And I loved it. I got to create dishes and share my love of serving delicious meals to people a reality. I got to lead an army of cooks in a well choreographed dance known as Service. But here's the dirty little secret about the restaurant industry. The hours are awful. 70 to 80 hour weeks are the norm and weekend and holidays with the family? Forget about it. Its all fine when you are young have no real obligations. But sooner or later, life happens for all of us. And when it does, the shine kind of wears off. For me, life came in the form of marriage and a daughter. And while, its not the same for everyone (there are plenty of chefs out there that manage to maintain a proper family life and run successful restaurants), for me the urge to be home with my family was just too strong. And so I took a step back, and then another, and another until I was back at square one, working as a line cook again. And then I took more steps back and completely removed myself from the food world all together. But the desire to cook and to serve never really leaves you. So I was forced with a dilemma. How to itch the scratch of cooking for others while maintaining a “normal” life. The answer for me came believe it or not in the form of reality tv. The show was 'Next Level Chef', the brand new Gordon Ramsay project. One of the participants in her introductory video montage revealed herself to be a Personal Chef. I started to investigate what a Personal Chef was and that's when my life changed. I always thought a Personal Chef was the live in Chef who is at the beck and call for an individual or family. But here is the surprise I learned—that's a Private Chef. A Personal Chef is different. Rather than serving the same client day in and day out, the Personal Chef is able to work for many different clients for many different events. Personal Chefs are able to choose when and for whom they get to cook and serve. And that's where I had my epiphany. I had the freedom to cook what I want, when I want, and for who I wanted. And this is how I was able to solve the problem I had. How to continue my love for food while being able to spend time with my family. And so I began my journey as a Personal Chef. I created my business, Gourmet In Your Home, and launched my website and the rest is history. I've been able to cook amazing meals for some really cool people. This has been such a cool experience and I am so excited to see where it takes me!
Now for the recipe portion of the blog. This recipe is the Summer Cheesecake I made for a recent event. The idea for this recipe was trying to highlight the amazing summer produce that we have here in Michigan. The primary flavoring for this cheesecake is Blueberry and Peach. I hope you are able to reproduce this recipe for yourself and enjoy this little taste of Summer. Bon Appetit!
Summer Cheesecake
Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 1 Hour 10 Minutes
Ingredients
15 Graham Crackers, full sheets, broke into pieces
1/3 cup granulated sugar
6 Tbsp. Melted Butter
4 8 oz. Packages cream cheese, softened
1 ½ Cups Granulated Sugar
½ Cup Milk
4 large Eggs
1 cup Sour Cream
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 pint fresh blueberries
4 peaches, cut into thin slices
½ cup Peach Preserves
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray.
In the bowl of a food processor, add the graham crackers, 1/3 cup of sugar and butter. Process unitl crumbs form and butter is combined. Press crumbs onto the bottom of springform pan.
In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese and remaining sugar and mix until smooth. Mix in milk. Add eggs, one at a time,, until combined. Add the sour cream, vanilla, and flour and mix until smooth. Add the blueberries and carefully fold in until combined. Pour filling into the prepared crust.
Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Turn the oven off and allow to cool while in the oven to prevent cracking. Chill the cheesecake in the refrigerator for an hour.
Top the cheesecake with the preserves and peach slices. Chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.
