Lauren Glendenning, lglendenning@vailtrail.com
April 30, 2008

Second-home owners and tourists who jet set into town often don’t feel like dealing with stocking the fridge or cooking dinner. But dining out every night can get old — and the calories add up fast.

In a resort town, people need options beyond take-out and dinner reservations, which is why the valley has no shortage of personal chefs.

You don’t have to be a celebrity to have one, but you do have to be willing to pay the price — dinners can run upwards of $200 per person.

So what does that buy? Food is the cheap part. It’s the service people pay for, from things like grocery shopping and bagged lunches to several days’ worth of meals prepared in advance.

“My customers aren’t very price-sensitive,” says Marc Rouse, owner of Black Star Catering, a personal chef business focusing on “healthy food for active lifestyles.”

What does that come with?
When people hire a personal chef, it comes with service and a smile. Rouse says his business is all about building personal relationships with people.

“I want something that’s going to last,” he says.

The reason it lasts, he says, is because he does just about anything to please his clients, which is the philosophy shared by many of the valley’s personal chefs. It’s a trust business. People often allow the chefs into their homes when they’re not there. They give them keys and allow them free reign over the kitchen.

“My customers have no qualms giving me access to their homes,” Rouse says. “It’s convenient for them.”

Richard Brown, owner of Backcountry Caterer, had a group of three families as clients a couple of weeks ago. They traveled to the valley together and were staying at three different places. Brown and his staff came in and cooked a ton of food, enough so they could enjoy leftovers for days. He says he just wants his clients to enjoy their time here, and that means enjoying good food, too.

“Richard really does anything we want — the whole gamut,” says Trudi Wilkes, personal assistant to Vail resident Marty Head — whom Brown calls one of his best clients.

Good food, no fuss
Preparing meals for the week or grocery shopping is typically the easiest part of the job, but folks hosting dinner parties require a little more attention to detail.

For chefs, there’s a lot that goes into these private dinners. Some of the kitchens in people’s homes aren’t ideal, so chefs have to adapt. Brown visits clients’ homes beforehand to take an inventory of what’s available to him.

“I want to make sure they have everything there to complete the service, otherwise I will bring it over for them,” he says. “Most of the homes I go to have everything.”

Tracy Black Coe, owner of Vail Personal Chef, had a different experience in her business’s 11 years. (She recently moved to South Florida and isn’t sure whether she’ll continue on as a private chef.) She says a lot of the families she worked for in the valley just don’t cook, so they wouldn’t have a whole lot of kitchen appliances and basic cooking ingredients in their homes.

“I’d meet with property managers (to get inside) and stock their fridge,” she says. “I’d leave them with dinner for the night and heating instructions. Sometimes I’d come back every night and design menus for them.”

‘Just down-home cooking’
Once a home is stocked and ready to go, the chefs come in as discreetly as possible. For dinner parties, many chefs arrive with a staff of waiters and even sommeliers.

Brown says he brings the restaurant to his clients, so you get the fine dining without all the fancy fuss. Shoes aren’t even required, let alone a jacket or tie.

While the people who can afford these chefs are used to living the high life, Coe says she was surprised at how many of them didn’t want very fancy dinners. Sure, those hosting dinner parties like to class things up a little more, but for those just in town to enjoy the outdoors and time with their families, it was comfort food they desired.
“Clients were (generally) not interested in the fancy fanfare,” Coe says. “Just down- home cooking — spaghetti and meatballs, curry, pasta.”

Many times kids would show up at the table in their pajamas. Parents would arrive in bathrobes after having just received professional massages. But instead of sitting down to take-out Chinese or a pepperoni pizza, they ate freshly prepared home cooking.

Most people would welcome Coe in with open arms, and most would hire her again year after year. She and Rouse both say they rarely encountered impolite customers — surprising because the nature of their business is to pamper people who are used to being pampered.

“In 11 years, I had one client who I said I just wouldn’t work with him again,” Coe says. “He thought he purchased the right to be disrespectful to me. … He could pay me $1,000 an hour and I wouldn’t cook for him.”

An 11-year stint with only one bad client isn’t a bad success rate. Coe says she’s developed a lot of fun relationships with people, many of whom she still keeps in touch with.

“It’s a really, really fun job,” she says. “I couldn’t ask for anything better.”


Lauren Glendenning can be reached for comment at 970.748.2983 or Lglendenning@vailtrail.com.