By Elizabeth Cloutman
Carole Orlando offers local residents personal chef service
You’d like to eat more healthfully and in the privacy of your home, but your family’s hectic schedule often interferes. Carole Orlando believes she can provide the solution.
Through her personal chef service, Carole in Your Kitchen, Orlando offers services that include grocery shopping, menu planning, and meals and snacks freshly prepared in clients’ own kitchens. Orlando even does all the cleanup.
“People are so busy that when they head home, they ask themselves, ‘Do I want to go out or grab something on the way?’ This way, they can go home and have a nice meal waiting for them … all their favorite foods. It’s not even going to take that long to reheat.”
Orlando interviews each new client to determine dietary requirements as well as food preferences. She is experienced in planning meals for special needs - vegetarian, low-calorie, low-fat or low-sodium - or for medical conditions, such as food allergies or sensitivities.
For those with definite food preferences, Orlando asks not only about favorites, but also, “What food do you never want to see?”
Orlando shops the same day she prepares a client’s food. She seeks out fresh ingredients at “a quality market or the market of their choice.”
Using her own utensils, she prepares meals in the client’s kitchen. She packages food in disposable containers in the serving sizes her client prefers, and then places the containers in the refrigerator or freezer. “These recipes have been tried and tested, so they don’t lose their quality when they’re frozen or reheated,” Orlando said.
Orlando brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to her personal chef business. Besides having a lifelong passion for cooking and food, she has 20 years of professional experience from owning her own restaurant to cooking for the Community Services Agency and the First Presbyterian Church of Mountain View meal programs. She holds certificates from the International Food Safety Council and the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.
Two years ago, she was ready to get away from institutional cooking. From her research at the Career Action Center in Cupertino, she discovered a new career as a personal chef. She joined the United States Personal Chef Association, which provided her with the information she needed to begin her business.
Carole in Your Kitchen has proven very successful for Orlando. The San Jose resident has about 14 regular clients throughout the mid-Peninsula. “I’m bringing in chefs to help with new clients,” she said.
Orlando calls her service “an affordable luxury. The cost of my service varies depending on the number of people and dishes and the ingredients I use in your food, but I think you’ll find it to be an excellent value. You’ll save money because there’s no waste.”
With advance notice, she also prepares food for occasions such as holiday meals or special dinners. Gift certificates for varying amounts are available for her services.
Whether a client uses Carole in Your Kitchen on a regular basis or only occasionally, Orlando said there will be more time to enjoy with family or friends without long hours spent in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning up afterward. When a client arrives home, Orlando said, “The only thing left is the aroma of all that good food that’s been cooked.”
For more information about Carole in Your Kitchen, logon to www.uspca.com/members/Carole-Orlando.html. To contact Orlando, call (408) 978-2986.
