With the holidays on the horizon, it's a natural time of year to contemplate culinary greatness -- the savory sensation of rosemary lamb chops infused with balsamic vinegar, the warmth of croissant bread pudding minutes from the oven, the tantalizing smells that fill a house and make it a home.
It'd be great if we were all copiously trained in the kitchen, or had the time to spend on a magnificent feast fit for a king and his court. Those who relish this season as a chance to show off and share their skills with family and friends. And then there's the rest of us who don't even own the correct cookware to prepare a roasted turkey, much less the ability to stuff it ourselves.
Don't worry. Help is closer than you might think.
Britta Kramer, owner of Private Palate, says her schedule usually gets busy this time of year with parties and private gatherings, but that she's not completely booked for the season. Of course, as a private chef, she's much more than a holiday hero. She's also a year-round culinary consultant of sorts to clients seeking a healthier way of life.
"I'm a personal fitness chef," she says. Working with programs like Adventure Boot Camp and businesses like Fitness Together, Kramer connects with individuals who are already making fitness strides and helps them lose weight not by fad diets but by changing their eating habits to develop a healthier lifestyle.
"I wanted to help make Milwaukeeans aware of the importance of what they put into their bodies. You could work out six days a week, but if you're eating out a lot, the amount of sodium is going to add up."
As a rule, she limits her oil, sticks to whole grains, seasonal fruits and veggies, lean protein, encourages whole wheat pasta and uses little-to-no butter in food preparation. Her reputation has earned her cooking gigs with VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club" and several Milwaukee Bucks players as regular clients.
A typical client, she says, is anyone from a single woman who doesn't like to cook or doesn't understand how to eat healthily to young professionals who can't find the time to cook after 60- to 70-hour work weeks to families with two working parents who want nutritious choices for their children.
About half of her clients are referrals and despite the recession, she says her business has doubled in the last four months.
"People are becoming more aware of what a personal chef does. People used to think it wasn't affordable, but if you take the time to calculate how much money you're spending eating out all the time, you're going to end up saving money using my services."
Her services start at $200 plus the cost of groceries, which breaks down to $10-$12 per meal. It's not as cheap as cooking all meals yourself at home, but when compared to other options it can be a value with health benefits.
"People know where their food is coming from, they know it's fresh and prepared without butter or too much sodium," she says. Locally, she's loyal to the Balistreri-owned Sendik's Fine Food market, Empire Fish and Outpost Natural Foods.
Striking the delicate balance between what tastes good and what's good for you is perhaps Kramer's biggest point of pride. Growing up in a self-described "culinary family," cooking has long been her passion. But when a motorcycle accident halted her plans to attend culinary school in New York City, she ended up studying under Food Network chefs at a classical music and culinary arts festival in Napa Valley, Calif., for two summers, followed by an understudy with Danielle Steel's personal chef, who became her mentor. It was his idea that she start her own business as a personal chef.
She quit her job and backpacked through Europe for five months, collecting culinary inspiration from her beloved Cafe Zaza in Florence, Italy, and spending time with a chef in Portugal who took her digging for clams. She's combined these memories, cooking classes in Oaxaca, Mexico, and her hard-wired family values to create an ethnic-inspired yet easily accessible and progressive palate.
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
