Culinary freedom

PALMER — Personal chefs are no longer the province of oil tycoons and the landed gentry.

Or at least that’s the hope of Janice and Paul Villnerve, who have started up a personal chef service they’re calling Moose Bites.

Just like how more and more everyday folks are signing on with maid services, the Villnerves think busy Valley professionals — folks whose stressful jobs and long commutes leave little time for cooking — will find their service appealing.

“The personal and private chef industry — there’s not much of it here in Alaska, but before starting this we did a little bit of research and it’s actually growing elsewhere (in the country),” Janice said. “We’ve gotten a lot of tips from them on kind of how to run the whole thing.”

Food is a little different from cleaning, though.

People have different tastes and allergies or have goals like weight loss or healthy eating. So that’s why the Moose Bites service starts with a meeting.

“First we do a consultation and meet with the client, pretty much get an idea of what kind of foods they would like to eat or would like to try,” Janice said.

The idea is that homecooked meals will be healthy and made with whole foods.

“Our goal is also to put whole foods on people’s plates to get rid of all of the preservatives and things like that,” Janice said. “You could go to the grocery store and get a frozen meal, but there’s all kinds of junk in there you don’t want to be eating.”

Paul agrees.

“We’re pretty passionate about natural eating and trying to keep vitality in your body,” he said.

The Villnerves said say they decided to start up the personal chef business because they both love to cook. But they couldn’t start a restaurant because they wanted something that would afford them some flexibility.

They need a lot of flexibility since they have nine homeschooled children.

“If we had to have a restaurant running it would take away from …” Janice said.

“Our ability to parent,” Paul interjected, finishing her sentence.

The idea is to make their business a full-service operation, starting out with the shopping. Once the food was purchased, the Villnerves would come to the client’s house, likely while the client is at work. They would do the cooking, put it in dishes and put it in the client’s refrigerator divided into whatever serving sizes the client wants and packaged with heating instructions.

“The only thing that needs to be provided is a stove to cook on and some running water,” Paul said.

Aside from busy commuting professionals, the Villnerves think there’s a market for their service in people recuperating from injuries.

“A lot of times people when they’re injured or in physical therapy are not able to do the shopping and cooking and cleaning like they used to,” Paul said.

And, the frequency of the service is totally up to the client. If they just want one Moose Bite meal a week, the Villnerves just show up once a month and freeze the food they made.

“Where the frequency comes in is where the affordability comes in,” Janice said. “There’s no contract that says we have to come in once a week or once a month.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.