Personal Chefs Network November 2008 Pacesetter Award

Being chosen at Personal Chefs Network as Pacesetter Personal Chef is a wonderful achievement. Among the many reasons one may be chosen are: successful and innovative marketing ideas; recipe contributions; being active in the Members? Forums and Open Kitchen Forum; industry leadership; and willingness to share.

Jesse Miner likes to point out that he has come a long way from his high school job at McDonalds. A year after launching his business as a Vegan Personal Chef, Jesse has definitely left the golden arches in the dust.

Food began to take on a valuable meaning for Jesse Miner in 1992 when he read ?Diet for a New America? by John Robbins. The book influenced Jesse?s decision to become a vegan and an animal rights activist. Cooking became a basic necessity as Jesse eliminated all animal products from his meals. The animal rights community socialized with vegan potlucks that enticed and challenged Jesse?s culinary ability. Although eating a vegan diet is good for animals, there can be an entire world of vegan dishes that are not good for the eater. Ten years of starchy fried foods and an IT career that required long days at a desk put Jesse?s health in jeopardy.

In 2002, after the Dot Com Bomb left Jesse unemployed, a family member was diagnosed with Diabetes, and a tropical vacation resulted in unflattering bathing suit photos, Jesse made his next life-changing food decision. With the help of his doctor and his wife?s encouragement to prepare more vegetables, Jesse dramatically changed his food selections to a healthy, well-balanced diet of whole foods. With a renewed passion for cooking at home, and a satisfying 40 lb weight loss, Jesse was encouraged to take a weekend cooking class at Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco. Several thrilling classes with Chef Eric Tucker led Jesse to enroll in the Natural Chef program at Bauman College in Berkeley. To complete the culinary training Jesse returned to Millennium for an extended internship, which included assisting with the very weekend classes that piqued his interest in becoming a chef.

As part of Bauman?s Natural Chef program, students are required to develop a business plan for what they might do when they finish their schooling. The assignment gave Jesse the opportunity to solidify the concepts he had been developing. Continuing the meals he creates for his own family, Jesse chose to develop a plan for a personal chef business that every week would fill a family?s refrigerator with healthy, vegan, satisfying and most importantly, delicious meals. Based on a suggestion from his wife?s client?s daughter (Chef Cheryl Jagoba), Jesse joined the Personal Chef Network in April of 2007. The connection with a professional community encouraged Jesse and gave him the confidence to launch his business completely. Chef Jesse Miner, Vegan Personal Chef officially became a full-time business in June of 2007.

The plan developed in school has kept the Chef Jesse Miner business focused and growing, but sometimes that means saying ?No.? Jesse has declined requests that do not maintain the focus of his business, though he always offers an alternative resource to the potential client. To maintain the quality of his services, Jesse has learned to set his own scheduling guidelines. Limiting the number of clients he can take in one week, has resulted in a full schedule over the long term and happy customers every week.

Thrilled with the relationships he is building with his weekly clients, Jesse is also happy to be continuing a more subtle form of his animal rights activism by creating fabulous tasting vegan meals. In conjunction with providing animal-free meals, Jesse is working to promote local, seasonal and organic produce. The majority of his ingredients are purchased from Rainbow Grocery, an all vegetarian, worker owned co-op in San Francisco. Additional items come from local farms like Eatwell Farm, Rancho Gordo (heirloom beans) and Sciabica?s (olive oil). Again, the personal connections bring an added joy to Jesse?s business, giving him the particular pleasure of discussing ingredients with the farmers who produce the items.

Focus, hard work and some good fortune has lead to a constantly growing business. After tasting Jesse?s cooking at a summer lunch, the editors of VegNews Magazine asked him to prepare their staff holiday dinner, which led to Jesse writing a recurring column in their prominent national magazine. (Look for his current column in the Nov/Dec ?08 issue.) Jesse?s cooking demos at the World Vegetarian Festival in San Francisco (2007 & 2008) have received rave reviews. Thanks to glowing 5-star reviews, Chef Jesse Miner is listed at the top of Yelp?s Personal Chef list for San Francisco.

Summer 2008, one year after officially launching the business, the editors of the San Francisco Bay Guardian in their annual ?Best of the Bay? issue named Chef Jesse Miner ?Best Vegan Magician?. Maybe Chef Jesse?s next goal should be ?1 Million Served?! 

Recipes

Roasted Acorn Squash
Stuffed with Wild Rice, Pecan and Cranberry Stuffing
Serves 6

Ingredients:
3 acorn squashes, cut in half and seeded
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 medium yellow onions, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups Lundberg Wild Rice Blend (or homemade mix of whole grain rice varieties)
3 cups vegetable stock
3/4 cup pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup scallion greens, thinly sliced on a bias
Salt and pepper, to taste

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Brush acorn squash halves with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and place cut-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet and set aside.
3. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onions, celery, sage and salt and cook over medium-high heat for several minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent. Add the rice and toast for a few minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Cover and place saucepan in the oven.
4. Put the sheet of squash halves in the oven as well.
5. Bake rice for 45-50 minutes, until moisture is absorbed. Roast acorn squash halves for 45 minutes, until squash flesh is soft and surface is browned.
6. Remove both rice and squash halves from oven. Let rice sit, covered, for 10 minutes. Uncover and toss rice with pecans, dried cranberries and scallion greens. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
7. Stuff each squash half with a 1/2 to 3/4 cup of rice mixture and serve with side of Roasted Brussels Sprouts.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Serves 6

Ingredients:
2 pounds Brussels sprouts
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Chop off rough stems and slice each Brussels sprout in half length-wise.
3. Toss well with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and place cut-side down on a baking sheet.
4. Roast for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of the Brussels sprouts. Cut-side should be browned and some of the leaves crispy.