We were lucky to catch up with Aric Bianchi recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Aric with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
Growing up poor and not having the things I wanted, I had a chance to work at an early age in restaurants. I learned that I could buy something I wanted with the money I earned. I could make more money when I got better, whether washing dishes, mopping the floor, or chopping onions.
I also got a lot of help from other line cooks when I started working in restaurants; teamwork is the key to being in the kitchen. That means you should be early to get to work out of respect for the other line cooks who have already worked 10 hours shifts. To know what help exactly a line cook needs. (for example, if a pasta station is on fire and I’m not busy at my grill station, I should be able to help without asking them what they need from me.)
And be polite and helpful to the true unsung heroes, the dishwasher, the prep team, and the cleaning crew. I know these are tough jobs and how hard they work because I was one of them before I became serious about deciding to be a cook.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m a personal/private chef. I cook for private parties like birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, and small events like bachelor and bachelorette parties, elopement, and corporate retreats. Our team is just me and my wife, Yukari, and nobody else.
Yukari, jokes about my cooking style since I love cooking all different cuisines. I enjoy global cooking, but she says I’m a “Chameleon chef.” I get excited when our clients tell their stories and what kind of memories they have with food they’ve eaten, whether from their favorite restaurants, childhood memories, or the food they ate when they got engaged. We had back-to-back micro-wedding last year, and one was a brunch with silver dollar pancakes because they love different types of maple syrups to try on. It was mix of American contemporary brunch, Birria Tacos & Carnitas Tacos station, and roasted whole tenderloin station. And the other one was transnational marriage, like us. The groom was Japanese, and the bride was of Mexican heritage. So we combined Japanese mini curry korokke and braised Kabocha, potato salad, grilled whole snapper, and “build your own Sushi.” They also had a red and green enchilada that was from the bride’s childhood memory and added a whole pork loin with black beans & rice, because that was their favorite Caribbean dish. So the more they tell us their stories, the more my cooking imagination expands. I enjoyed developing both menus, and it was a fantastic experience to cook and serve at both weddings. We want people to know that we only take one reservation for the event day, unlike restaurants and bigger catering companies that can provide multiple events a day since we don’t have any other employees. That being said, our strength is that you will have our complete focus and attention from the beginning of menu creation to the day of the event. We are very flexible on starting & ending times, and once you get to know us a little better, we can create a long-lasting relationship, too. I believe we get many loyal clients because they feel “at home” when we provide a friendly, laid-back, and family-style atmosphere.
We are starting to offer In-Home Meal Preparation Service as well. Many meal prep companies deliver to their house, but we cook at our client’s homes. We decided to go with this business model when we learned that many people with food allergies and diet restrictions want to be as safe as possible when they go out. They always have to worry about cross-contamination and cross-contact and what ingredients are in it. We considered using their kitchen environment when we thought about how we could help them. We can use their kitchen items (we also have a set of cutting boards and knives just for clients with food allergies) to make the least consumption risk that may make them sick. And this service serves very well for new parents who can’t take their baby out yet or those who care for elderly parents. When we go to our client’s houses to prepare their meals, they can see what’s in the grocery bag (mostly whole foods), and we cook in front of them, so they know how fresh the food is. We can cook doggie cookies for your puppies, too!
Yukari, started studying safe kitchen items from her colleague (pots, pans, utensils, cleaning supplies, etc.). She wants to add it to our services and encourage people to live sustainably, consider the ecosystem, and be environmentally friendly.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Willingness to say “I don’t know” and keep learning
Willingness to ask for help in areas that you are not good at
Believe in yourself & your skills
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
Going all in is better because you can continuously improve your weak areas. You will also find other strong and weak places as you develop your entrepreneurship. It’s never-ending learning, which is why I love being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship and cooking are very similar. You always learn something new, and your journey will end once you think you know everything. If you fail at something, ask yourself “why” and “how” you can change it to succeed next time, and keep evolving yourself once you are all in.
Yukari and I had a client who told us they had everything we needed to cook for them. At the time, we only had a few private parties under our belts. We went there on the dinner party night without preparing for backup. Our clients were happy after the dinner, but in our eyes, the party was a disaster because we needed to look for everything in their kitchen cabinets and drawers and think of alternative tools to cook with it when we couldn’t find them. Looking for everything in their kitchen and using something it’s not supposed to use for the purpose took a lot of time. So, we were rushed to cook their meals, which as a chef, is the worst feeling to be behind on cooking time.
After the party, we thought we needed to throw a towel in. But instead, Yukari and I reviewed our mistakes, learned from them, fixed the problem, and moved on. We learned that “Mise en place” (it’s a French culinary word, and it means “everything in place” in English) starts before we get to our client’s house. We haven’t had such an incident since then. The weak area got stronger after the mistakes we made.
Also, Having someone to talk to about your mistakes and failure is always good. It is crucial to have a trusted friend, family, or a good networking group where you can safely talk about it because they have different points of view. I’m grateful to work with my wife because she often points out things I cannot see, and I hope I’m doing the same for her, too.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.unipersonalchef.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/unipersonalchefservices
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/unichefco
- Other: TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@unipersonalchef
Image Credits
Yukari Bianchi
