We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aric and Yukari Bianchi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Aric and Yukari, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

Sure. We were super naive when we started our business. We went into a beautiful kitchen, but the stovetop only worked 3 burners out of 6 burners, or the freezer was not correctly working when we had homemade ice cream for the dessert, or the rental space put a fire alarm right above the stove, it kept going off as soon as we started cooking, even boiling water. We turned off and opened all the windows in the house. Once, we needed to make enchiladas for a main course, but the oven at the rental space wasn’t working. Our clients even asked us if we have a plan B. Ha ha ha. We made the enchiladas, though. One last lesson was our client told us that the house had everything we needed in the kitchen, and we believed it. We got to the house and realized that a professional kitchen, tools, and a home kitchen are different environments.

We take some time and take it as a learning experience whenever we encounter an incident like that. You’ll learn how important “Mise en place” is when you work in restaurants. (it’s a French culinary word, and it means “everything in place” in English) We learned from those experiences, and being a personal chef starts before getting to our client’s house. The next day, we went to a restaurant equipment store and bought everything we needed. Sometimes we feel like we have a moving kitchen in our car!

Aric and Yukari, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a personal/private chef. I cook for private parties like birthdays, anniversaries, and baby showers, and small events like bachelor and bachelorette parties, Elopement, and corporate retreats.

My wife, Yukari, jokes about my cooking style since I love cooking all different cuisines. I enjoy global cooking, but she says I’m a “Chameleon.” 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-weddings last year, and one was a brunch with silver dollar pancakes because they love different types of maple syrups to try on. 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. Still, they also had red and green enchilada on the table. So 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 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 consider using their kitchen environment when we think about how we can help them instead of worrying about the packaged prepped meals. 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!

My wife, 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.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

So we started it out when we lived in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We were a little bored, I guess. One day, I saw a post on the Puerto Vallarta FB group asking about personal chef service. I asked my wife if we should go for it, and she said, “Yes.” I contacted the person, and we had an incredible 7-course tasting dinner for 20 guests on New Year’s Eve in 2018. We’ve got a few loyal clients, winter vacation families, and people using rental properties for their vacations as our clients.

When April 2020, the pandemic hit the hardest, we decided to go back to Colorado to stay close to our friends and family. We searched for jobs, but Covid-19 shut down everything, especially the food and service industries. We had so many great experiences and memories doing our own personal chef business, and we didn’t want to give up on it. So, while rebuilding our company here in Colorado, we had to figure out how to keep this business and our living situation.

Yukari was a dog trainer, so she got a job for two years with her friend’s dog training company called “Noble Beast Dog Training,” She also took care of our neighbors’ and friends’ dogs and cats as a pet sitter. I was working on anything to get us through. I bartended, cleaned kegs at a brewery, helped my friend’s hardwood flooring business, and was a handyman for a property management company.

We often thought we needed to find full-time jobs instead of chasing our dream, but we’re happy we didn’t. Our mini-hustle side job in Mexico turned into our full-time job in Colorado, and we can’t ask for anything more.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

We are honest and sincere. We execute our products to the highest level of quality. We accommodate as much as we can for our clients. We make it from scratch as much as possible. We try to get the best farm-to-table “whole foods” on the table. We only have one reservation for the night when you reserve our service. You are the only table to serve; our attention to detail is yours. We are flexible if you would like to start your dinner party a little earlier or later than you told us on the basic intake form.

But what sets our business apart is that we modeled Japanese culture called “Omotenashi.” It goes beyond just providing “good customer service.” “Omotenashi” is a mindset or philosophy emphasizing deep respect and care for guests and a desire to create a memorable and enjoyable experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.unipersonalchef.com
• Instagram: @unipersonalchefservices
• Facebook: @unichefco
• Other: TikTok: @unipersonalchef

Image Credits
Yukari Bianchi