My name is Jennifer and I have been married to a chef for 25 years.

I blog about my life as a chef wife and how we combine restaurant and family life each day.

If you are new to my site, start here.

Recent Posts:

Go Seahawks!!

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Sometimes when you’re a chef (or married to one), this is the best way to show your support for the Seattle Seahawks!

Good luck tomorrow!

What Activities Can We Do Together When My Chef is Exhausted From Work?

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You know how your chef comes home too exhausted to really do anything, but you want to spend time together? What do you do besides sit around and stare at each other or the TV?

Earlier this week I received the following question from a reader on another blog post.

“What activities can we do that are not too exhausting for him, are not on a precise date, and can be done after 5 pm (his morning shift ends and I can afford to get off work)?”

10 Most Popular Posts of 2014

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Every time I look at the calendar, I am amazed that we’re in a new year. 2014 just flew by for our family.

Somehow in the midst of the craziness I started blogging. I had no idea how much I would enjoy writing and really wasn’t prepared for all the comments and emails I would get from so many people around the world that could relate to my life!

Today I thought I’d share my 5 most visited blog posts/pages from 2014 and also my 5 personal favorite posts.

My 5 favorite posts from 2014:

Letter to a Young Chef Wife – I loved putting together a list of things I wish I knew 19 years ago when my husband first started working in a professional kitchen.

The Hands of a Chef – I asked for pictures of chef’s hands on Facebook and received such a great response. 🙂 read more…

Are Chefs Paid Hourly or Salary?

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My chef/husband and I have had many conversations over the years about his salary. Usually the conversation starts because he’s been working so many hours and he’s on salary. (Sound familiar?)

He jokingly tells me how much he makes an hour, which comes out to be ridiculously low with the hours he works. He’s even said a few times that a server went home with more money than him after working 6 hours than he did after working 16 hours, running the entire restaurant and/or kitchen.

When he was a line cook, he occasionally got paid overtime. But as I have come to learn over the years, that overtime kills your labor budget and often the Sous Chef and Executive Chef work extra hours to pick up the slack to save their numbers (especially if those numbers are linked to a bonus.) read more…

We Made it ‘Til January 2nd!

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If you are married to or dating a chef, you know what I mean. It’s not that we don’t like the holidays, it’s just that we don’t see our chefs much or at all during the month of December. So once January 2nd comes around, we are pretty excited!! Things “should” slow down a bit in the restaurant, our chefs will be home trying to catch up on sleep and family time and we can all breathe a sigh of relief!

(Although January 2nd falling on a weekend might mess that up for us this year.)

Whatever the case, I’m ready for the new year.

Now looking ahead to Valentine’s Day . . . just kidding.

We survived the Christmas season as the family of a chef, although it was a very different month for us. Things have really changed in my chef/husband’s career and while the hours were still really long, he was off 3 weekends and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That has NEVER happened. The days he was working, his to do list was very long, but it actually didn’t have anything to do with the Christmas season. So it was a different season for us. Good, but different (and not what I had expected at all!!)

With that being said, I have absolutely no idea what the new year will bring. What I’ve come to know as the wife of chef is changing by the day. While I’m excited about these changes, there’s a small part of me that is anxious as well. I’m not a big fan of the “unknown,” but we’ll just take one day at a time and trust in God’s plan for our family. read more…