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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a personal chef?
A personal chef serves several clients--usually one per day--and provides multiple meals that are custom-designed for the client’s particular tastes, dietary and food allergy requirements. These meals are packaged and stored according to the client’s needs to be enjoyed at their leisure.Where are the meals prepared?
Different from catering, all the meals are prepared in the safety of your own kitchen, according to required food safety guidelines. On our agreed upon cooking date, I will bring all the ingredients, utensils and equipment required to prepare your selections. At the end of the day, your kitchen will be left clean with nothing left behind except your mouth-watering selections and the aroma of good home cooking!I’ve also heard of the new meal assembly concept. How is a personal chef service different?
The meal assembly concept has several major franchises currently operating in the U.S. and is catching on quickly around the country. The corporate office develops a menu of approximately 10 to 12 items with wide appeal that each storefront location is required to provide—much like a franchise restaurant. The menu changes monthly, but is not personalized to your needs and tastes. Prepped and processed ingredients for the menu are provided at each storefront location. The customer schedules a time, sometimes with numerous other people, to assemble their meals at the storefront, which takes approximately two hours. The customer carries the assembled meals home in a cooler or laundry basket. Some of the meals still require cooking. If you require more than 12 dinners each month for your family, you do the same 12 meals all over again. Typically, the cost is about $200 for 10 to 12 meals.Although the meal assembly concept works for people who still have the time to assemble ingredients and cook in their schedules, an in-home personal chef service is highly personalized and the personal chef does everything for you. The personal chef works with their client’s schedules and strives to meet the individual needs and preferences of each client and their family members. All the client has to do is heat and enjoy delicious, home-prepared custom meals.Why can’t you just cook everything at your home and deliver it to me?
Health department and zoning laws prohibit it. If a personal chef offers to deliver your meals, an important question to ask is: Did you prepare them in a licensed, health department-approved commercial kitchen? Cooking everything at your home as opposed to preparing it offsite and delivering it provides you with the freshest, safest food possible. N’Joy Personal Chef Service will make each service date as low-key and as unobtrusive as possible.How long will you be in my home?
Because all your meals are prepared from scratch with great care and attention to detail, I will be at your home anywhere from five to eight hours depending upon the number of entrees. I am willing to accommodate what works best with your schedule or situation.What will you store the food in?
I offer several options and the cost will be determined by what you prefer. Pyrex containers are very popular because of their versatility. Pyrex packaging for individual portions or double portions will require more pieces, but generally the cost does not exceed $170. Plastic containers are a less expensive alternative, but you will need to transfer the meal to an oven-safe dish if heating in a conventional oven. Simply wash the containers in your dishwasher after you have enjoyed the meal and have them ready each service date in a predetermined location. The containers belong to you if you discontinue the service.Do I heat the food?
Yes. The entrees and side dishes should be heated using the approximate heating instructions I provide. Heating instructions are approximate because all ovens and microwaves vary in performance. I recommend you purchase a meat thermometer so that you can accurately determine when a dish has been heated through to the correct temperature. Some fish and seafood items may not be fully cooked by me--but by you--so that the item is enjoyed at the peak of flavor. Those items will be clearly labeled.What type of side dishes do you prepare?
Side dishes will be a seasonal fresh vegetable, potato, rice, pasta, grain or bean dish, salad, quick bread, bruschetta or soup. You may request a specific item or allow me to pair the side dish with the entrée.The cost seems to be about the same as what I would pay for an entrée in a restaurant . . . why is that?
The fee represents all components that make up the professional personal chef service. This includes a detailed assessment of your needs and dietary requirements, special diet research, menu planning, shopping for ingredients, meal preparation, and packaging and storing your selections. The cost of groceries is over and above the fee as this allows you to make premium menu selections such as veal, lamb or seafood if you desire. Think of it this way: You would buy groceries anyway; you are hiring me to cook them in a thoughtful and highly personalized way, tailored to your specific taste and dietary requirements.When you go to a restaurant, you must drive there, possibly wait for a table, take a chance your server is having a good day, hope that your special requests are honored, pay for it, tip the server and drive home. If you have a personal chef, you can heat a beautiful entrée that has been thoughtfully and carefully prepared to your palate and dietary requirements, and enjoy it in your most comfortable clothes, in the comfort of your own home.My professional personal chef service may even help you to control your food costs, as you will be less likely to impulse buy in the grocery store or resort to low-quality fast food, convenience food or restaurant food. Remember all that produce you purchased with good intentions of making home-cooked meals, then never got to and had to throw out? No more of that!When and where do you shop for ingredients?
As quality ingredients make for quality meals, I shop for the ingredients, including the fresh ingredients such as produce, meat, fish and poultry on the way to your home. As an added service because I shop just before I arrive at your home, I’ll be happy to pick up any additional items you may need (milk, diapers, pet food, cereal, etc.)—up to about ten items—for reimbursement only.Because the grocery cost is over and above my professional fee, I will purchase the ingredients wherever you would like within reason. Typically, I purchase groceries from Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Safeway.Is it possible to order only one or two entrees?
I wish I could make that available to you, however, it still takes much of the same time to produce half the food. As I am a professional personal chef, this is my business and in order to be profitable and offer my clients the best value, three entrees, two servings each is the least amount of food I can do at one time.How long will the food last and how often will we need your service?
This will depend on how many nights you eat at home, and the number of entrees and servings ordered. Because I want to make this work best for you, I’ll be happy to help determine how often to schedule service to best suit your needs. We’ll make sure it supports your lifestyle without putting any pressure on you, whether it’s monthly, biweekly or weekly. Service dates are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis. Occasional service and gift certificate purchases will be scheduled around regular clients.How do I pay for the service and am I locked in for a period of time?
A check or credit card payment for the personal chef service in addition to the grocery deposit and the charge for containers will be required in advance of the first cooking date. Payment is required in advance because I am reserving an entire day for you. I will guarantee the cooking fee for one year; after that it may be subject to change. Because our relationship is based on mutual trust, please have either a check ready for me when I arrive on each subsequent cooking date or pay online via a credit card. Our mutual arrangement can be terminated by either of us at any time with written notice. What are your Cancellation and/or Refund Policy(ies)?
Customer satisfaction is paramount to us and we strive to leave each customer satisfied and wanting more. However, if you wish to discontinue service, a 7-day notice is needed to avoid loss of your deposit. A full refund will be given if the cancellation is at least six days ahead of the scheduled service date. A refund less $100.00 will be given if notice of cancellation of services is provided at least three days prior to the scheduled cook date provided you. No refund will be given if the cancellation is within 48 hours of the cook date. In the event that no deposit was given and you wish to terminate services, you will be billed as if a deposit were given. For example, a cancellation of services 6-7 days before the scheduled cook date will not incur a bill. However, cancellation of services three to five days before the following cook date will incur a balance of $100; and cancellation of services within 48 hours of the scheduled cook date will incur a balance indicative of a full day’s pay.
It is important to note that per the signed agreement, you will continue to be scheduled and billed until a cancellation notice is provided in writing.
What is your Privacy Policy?
PRIVACY POLICY
Effective August 28, 2009
Our Commitment to Privacy
N’Joy Personal Chef Service, LLC’s Privacy Policy was developed as an extension of our commitment to excellence and providing quality services with integrity in dealing with our clients. The Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect, use and safeguard the personal information you provide to us and to assist you in making informed decisions when using our site and our products and services.
N’Joy Personal Chef Service, LLC will not share or sell your information for the purposes of creating or adding to another party’s mailing list or other mass marketing effort. We collect this information strictly in order to support our relationship with you.
What Information Do We Collect?
When you visit our site you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you actively choose to disclose (“Active Information”) and use information collected, in a way not visible to you, on an aggregate anonymous basis as you and others browse our site (“Passive Information”).
Active Information You Choose to Provide
You may visit our site without providing any personal information. However, N’Joy Personal Chef Service, LLC offers services on our site that require registration and/or submission of Personal information. In order to register or purchase products on our Site, it is necessary to provide your personal information, including your name, address, e-mail address, phone number and your billing and credit card information. Providing N’Joy Personal Chef Service, LLC with this information is strictly voluntary.
Registration Information. We use your registration information for billing purposes and to respond to your inquiries and we will use your personal information to contact you about these matters. By registering at N’Joy Personal Chef Service, LLC’s site, you consent to us contacting you about your account.
We use secure socket layer (SSL) encryption to protect the transmission of the information you submit to us when you use our secure online forms. The information you provide to us is stored securely.
If you choose to contact us via regular mail or email, we may retain such information and it is not secured.
Passive Information Collected
What is a Cookie?
Cookies are a feature of web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, etc.) software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a site. They are small pieces of data that are stored by a user’s web browser on one site to simplify subsequent interactions with that site by the same user or to use the information to streamline the user’s transaction on related web pages. This makes it easier for a user to move from site to site and to complete transactions over the Internet. Cookies should make your online experience easier and more personalized.
Our site utilizes cookies to collect information about how our site is used. Passive Information gathered may include the date and time of visits, the site pages viewed, time spent at our site, the sites visited just before and just after our site. If you do not wish to transmit “cookie” information about yourself, you may turn off the cookie function in your web browser; please consult the “Help” section of your browser to correctly do so.
Our site’s servers also automatically identify your computer by its Internet Protocol address which is a unique string of numbers that is assigned to your computer by your Internet Service Provider. Your IP address may be used to address problems with our server or administer our site or to gather broad demographic information about our clients.
How Do We Use the Information Collected?
Broadly speaking, persons we employ directly, or as contractors or agents at our direction use Active Information for purposes of administering our business activities, providing customer services such as support, and making available other products or services we think may be of interest to our clients. We may use the Active Information or Passive Information you provide to us to contact you about changes to our site, new services, features or products we offer, or other information we think you shall find valuable. If at any time you do not wish to receive such information, you may “opt-out” of doing so by sending an email to us at ltaylor@njoypersonalchef.com.
We use Passive Information to gather information about our clients and to enhance and design our site to make it easier, faster and friendlier to use. Additionally, cookies help us know information about how many people visit our site, when they visit and how they use our service. Passive Information may result in your viewing of particular advertising based on your user habits for your viewing on our site and a shopping experience customized to you in content, services and goods.
Sharing Information with Advertisers or Other Third Parties
We may disclose anonymous information about user habits, characteristics and user patterns, based on aggregate user statistics to advertisers on our site. The parties who perform services for us (credit card processors, merchant bank, our Internet Service Provider) may also have access to your information in performing such services. Should we buy or sell assets of our company, another company may need to review our company’s assets, including your information, to make business decisions as to whether to acquire such assets.
Sharing Information with the Government or As Otherwise Required by Law
We may be required by subpoena, law or government agency to disclose both Active and Passive Information you have provided to us.
How Do We Secure Active Information and Passive Information?
We secure your personal information submitted by you by using reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, or accidental loss or destruction of Active Information and Passive Information. Your postings on this site and other communications you may have with us via email or regular mail may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures are in place prior to your sending information. Therefore, if you choose to communicate with us through these means, you are assuming the risk of doing so and we request that you do not send or post sensitive information through these means.
YOUR USE OF OUR SITE MEANS THAT YOU ACCEPT THE PRACTICES SET FORTH IN THIS POLICY. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE CHANGES TO THE POLICY BY POSTING THE NEW VERSION WITH A NEW EFFECTIVE DATE. YOUR CONTINUED USE INDICATES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THE CHANGES. |
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