kahunaburger

Single parent life comes with some challenges. One of those challenges is food. I have no problem feeding myself when I’m alone. I don’t complain if I only eat at 8pm and I usually use whatever I find in the fridge to prepare a meal.

However, things are different when Pia is around. I work until 5pm, then head to town to pick her up and by the time we are back home it’s past 6pm. Given that I try to have her in bed around 8pm, which is normally preceded by a bath or shower, it does not leave a lot of time for extensive dinner preparations. I’m also not organized enough to cook a weeks worth of meals on the weekend. Combine all this and it results in a lot kids-friendly meals (meaning “Macaroni & Cheese”, “Quesadillas”, etc.) with questionable nutritional value.

I decided to give a different route a try. Scanning the Santa Fe Reporter classifieds section I ran across Tanya’s “Everything Edible” ad. Tanya is a personal chef, who specializes in clients just like me. I called her up and we agreed on a first try-out session of her services.

Tanya has a very extensive list of entrees on her site above. For the first session we picked four entrees, because I figured that would take me through a week at least.

She showed up on time one Wednesday morning with a number of bags containing all her cooking gear and ingredients that she planned to use for the four entrees. I think I have a pretty well-equipped kitchen, but in this case I think I could have gotten away with just having a stove and a sink, because Tanya brought everything else that was needed.
A few hours after her arrival, my kitchen was as clean as it was in the morning and the refrigerator was filled with (chef-supplied) containers with all the main- and side-dishes. Tanya provided an itemized list of her expenses and a customized sheet with re-heating instructions.

For more than a week Pia and I ate the dishes that “our chef” had prepared for us. Everything, and I’m serious here, everything was delightful. Nothing was over-cooked or over-spiced, everything was well-balanced and I felt that Pia (and I) got what we were supposed to have. I was so happy with Tanya’s service that I decided to hire her again soon after.

Yes, this is more expensive than going to the store myself and preparing the meals for us. However, if I take the time that it takes to prepare the meals, shop for the ingredients and, most importantly, the time that I’m not spending with my daughter into account, this actually equates to a good deal. Pia does love to help cooking, but she has the attention span of a 4-y/o, which means that no matter what you do, it will be boring after 15 mins. And we still have the weekends where she can help me with stuff in the kitchen.

If you are in the Santa Fe area and you are looking for a personal chef (or somebody who caters a party at your home), please do give Tanya a try. Your taste-buds will love you for it …