KVAL-TV Channel 13

"Burgeoning Business is Cooking"
December 12, 2001
By Pat McGillvray

Eugene-It is a dream gift for any number of people slaving over a hot stove. Someone to cook healthy, delicious meals for you in your home. It's a service that's catching on in Eugene.

Becky Barter can be found whipping up some Sesame Orange Chicken along with Ginger Glazed Carrots with Macadamia Nuts. It's the first of five customized entrees she'll make in one day for a single family. Becky is a personal chef.

Chef Becky works in the client's kitchen, whipping up dishes like Port Tenderloin and Sesame Crusted Tuna, the kind of meals most people don't have the time or ability to make.

"I take care of all the menu planning, I do all the grocery shopping, I cook, and I clean up, so it's really helpful for seniors that can't do that themselves, and also busy people who don't have the time," explains Becky.

The meals are packaged up and kept in a freezer where they can stay for up to five weeks, and customers swear you cannot tell the food has been frozen.

"The food really is absolutely as good as any upscale restaurant we've been at, ever," insists Cheryl Fortuna, a new client.

Chef Becky always liked to cook, yet didn't get her masters degree in business to become a chef. "I wasn't able to find a job in foreign trade, which is what I was planning on."

But seeing a television program on personal chefs sparked her interest in this business venture. In only a matter of weeks she's been building up a clientele, and is helping solve a common problem: what to make for dinner tonight.

The personal chef service costs $325. That covers five entrees that have four servings each and several side dishes.