I am a social person but I am really apprehensive when it comes to preparing my food for strangers. Family and people that I know is fine, but strangers…ummm…no. I don’t know why I had a mental block when it came to cooking for strangers but I did. I froze or something happened to my brain that just shut it off. Then I realized I was being ridiculous. Cooking is what I love and has always been what I love to do. I’ve been cooking for over 25 years. I have made anniversary dinners, birthday events, made Shabbos meals for friends I knew and even cooked for large events with friends. I just wanted that opportunity to be able to share my cooking with others and if I could get paid for it, well then, that’s a bonus.

So I finally did it…I launched myself as a personal chef. I started telling friends and those friends of friends. Some people said there was just no money in food so what was I thinking. I kept on being discouraged. Self doubt started to kick in. Then I realized who cares. The worst thing that could happen would be people would give me a bad review. I had to get over the fact that there would always be the doubters and the critics. I had to face my fears and just get out there and do this.

So today was my first official day of launching myself as a personal chef. It took years of mental prep to get me to this point but here I am.

Have any of you wanted to start making money from cooking? If so, what ideas have you thought of? Have you tried it out? Let me know.

Chaya.