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:

Do we Really NEED that in the Kitchen????

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I remember 20 years ago walking around Macy’s and Williams Sonoma, registering for our wedding with my fiancé. (I feel old!) I will be honest, I thought he was completely insane for putting a $450 knife set on our registry. Who in the world would spend that kind of money on a gift for us and why in the world do we need knives that cost that much? I remember thinking that same thing about a Kitchen Aid stand mixer and our pots and pans as well.

I wanted to register for little gadgets that made everything easier. For example, I thought we needed an onion chopper. That’s how I grew up learning to cut an onion. Doesn’t everyone use one of these to cut onions?

But of course, why would we need something that cuts an onion into inconsistent sized pieces, when we could do it better with a knife? (And when I say we, I really mean him. After 19 years I am very efficient at cutting an onion. It only took about 10 lessons from my chef/husband to learn. Seriously. Don’t laugh at me.) read more…

Do Chef’s Wear Pajamas to Work?

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I just placed an order for some new chef pants for my husband and chuckled to myself as I remember a conversation between my chef/husband and one of our girls recently.

She was asking about the clothes he wears to work every day.

It started off with the question we all ask ourselves as we are washing chef coats!

“Why do chefs wear white chef coats when they are around food all the time?”

Brilliant! I know!! Even at only 9 years old she realizes this is not the greatest idea. (Although I do understand why, it’s just annoying when you have to get stains out of them all the time.)

Then they moved on to talking about the chef pants. read more…

Time Management and the Chef’s Wife

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Being married to a chef, (and being a stay at home mom), most of the work to be done at home falls on my shoulders. My husband works 70-80 hours a week, so the free time he does have, he uses to sleep and spend with us. I don’t want to have a huge list of things I need him to do around the house during the few hours he’s off. This seems to work well for us.

There’s only one problem.

I tend to get overwhelmed easily.

Combine that with the amount of work it takes to care for a family, a home and a small business and that can be a problem!!

I’m a list maker. OneNote is full of lists of things to do today and in the future. I have shopping lists for different stores I need to go to. I have a list of weekly chores for myself and the kids. Some days I think I’m really organized and can stay on top of things. Other days, I just look at what needs to be done and sit there overwhelmed. read more…

Tips for Talking to a Chef’s Wife

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Chefwives, you know the conversation. You’ve just met someone and you’re making small talk about your family, the number of kids you have, where you work, where you live etc.

You know the question is coming.

Wait for it.

“What does your husband do for a living?”

“My husband is a chef,” you say timidly, knowing one of the statements or questions that will most likely be coming next.

You are so lucky!! I would love to be married to a chef!
You must eat so well at home.
Holidays must be AMAZING at your house.
What’s your husband’s favorite food to make?
He should be on Top Chef!
How is it that you don’t weigh a ton?
What’s your favorite food that that he cooks for you?
What restaurant does he work at? (Insert restaurant name here.) Oh I love that place!

Then when people know you a little better, the comments tend to change. read more…

Happy Birthday Chef!

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So how does a chef celebrate his birthday? By working of course. And not just working, but getting up at 4am to open the restaurant. The only good thing about that (besides that he has a job and I’m grateful we can pay our bills), is that meant he was home to have dinner with us!

After being gone from the house for 12 hours, he came home to 3 very excited little girls who were ready for him to open the presents they had for him (the minute he walked in the door).

What do you get a chef for his birthday anyways? Top Ramen? Lol – no, but he probably would have loved it.

We decided that instead of getting him things that he really doesn’t need or have time to use, we’d each pick something special to do with him and give that to him. My chef/husband doesn’t have a lot of free time (BIG SURPRISE) so the items he has for his “hobbies” unfortunately do not get used that often. We tried this last year and we all loved it. It gives each of us a special date with just him (sometime during the next month.) read more…