Tricks of the Private Chef Trade
Workshop by June Pagan, Private Chef
Workshop #1 “Cooking Your Way to Job Security”
Small Class Size (6-8 students, face-to-face approach)
8 Hour course (one day)
Price: $175.00
Hours: 10AM- 6PM
Dates: To be arranged - call or email for current information
Location: Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
Instructor: June Pagan, Los Angeles private chef since 1985
http://www.junepagan.com/
310.823.0929 office
310.832.0509 cell
e-mail:junepagan@verizon.net
The purpose of this workshop is to teach the student how to deliver simple, healthy and flavorful meals to their family or employer’s family.
We start the morning with a trip to Gelson’s Market, where I will guide you through the aisles and provide you with shopping tips and invaluable information about product selection.
Upon our return to the kitchen, the face-to-face demonstration cooking will begin, starting with breakfast-type breads and a discussion about the morning meal, including a hands-on preparation of the most intimidating “poached egg.”
As we move on to lunch options, there will be an in-depth discussion about the role of the private chef with abundant tips for effective work habits, such as CAYG (Clean As You Go), When In Doubt (Throw It Out), and “Garnish ,Garnish, Garnish” (presentation). We will also touch briefly on Front Service (dining room skills and strategies).
By dinner, we will be focusing on the details that make a meal “Top Notch,” Our clients are refined and have discriminating palates. They demand well-prepared meals that are a joy to consume. By providing this service to them you are building “Job Security”
Here are some sample recipes that we will be offering:
· Roast Salmon Croquettes “Old Bay” with a variety of sauces
· Asian Inspired Piedmontese New York Steak, Pan Grilled
· Oven Rotisserie Chicken with Apricot “Saucy Susan” Sauce
· Thanksgiving Turkey Burger
· Grilled Miso Shallot Chicken Salad
· Whole Wheat Walnut Bread
· The perfect Apple Pie
· She Devil Mocha Flourless Cake
Included with this workshop will be recipes of all dishes prepared and a list of recommended reading, as well as resources for product used in the workshop.
For a successful learning experience, be sure to have a pen and a notepad, and good night’s sleep. It will be intense!
Thank you,
June Pagan
Friday, October 23, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Who Can Afford to Go Organic
Lets, face it, most of us cannot afford to provide organic foods to our families, even if we decide to adopt a Vegan lifestyle and eat only, vegetables, fruits nuts and seeds. I am managing to do so for my family but I am a professional cook with thirty five years of knowledge in the field of health cooking and I know my way around town. On any given day I waste gallons of gas picking up “clean food” at the various markets that I frequent. The cost of providing these foods has nearly tripled our budget and shopping time.
Take a typical single low income (and the number is rising) parent in Los Angeles, generally a mother. She gets her children off to school long before the morning bell rings so that they can have a subsidized breakfast of GMO grain sweetened cereal, milk(I don’t even want to go there), and perhaps a piece of fruit which they will probably toss out. After the mother lovingly and painfully drops her kids off to breakfast and a day at school she scurries off to her job, perhaps at a Beverly Hills home where she is a housekeeper making a damn good wage of $15 per hour with out benefits, since the employer has her working only part time, four twelve hour days instead of five eight hour days. Of course she volunteered to do this so that she could have three days with her children; only the employer wants her to work weekends. She dare not refuse him.
If she earns enough money to own a car, pay insurance and maintenance, and has a place to park off the street, she is lucky, which is generally not the case. Keeping a car in Los Angeles is hard for the single parent but an absolute necessity. Somehow, she manages to get to her job and she puts in a hard day while her children attend school and then the afternoon Star Program which basically baby sits the children until mom can pick them up .It’s always frantic at this point because it is “rush hour”
So now mom has her kids safely with her and they need to rush home to finish homework, have dinner and get ready for the next day. Hopefully they are well and no one is sick with the flu, or any other child hood ailment that needs medical attention. Now mom has to think about preparing dinner, do you think that she is thinking about buying organics? She goes to the closest market to her home and buys the least expensive foods or the most convenient foods. She is not concerned and cannot afford to be concerned about the quality of the food her family is consuming, she relies on the FDA to keep them from the doctors office .She does not recognize the difference between a sixteen dollar free range chicken and a four dollar toxic bird. She says to herself “I wish that I could feed my children the way my employer feeds his. Tonight he is feeding his kids Vintage New York Steak on the grill with organic russet potatoes topped with organic sour cream from a creamery in Sonoma and locally grown asparagus ,because his wife is asking him to go “green.”
So now mom has to shop and prepare dinner for her children. Tonight they are having Hamburger Helper made with two dollar chuck, perhaps she will throw in a little frozen broccoli which she picks up on sale for less than a dollar because she heard somewhere that cruciferous vegetables were healthy for you. In addition to that she buys a corn-laden GMO and enough MSG to flavor a piece of cardboard dessert of pretty little animal shaped cookies for the kids. They will wash it down with a corn sweetened imitation juice.
I am standing in line behind her and watching and my heart is bleeding. I have just come from my job as a private chef. Tonight I made Vintage New York Steak on the grill with organic russet potatoes topped with organic sour cream from a creamery in Sonoma and locally grown asparagus because his wife is asking him to go “green.”
Take a typical single low income (and the number is rising) parent in Los Angeles, generally a mother. She gets her children off to school long before the morning bell rings so that they can have a subsidized breakfast of GMO grain sweetened cereal, milk(I don’t even want to go there), and perhaps a piece of fruit which they will probably toss out. After the mother lovingly and painfully drops her kids off to breakfast and a day at school she scurries off to her job, perhaps at a Beverly Hills home where she is a housekeeper making a damn good wage of $15 per hour with out benefits, since the employer has her working only part time, four twelve hour days instead of five eight hour days. Of course she volunteered to do this so that she could have three days with her children; only the employer wants her to work weekends. She dare not refuse him.
If she earns enough money to own a car, pay insurance and maintenance, and has a place to park off the street, she is lucky, which is generally not the case. Keeping a car in Los Angeles is hard for the single parent but an absolute necessity. Somehow, she manages to get to her job and she puts in a hard day while her children attend school and then the afternoon Star Program which basically baby sits the children until mom can pick them up .It’s always frantic at this point because it is “rush hour”
So now mom has her kids safely with her and they need to rush home to finish homework, have dinner and get ready for the next day. Hopefully they are well and no one is sick with the flu, or any other child hood ailment that needs medical attention. Now mom has to think about preparing dinner, do you think that she is thinking about buying organics? She goes to the closest market to her home and buys the least expensive foods or the most convenient foods. She is not concerned and cannot afford to be concerned about the quality of the food her family is consuming, she relies on the FDA to keep them from the doctors office .She does not recognize the difference between a sixteen dollar free range chicken and a four dollar toxic bird. She says to herself “I wish that I could feed my children the way my employer feeds his. Tonight he is feeding his kids Vintage New York Steak on the grill with organic russet potatoes topped with organic sour cream from a creamery in Sonoma and locally grown asparagus ,because his wife is asking him to go “green.”
So now mom has to shop and prepare dinner for her children. Tonight they are having Hamburger Helper made with two dollar chuck, perhaps she will throw in a little frozen broccoli which she picks up on sale for less than a dollar because she heard somewhere that cruciferous vegetables were healthy for you. In addition to that she buys a corn-laden GMO and enough MSG to flavor a piece of cardboard dessert of pretty little animal shaped cookies for the kids. They will wash it down with a corn sweetened imitation juice.
I am standing in line behind her and watching and my heart is bleeding. I have just come from my job as a private chef. Tonight I made Vintage New York Steak on the grill with organic russet potatoes topped with organic sour cream from a creamery in Sonoma and locally grown asparagus because his wife is asking him to go “green.”
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