Help I’m Pregnant and Married to a Chef – A Chef, a Wife and a Child

pregnant and married to a chefI’m excited to start a new series here on Emulsified Family called A Chef, A Wife and a Child.  During the series I’ll be sharing about our life with children, but have asked other chefs’ wives to share their stories as well.

I’ll be posting in this series every Tuesday evening through September.  If you haven’t already signed up to receive my posts via email, you can do so here and then come back and read the rest of the post.  I can wait.  🙂  Other blog posts on different topics will pop up here and there as well.

We all have different stories and different experiences about having a child with a chef.  If you have children, or are thinking about it in the future, I hope you will be able to relate to one or more of us as we share our lives with you.  I’ll also be talking a bit about miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and infertility as so many of us struggle with those issues as well.

To those chef families who do not have children yet, having a child is often an overwhelming thought because of the long and crazy hours a chef works.  And for those of us living it every day, there are ups and downs as we try and figure out how to combine restaurant and family life.  Then there are those with grown children who have lived to tell about it.  (Feel free to leave your advice in the comments!!)

So to start off the series, I thought we should start at the beginning. . . .

Help!  I’m pregnant and married to a chef! (more…)

Happy Father’s Day Chef!

chef and daughters

Today is Father’s Day here in the United States.  Many children will be waking up early all excited to spend the day celebrating their Dads.  Lots of cards and gifts have been made at school, ugly ties have been purchased and wrapped up and there will be lots of hugs and slobbery kisses.

But just like many other holidays, my chef/husband will be at work.  I’m not quite sure how the girls will be today, especially because they will probably not get to see him at all.  Hopefully there will not be any tears and we will not have to relive the conversation about Daddy not having a “normal” job. (more…)

Do You Know What Summer Vacation Means for a Chef’s Family?

It’s finally the last week of school for our two older girls.  It’s been weeks of seeing friends from around the country post their end of the school year pictures on Facebook and it’s finally our turn.

While summer vacation is a great thing for most families, for the family of a chef it’s AMAZING!!  Why?  Because no matter what days my husband takes off (which change weekly, daily or hourly based on what’s going on in the restaurant) we are all home and can do things together.  Or we can just hang out. (Although that’s something our younger two haven’t really figured out yet.  They still think that if Daddy is home they need to be right on top of him every second of the day.  We’ll have to work on that a bit.)

For this past school year, my husband has had very few weekend days off.  So while I have had time to spend with him and so has our youngest daughter who was still at home full time, the older two really only had a few hours in the evening after school to spend with him.  There have been some tough moments, the hardest was probably when our 9 year old actually asked, “Why can’t Daddy have a normal job?”  That’s a hard one to answer. (more…)

Delancey – A Few of My Favorite Things

{This post contains affiliate links.}

I am not much of a reader.  (Don’t tell any of my past students.)  I love to read blogs, but do not reach out for books (or the Kindle app on my tablet) as often as I should.

So I have to be honest, I’m a bit surprised with myself that I’m writing about a book I read.  Never thought that would happen . . .

However, when I discovered a new book written by another chef’s wife (who lives in Seattle of all places!!!!), how could I not read it? (more…)

The Glamorous . . . and not-so-Glamorous Life of a Chef and his Family

The other day I was thinking about how truly amazing and glamorous it is to be married to a chef… all those fabulous meals he prepares for us at home each night, the romantic date nights visiting local restaurants with friends, our children being exposed to so many different types of food that they happily eat anything we place before them, the wonderful recipes and cookbooks I have access to, never having to pay for a meal when we go out to eat, owning the top of the line cookware and kitchen appliances… the list could go on and on…

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But I’ll stop there.

I’ll stop there because it’s not true. There might be some truth behind a few of those statements, but for the most part, for the majority of chefs and their families, they are pure fantasy.

I guess there is a part of me that understands this glamorous life of a chef that has somehow been portrayed to our society as truth. The fact that someone can create something so wonderful out of food, and do so for a large amount of people in a short period of time, is truly amazing. I get that. For some reason there just seems to be something glamorous, intriguing and mysterious about a man (or woman) in a chef coat. (more…)