Know anyone in Portland who wants to host a party but not cook?

Gosh, what a great gift to give to someone. My questions are, what condition

would they leave my kitchen in? Would they be as careful as I am about my wood floors, my cabinets, spills, my spices which are in alphabetical order? I hate people slam banging around in my kitchen. It took me too many years to get the one I love and I sure don't want anyone damaging anything!
I think Linda Stradley had some caterers once and they ruined her food floor.

 
I believe you're right. I always try to leave a client's kitchen as clean as possible.

Usually they're quite happy and shoo me out saying I've cleaned enough. But I don't scrub the floors or Easy-off the oven. It's something to be discussed with the client ahead of time.

Only once did I have a disgruntled client. Actually it was the housekeeper, who I was stuck with to help me serve. When I arrived "Julia" announced that she had spent seven hours cleaning the kitchen and I'd better not mess it up. I told her I would do my best but I had a dozen people to feed and needed to use the facilities.

She was the worst server ever. I told her to serve the ladies first finishing with the hostess and then the gentlemen finishing with the host. She did the exact opposite with the first course and then came in, made herself a plate and sat down at the kitchen table to critique my food. She got really miffed when I didn't have an extra steak for her for the main course, which she also served in the wrong order. Maybe that's why she went around on her hands and knees searching for spots I missed. She called me a "piggy" because I didn't scour the sink. I told her next time to schedule her seven-hour marathon for AFTER the party. Then when I was leaving she shouted after me "I will work for you! When is your next party? I need to be paid in cash!" What a lunatic.

Fortunately the clients were happy and tipped me really well.

 
Good 'private' chefs will, but as a chef who has worked in a commercial/restaurant kitchen....

I can tell you that any domestic cooking/cleaning skills you may have had, if any, go right out the window!

It took me a very long time after leaving the kitchens to return to cleaning as you go and being extra careful about my kitchen...

In a professional kitchen you simply don't have time to tidy up, your bowls, pots, pans, implements all stack up on your workstation and then "whoosh" a kp comes through and takes them away to wash - you just don't have time during a busy prep/service to take them over yourself...

Then you go for a ciggie break (or whatever break) and "whoosh" the floor has been mopped, because it has to be, several times throughout service otherwise the health department comes down on your kitchen -

So by the end of service you basically wash down your stainless steel worktable with a soapy sponge, dry it off, and you're outta there, leaving the kps to finish off the clean-up.

So try and picture how that translates to home cooking! It takes a while to sink in again that there is no kp at your service! And this is assuming that the chef has ctually had a lot of experience cooking in a home environment, a lot of chefs go to work in a commercial kitchen directly out of school, very young, having not cooked in a home designer kitchen with lovely wood floors and granite counters...

So, what I suggest, if you do want to hire a prof chef to work in your kitchen, also hire a cleaner/butler for the night, someone that will chase after the chef and mop up dangerous spills right away!

 
The same, Ang. Decided he should also learn the wine side of the buisiness.

He's been working at one of the vineyards in the valley.

 
Cyn...

Unless he is aiming to working outside of a prof kitchen for the rest of his career, my advice would be to stay in a restaurant, even if he has to move.. most food careers outside a kitchen are seen as 'soft' and he may have a porblem getting back in later

There are 2 groups on Facebook that are particularly helpful in terms of finding placement and advice that he may want to look at.

Chefs Helping Chefs
Chefbook

All the best to him

 
No prob. I have seen even head chefs take just a stage at a good place just to stay in the loop...

 
Agreed. It's not uncommon for people coming up in the biz to change

restaurants every 9 months or so. They learn different chefs' visions, how kitchens run differently, new techniques and cuisines.

One friend of mine is a highly regarded pastry cook says striking out on your own too early has a detrimental effect--suddenly you're in charge and it's very difficult to keep the "cooking" aspect of learning alive. On your own, you're manager, marketer, HR, and to a much lesser degree, cook. Being a great restaurateur and being a great chef are two very different things.

I admire one particular cook incredibly. In the past few years, she's cooked at WD50 in New York, Alinea in Chicago, NOMA and another restaurant in Denmark, the Fat Duck in England, a couple spots here in Seattle, and now, she's working at Spago in LA. Each job she takes, she bears in mind what specifically, she wants to learn. While clearly she's got a killer resume, she's also got a body of knowledge that's unparalleled.

 
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