Chef Tim Stewart is ready to cook —at your place
BY KATHRYN HRYCUSKO Special to the VOICE
Growing up in Orillia, Ontario, Tim Stewart was like most kids — he would not eat his vegetables. He’d sit at the table after his meat and potatoes were gone and stare at his plate, refusing to eat the boiled Brussels sprouts and beets that sat on it.
Today, Stewart is a chef and partakes in beets and Brussels sprouts with gusto, provided they aren’t boiled. He fries up his Brussels sprouts with garlic, sea salt, pepper, and butter, baking beets wrapped in tinfoil, with olive oil and salt.
“In my experience, when something is cooked right, with the right flavors, It will definitely turn your thoughts to, ‘Oh yeah, I can eat that,’” said Stewart, who lives in Fonthill.
These are among the many dishes that he makes today as part of his business, Chef Chez You. He makes his living preparing meals for families that are too busy to consistently cook for themselves, but still want to eat healthy, home-cooked meals. Every two weeks, Stewart will go to his client’s home and prepare enough dinners to last until his next visit. He provides all cooking utensils and dishes, the groceries, and cleans up afterward.
As his childhood of boiled vegetables might suggest, Stewart did not get to this point by taking cooking tips from his parents. Nor was it something he ever studied at college or as an apprentice chef. Instead, Stewart’s journey to becoming a chef, and running his business was unorthodox. At the age of 18, Stewart began to work in the restaurant industry as a server.
“I would watch the chefs do stuff and then go home and try it myself. I actually never worked in a restaurant kitchen. So I'm not a trained chef, I'm a self-taught, school of hard knocks chef.”
His dream was to open a restaurant, but was unable to invest the necessary amount of time and money into getting it started. As an alternative, Stewart pursued another avenue he had heard of, the personal chef industry.
In January of 2000, he joined the Canadian Personal Chef Association, which provides individuals with the tools to establish themselves as personal chefs, including how to build a client base, and what the job entails. It also provides a recipe database that the chefs can draw from, as well as updates on developments in the cooking world, and a network of fellow chefs. In Canada, this network includes some 300 chefs, while in the United States, a similar association accounts for around 5,000.
By March 2000, Stewart had his business set up, and a webpage on a site called “Hire a Chef.”
“It was gradual” he said about his business’ initial growth. “My first customer actually didn't come until September.”
From that point, it took another three years until he was able to leave his job as a restaurant server and work solely as a chef.
Stewart has been working as “Chef Chez You” for 19 years. The majority of this time he worked in Ottawa, where he and his wife lived until their recent move back to Niagara.
Chef Chez You was a success in Ottawa, and Stewart would usually cook for up to 16 clients, while also doing a couple of dinner parties each week. His customers ranged from elderly widowers and couples, who were unable to cook for themselves but still wanted to stay in their home, to couples and families with children.
Often, he had regulars that would hire him, including one woman that used his service for 11 years.
His customers are offered two packages—a basic one, which consists of chicken, pork, beef, and vegetarian based meals; and a gourmet one, which also incorporates lamb, seafood, and fish. Although the basic packages are set, Stewart’s clients have plenty of say in food being made. His past clients have made requests concerning dietary preferences and allergies, including gluten-free or celiac, vegetarian, and dairy-free diets.
Stewart is happy to cater to all sorts of preferences, though he admits that vegans present a unique challenge, though not one that he shies away from. Even those wanting to eat solely organic or solely local food will be accommodated.
Stewart is also eager to try new recipes and is open to using ones that clients provide, though he says he enjoys tweaking them a bit. On one occasion, a man requested he make an orange chiffon cake and sweet cabbage rolls, both favourite recipes of the man’s recently deceased mother-in-law.
“So I went and I made [the food],” said Stewart, “[The man’s wife] showed up later on in the day, she walked in the door and smelled the house. She cried ‘Oh my it’s my mum’s cabbage rolls. She was pretty pumped about that.”
Stewart himself does not have any recipes from his own mother than he uses, but he often refers to a book of his mother-in-law’s favourite dishes, including a stuffing recipe that he tried on his first meal with his wife’s family.
“[My mother-in-law] makes the best turkey stuffing,” Stewart said, “Her stuffing...it just smacks you in the teeth, you know!”
For his own table, Stewart enjoys barbecuing and making dishes with seafood, including a Canadian version of “grits and shrimp,” which uses cornmeal, shrimp, peppers, garlic, and chorizo. Another favourite dish is orzo, ground lamb, Italian sausage, and marinated artichokes with a meat pesto. He also attempts to add innovative touches to his dishes, trying out new tastes. Recently, he has been experimenting with lavender, particularly in desserts.
Niagara, Stewart says, will present some new opportunities, as well as some new challenges for him as a chef. The abundance of fresh fruit in the area is something he tends to take advantage of, and has already given him an urge to create a peach cobbler that he makes for his wife. He also mentioned interest in teaming up with a local businesses to showcase some of their produce. The downside is that Niagara, compared to Ottawa, lacks seafood-only stores, the closest being in Hamilton.
Though some might shy away from the idea of stranger in their house, Stewart is confident that there is a market for his business in Niagara. Past experience has shown him that when prospective clients call they have already decided to hire him, and that any doubts are put at ease at their initial meeting. Stewart is looking forward to life as a chef in Niagara, and hopes to continue his business of providing healthy, hearty meals for fellow residents, while “bringing families back to the table.”
