Home-Cooked Cuisine

	Chef Mark Tafoya

He's putting in hours at the office, but his galley kitchen uptown has become the set of an intricate ballet performed by personal chef Mark Tafoya.

Braised beef bubbles into a plume of Moroccan spices, and steam sizzles from a deglazed pork pan.

Tafoya has been at work for about an hour and a half, and he's entering what he refers to as "prime time," which means all real estate has evaporated from the oven, stovetop, counter and cutting boards.

Once the smoke clears, a $100 trip to Whole Foods has been transformed into a week of fresh food, all available at the touch of a microwave button.

Hectic lives, nutrition concerns and a growing number of entrepreneurial cooks have created a boom in the personal chef business.

According to a study by the American Personal and Private Chef Association, the 72,000 Americans employing personal chefs will grow to nearly 300,000 over the next five years.

How It Works

"The food-service industry is changing," says Candy Wallace, executive director of the APPCA. "For decades, culinary schools only existed like factories to churn out restaurant line cooks. We can set up a program for individual clients that would provide Monday-through-Friday meal support for busy professionals who don't want to eat out of jars, cans and boxes." ...