FOLLOWING MY PASSION &
CREATING A NEW PATH
FOR THE FUTURE
Born in England, I grew up in a family with daily home-cooked meals. My mum had culinary training and worked in the school system providing hot lunches. I have fond childhood memories of baking cookies at school in the afternoon, helping Mum to bake and make jam or watching her prepare the Sunday roast dinner. It wasn’t until we moved to Canada when I was a teenager that I remember eating out at restaurants. These were such rare events – special occasions – that they are still memorable. I’ve always loved to be in the kitchen creating meals that are appreciated by others.
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By age 17 I was planning and preparing dinner parties. The highlight was my mum’s 40th birthday dinner party for 8, where I served an appetizer of popcorn shrimp, stuffed beef rouladen and a birthday cake made from scratch. In my university days, my favorite procrastination tool was baking and I could often be found making my French onion soup instead of hitting the books. All I needed was a bag of onions, a little butter and some beef bouillon in those days, so it was a cheap meal and I happily shared it with my roommates. Those habits did come at great expense to my waistline!
I spent 13 years working as a Corporate IT Educator. When I became a casualty of corporate downsizing I decided to pursue entrepreneurship and stumbled upon the concept of a personal chef. I travelled extensively during the last 3 years of my corporate career, and dined at fine restaurants on a company budget. I always enjoyed coming home to the simple pleasures – the comfort of my home, and the opportunity to prepare my own meal with simple ingredients. I realized that there were a lot of families who struggled to get a healthy meal on the table for their families and decided that as a personal chef I could focus on providing healthy weeknight meals, prepared with specific dietary preferences that would simplify that one daily stress.
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Without formal culinary training, but with a passion for creating in the kitchen and a good business sense, I launched Pennache Personal Chef Services. The goal was to bring families back to the dinner table. I believed strongly that families could benefit from sharing a healthy meal at the end of the day. I spent more than 13 years serving families and being the “food fairy”. In that time, I got married and started my own family, and we all benefited from the convenience of the business as our family meals were often a selection of recipes the clients had chosen that week. It was a family affair with me as the menu planner and chef, my husband delivering all the meals and our girls as the official taste testers for new recipes. Along the way I learned many strategies to simplify my own daily routine, found recipes that could work or be modified to fit my goals, and reaffirmed my love of sharing my knowledge with those interested in learning from me.
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A decision to relocate our family meant leaving behind my business and an opportunity to realign my focus. I still believe strongly in bringing families back to the dinner table and I want to empower them with strategies to simplify their planning, share my philosophies about food and healthy living, and inspire them with creative flavours.
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