Dinner Made Simple

Austin Magazine—Jan Feb Mar 2007

Gourmet Your Way by Amy E. Lemen

It used to be that having a personal chef was considered a luxury. Now it’s almost a necessity. In an age of 24/7 lifestyles, compressed deadlines, and little time for meal planning and cooking, the trend toward hiring a personal chef has skyrocketed. The United States Personal Chef Association estimates that the number of personal chef businesses has grown to more than 5,000 in the last 10 years.

That’s not surprising to pros like Toni Scott, Austin personal chef and owner of Dinner Made Simple. “We live in such a rushed society—parents are running about trying to get the kids to soccer practice and piano lessons, and young professionals often work late, but at the end of the day we all need to eat.” she says. “It’s very gratifying to know that I’m helping to solve their ‘What’s for dinner?’ dilemma.”

Clients say working with a personal chef offers many benefits. Besides not having to do the tasks of producing meals themselves, there’s a great deal of satisfaction knowing they’re eating something delicious and healthy that gives them more time to spend with family or doing other things.

Carole Lake, [one of Scott’s clients] an Austin needlework designer and her husband both travel a lot and found that they were frequently resorting to eating fast food. They recognized it was time for a change. “We were too tired to go out to a restaurant or cook a meal,” she says. “Now I have more choices for dinner that are healthy, and I feel less guilty about not cooking.”