The Struggles of a Chef Wife – Scheduling Appointments

How in the world do you schedule a Dr. appointment or an appointment to leave your car for 6 hours, when your husband is a chef and you have kids?

Not easily!

Now maybe it’s just me, but as a chef wife, I struggle with this.

Let’s be honest.  There are some Dr. appointments I REALLY don’t want to go to with 3 kids.  And these types of appointments can only be scheduled M-F and usually need to be scheduled weeks in advance. (more…)

How to Have a Successful Career and be Married to a Chef – Part 4

As I continue to think about this topic of having a successful career and being married to a chef, I’ve come to realize that there are definitely some careers better suited for this than others (especially if you have kids.)

Here’s what one chef wife said on Facebook about one of my recent posts.

“I used to have a successful career.  Then I had kids and they were more important. Now I seem to have a career again, but one that fits with the kids being home.”

I love that!  So to conclude this series, I want to introduce you to Alyson, another chef wife whom I have had the pleasure of getting to know a little over the past few months.  She is the author of the comment above and has found a career that fits perfectly with her chef/husband and family.

What is this magical career, you ask?  It’s blogging.  Alyson is the author of World Family Travel Blog. (more…)

How to Have a Successful Career AND be Married to a Chef – Part 3

Today, as we continue on in our series talking about how to have a successful career AND be married to a chef (oh, and don’t forget about kids), I’d like to introduce you to Amity Howard Reiss.

Amity is a wife of 10 years and has been together for 19 with a successful Executive Chef. Chef Joel Reiss has worked for some of the most well known establishments and Chefs in NYC. He is currently the Executive Chef for the S Prime Steakhouse in Long Island City, Queens. She is a full time school psychologist for a Nassau County school district and slowly starting a part time photography business. They have two amazing little boys, 4 and 5 years old, and reside in Oceanside, NY.

I’m so thankful for Amity’s willingness to share her thoughts on this important topic that many of you have expressed interest in. 

A woman can do it all! That is how I truly feel. We can support our husbands in their career, honor our own path in our personal pursuits of interest and raise our children to be intelligent, compassionate and successful citizens. Now, how we manage to do this takes a strong path of conviction, not to mention a great amount of compromise and sacrifice at times.

How to have a successful career and be married to a chef? Let’s now add children to that equation? How to have a career, be married to a chef and raise a family…all successfully??

Let’s chuckle a little at that and be honest. It’s not an easy task and I would hardly admit that I am successful at any one area. Sometimes it feels like I am flying by the seat of my pants just near the precipice at all times. (more…)

What is it like to Cook for a Chef?

“What is it like to cook for a chef?” Depending on who you ask, you’ll get very different answers.

If you ask one my friends, they will tell you they are very nervous to cook for my chef/husband.

If you ask the parent or sibling of a chef, I don’t think they would think much of it since they’ve always done it  Although they might ask a question or two if the chef is around when they are cooking.  (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)

If you ask an aspiring line cook what it’s like to cook for an Executive Chef in an interview, they’ll probably tell you they were very nervous because they wanted to do well and get the job.

But what about the wife or girlfriend or a chef? (Or husband/boyfriend . . . you know I never want to leave you out, it’s just awkward to always say all types of people in one sentence.)

I do the majority of cooking at home since I’m married to a chef.  Most of the time it’s because he’s not home.  But what about the times he is home?  What is it like to cook for him? (more…)

I Want to Marry a Chef

Have you ever searched, married to a chef, on Twitter?

If you search #marriedtoachef, you’ll see all of us tweeting about our lives as chef wives.

But try searching, married to a chef, no hash tag, just the phrase.

It’s hysterical the number of people that say, “I want to marry a chef,” on Twitter because they think the chef would cook for them all the time!   

Here’s an example.

I want to marry a chef

The tweet in the middle is actually from a fellow chef wife (Hi Juliana!) writing about being married to a chef.  (You can see the post here.)

But look at the other two.  I have no idea who these women are.  I’m sure they are very nice and just want someone to cook for them.  I just think it’s funny and sad at the same time.  People just don’t get it! (more…)