Thursday, April 20, 2017

Eating Raoul

In the movie, Eating Raoul, the Blands' are an interesting couple.  They are trying to raise enough money to put a down payment on a restaurant they want to open called Chez Bland.  Mary is a beautiful nurse married to Paul, an idiot who can't hold a job.  During the first scene of the movie, Paul loses his job as a cashier at a liquor store for refusing to sell cheap wine to a customer.  He is also sitting on a number (at least 6) of bottles of 1948 Chateau Lafitte.  He refuses to sell the bottles to a rich buyer for $500/bottle.

The Bland's are good, albeit naive people surrounded by, murderers, robbers, thieves and chauvinists. By keeping this company, they see things that they would normally see as crimes as normal.  After they are taken advantage of by numerous individuals, Mary concocts the plan to lure "rich, perverts" to the apartment and kill them in order to steal their money.  If the Blands kept better company and not so naive, they never would have fallen victim to these scams, nor would they have normalized murder and stealing.

Raoul, the mentor and partner the Bland's end up with is a mixed bag.  The Bland's share their competitive advantage of, "We lure them here with sex, then kill them and steal their money."  He says he wants to be a partner, but he is not interested in their business, he is interested in using the Bland's idea to make more money.  Raoul makes his real money by taking car keys from the people the Bland's kill and stealing their cars.  But, to the Bland's credit, when they learn how Raoul is making his money, they steal his idea to open up more revenue streams.

In the end, the Bland's succeed in opening their restaurant and do more things correctly.  First, they name the restaurant Paul and Mary's Country Kitchen instead of Chez Bland.  Also, due to stealing more than $40,000 the night of the swinger's party, they have far more capital than they need to start their restaurant.

Although Paul and Mary are somewhat qualified to open a restaurant, he is interested in wine and food and Mary is a nutritionist and is a good cook, they have no plan or mentor.  They have done no feasibility analysis, they are just going on instinct.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Week 1 EOC: New Business Pitch

I want to create a personal chef service that caters to people looking to follow a

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

I am a culinary professional interested in expanding my culinary horizons through constant practice, study and research.  Having a large family, I cook many things daily and weekly, but with not much variety or deviation from standard "comfort food" recipes.  Although I want to maintain the comfort of home-cooked foods, I want to bring in more healthful, exotic comfort foods.

For most, eating well is a challenge.  First, who has the time to research, shop and cook after work each day.  The answer lies in hiring a personal chef who, after learning about your personal likes and dislikes and any allergies, will research, shop, cook and label all your meals for you.  Everyone knows they need to eat more vegetables and eat less saturated fat and sugar.  But how do you switch from eating pizza and hamburgers to eating vegetables and whole grains.  One way is to move away from the standard american diet to a more healthful, plant based diet.


Eating meals with friends and family should be pleasurable.  Eating well should neither be a chore nor a punishment.  I look forward to serving food that is both healthy and pleasant.  I never want to punish or judge those individuals who are in search a healthier diet.  I am not here to punish you with a low sodium, low fat vegan diet.  I believe healthy, well-rounded diets should contain enough fat, protein and carbs to keep you healthy and happy.
Captivated by the sights, sounds and smells of the kitchen at an early age, Alishia began her life-long love affair with food. Inspired by a family of cooking enthusiasts who loved to eat well and savored their time around the family table, she quickly subscribed to the role of head kitchen apprentice, and learned how to plan, shop for, prepare, present and serve family meals and dinner parties.
When she put together the two passions in her life – people and food – Alishia’s career choice was sealed. Serving fresh, nutritious and delicious meals to busy people became her focus and her goal. Since early 2016, Alishia has been meeting the individual needs of over-extended professionals and families who, recognizing the benefits of a healthy home-cooked meal on the family table, have been enjoying Alishia’s lovingly prepared meals and personalized service.
Personal Chef
Everyone deserves the nourishment of a lovingly prepared, home cooked meal.  Alishia learned to appreciate the benefits of home cooking around her own family table growing up.  Since 2016 her focus has been to serve fresh, nutritious and delicious meals to busy people. Over the years, she has provided personalized service and lovingly prepared meals for busy families, individuals with dietary restrictions, over-extended professionals, seniors, and people battling chronic illnesses.
Alishia balances the menu planning, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleanup and she is a kind, non-invasive presence in your kitchen. She works tirelessly, and is always looking for ways to add a specialized touch to your dinner table, and leave you nourished. You will taste the difference.
As my business started to pick up, I found that many people were searching for a chef because of a newly diagnosed health issue and needed a dramatic change in their diet protocol. Purely co-incidentally I had fresh knowledge and understood what they were going through and a had a familiarity in how to cook for them. Of the nine regular clients that I have, seven are gluten free and out of the nine only one client eats a regular diet without restrictions.

So I sometimes call my business extreme personal cheffing! Each client has a very specific diet protocol that I follow. And it seems to be the niche that I have found for my business.