I could have slept in but didn't. I woke up early! So I got up and had coffee with Carl. He made artichoke egg soufflés.
We did not start class until noon, but today is opening season for the Rockies (the baseball field is only a couple blocks from Cook Street) so the school said to come early. I took the bus down to 15th and Market, then walked up Market Street to Cook Street School. There were hundreds of people out! Most of them were wearing baseball shirts and baseball caps, men and women alike. They take their sports seriously here!! A lot of them didn't even go to the game (sold out) but hung out at one of the three bars on the same block as the school. Noisy!
The school has had to do some remodeling because they lost their wine space a few months back. Apparently someone new bought the building two doors down and kicked out all the tenants, which included the Cook Street wine program. The school added sliding doors to make a separate room so the wine class and the cooking class could run at the same time and not disturb each other. It looks nice.
Chef Gayle was our chef lecturer. She is a former OR nurse who lives in Vallejo, CA. Her husband was complaining that he never saw her because she worked so much and suggested she become a personal chef (he had apparently read about this profession in a magazine). So she quit her nursing job and started "chefing". Eventually she bought the company that regulates and educates personal chefs, which is what brought her to Denver. There are eight people in the class, three that just graduated from Cook Street, a guy from San Jose who went to culinary school in California, two housewives, myself, and Jackie, who is the Alumni Coordinator. Nice group of people.
Gayle talked about all the types of personal chef jobs there are. She also pointed out that being a personal chef could be either full time or part time and that the business is portable. Everything from cooking core meals for clients in their homes to doing dinner parties to cooking lessons to grocery shopping and menu planning to specializing in a certain area (ethnic foods, kosher, vegetarian, Celiac's disease, special diets for diabetics or heart patients, meals and shopping for camping trips or picnics, desserts). Gayle talked about whether or not to be a sole proprietor or incorporate, pros and cons. Then she talked about having a business plan and what needs to go into your business plan: the executive summary, a description of your business, a financial plan, a marketing plan and a management plan. Gayle started to cover pricing but that will be ongoing over the weekend. The booklet we received for class shows an example of a business plan (the business is called "Nick of Thyme"-cute!). Next was licensing and insurance. She says there are a lot of "personal chefs and caterers" that work without a license and that if they get caught, could get them into trouble. Gayle talked about managing your finances and keeping track of what money goes out, what money comes in and all the different bookkeeping systems out there. She also pointed out everything could be done by hand and not on the computer, but that there had to be consistency. Makes sense! She showed us an example of an income statement as well as a chart of accounts. And her big advise? Save your receipts! Almost everything, it appears, is a potential deduction. There were 1040 forms, Schedule C forms, 1099 forms, self employment tax forms as well as a few others. If you have an employee that makes more than $600 a year, you need to give them a 1099. After all that, we were done for the day.
After leaving Cook Street, I walked down to the 16th Street Mall and picked up a couple of things (I forgot my toothbrush!), then came home. Carl, Tod (a friend of his) and I walked to the Avenue Grille for a glass of wine (the restaurant was packed!) then to Caveau, a wine and tapas bar for dinner. We shared stuffed mushrooms, meatballs (they are making a comeback, lol), Duxelles (sautéed wild mushrooms on a pita) and what they called a "white pizza" (that was the only thing that was just ok, not good, not bad). Then home and bed. The class starts at 9am tomorrow!
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