Hiring a cook for the holidays?

[annandlouise]

Hi guys,

I wondered about people who hire cooks to get out of the holiday cooking, and I recently started a website called licensedtocook.com. Its a website for foodies (like me) who love to cook and may even be willing to do it for extra income but just don't want the stress of starting or managing a cooking business. What I want to know from users of this post, is if there are many other people out there who would go for this. I mean this kind of informal business and informal catering arrangement where you don't buy from a professional caterer per se, but from a private person who just also happens to be a very practised and good cook. On my website, I suggested users who might want to purchase from - I call them -'Makers and Bakers' should first set up a taste or sampling visit, to see what he or she can do before definately purchasing anything. I also asked those interested in advertising their cooking to send me an email with their prefered mode of contact, what food they best like to prepare and how much they would like to sell it for. I'm really hoping ethnic food makers will be drawn to it especially, I definately think its a bit harder to find available catering in these categories, though not impossible. I 'd really like different people to check it out and give me their feedback, so please take a look at licensedtocook.com, and tell me what you think. Thanks

[Patsy Warnick]

Good for you - I think it's a great idea without alot of overhead B.S..

You should get alot of business from corporate / company party's - Holiday and the everyday family without the time to cook. Also there's so many woman that don't cook - don't know how to cook, and have no interest in learning.

Good luck - I'll check out you web site..

Patsy

P.S. I'm a great cook - been cooking since I was @ 8 yrs old - mastered several

recipes by 14 yrs. old.. and I enjoy cooking ( sometimes )..:-3

[Rapunzel]

Hiya A&L and welcome to FG! :-6

I tried looking for your website but only found someone's blogspot. Can you type out the webaddress in full so I can copy and paste?

I love to cook. I've cooked special meals for friends (in their houses) but not charged for them. The last time I did this I dressed up as a French maid, wrote the menu in French, cooked French food and pretended I could only speak French and a little English. I was saying a few words in French then saying " 'Ow you say en anglaise....." and they were correcting my english! (I have to say they were extremely pi**ed at this point!) :wah:

I also bake and sell party cakes. I make the cake into something like a train or a house or whatever. Most bought cakes use tons of coloured marzipan which I hate because, although they look pretty, they taste horrible (too sickly!). I like to fill my cakes with sweets, so the train will run on tracks of licorice laces and it will have a carriage filled with allsorts and a carriage filled with other brightly coloured sweeties and maybe a carriage with kitkat fingers piled on so it looks like a woodpile. Then I put licorice laces across the top to look like ropes holding the 'wood' on.

I use chocolate buttons for the spines on my hedgehog cake too.

But my favourite cake to make is my Hansel & Gretel cottage. I use kitkat fingers for the roof and ice it with the persons name and 'Happy Birthday'. I use allsorts for the windows and jellybeans for shutters. I decorate the walls and path with smarties, sweetie flowers for the garden and green desicated coconut for the grass. I add lots of other bits to personalise it or for if its seasonal like a halloween cake. When I make the cake I mix melted chocolate in with the buttercream icing and I often put small tangerine slices in with the cream cake filling to counteract the sweetness as it is very sweet!

I enjoy making these cakes but only charge for ingredients and not time as the ingredients alone tend to be pretty expensive.

[Nomad]

Sounds like a great idea. If you pursue this I hope you do well. I love to see people being creative with business ideas.