The Stovetop Traveler

So, what makes me a "stovetop traveler?"

First, I work as a personal chef. I do dinner parties and brunches, give lessons, provide recipes and advice, and, most of all, cook a week's/two weeks'/a month's/two months' worth of meals to store in my clients' refrigerators and freezers. All this cooking is done in my clients' homes, not in my own kitchen or from a central kitchen. At any given time, I will usually have between ten and fifteen clients, which keeps me scurrying all around the city, from stovetop to stovetop. It's a great job; not only do I become intimately acquainted with some pretty cool Wolf and Viking stovetops, but I also get to know a lot of really cool people.

Second, I use my own stovetop to travel the world. I don't really have a lot of money , and as a result, the amount of travel I have done in my life has so far been limited. Still, I have an unlimited curiosity about the world around me; certainly about the world outside the U.S., but just as much about the rest of the country outside of Seattle. Cooking transports me to these places. In learning about the cuisine of another place, it's inevitable that you will learn about the culture (and often the religion, economy, and sociology) of that place. My education comes through a variety of means, such as cookbooks, food magazines, newspaper food sections, and food blogs, and once I discover a new and exotic ingredient, I can now most likely purchase it through the Internet. I know the current vogue is that you are supposed to "eat local, buy local." But I can't buy locally produced Ethiopian mitmita. I can't buy locally produced Argentine rhea. I can't buy locally produced Moroccan basturma. And I don't want to live my entire life without having tried these things.

With that said, if you should become one of my clients, you need not worry that I will force-feed you durian or braised brains. Food is one of the critical elements of day-to-day life, and I would never push people  to try foods out of their comfort zones. As I get to know my clients, I get to know their levels of culinary curiosity and adventure, and I plan their meals accordingly. As my client, you should and will only get the food that you like, not the food that I want to experiment with that week.

Interested? Click on my Services and Rates page, check out my Featured Ingredient and Recipe, or see what I'm rambling about in my Blog.  You can also email me with questions about services I can provide for you.

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Jay Williamson is a native of Sacramento, California. He received BA and MA degrees in History from the University of California, Riverside. He also earned an AOS degree from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco in 2001. After graduating with honors, he worked in Bay Area restaurants, but he soon realized that he most enjoys creating custom meals for clients. He has worked as a personal chef since 2001. When not in the kitchen, Jay enjoys hiking and travelling in the Pacific Northwest, watching movies and Mr. Ed reruns, and dining out with his partner David.