Pheastly: Chef Amy Phan fb.com/pheastlyphood

Two years ago, Chef Amy Phan and her husband, Jeff, left Houston, Texas and made the big move to the mountains of Empire, Colorado. She didn’t want to wait for her retirement years to live in the mountains. Her husband, chemical engineer by profession, can work remotely, allowing Chef Phan to build her culinary business in Colorado.

The couple found a house on top of the town, looking over a hill. In addition, Chef Phan offers tunnel dining since the house is built over an abandoned mining tunnel. Mountain driving doesn’t bother the couple. Located 40 minutes away from Lakewood, the husband and wife run errands and is often in Denver weekly.

Finding interested groups on Facebook such as Crazy Hungry Asians of Colorado help Chef Phan target diners, who enjoy eating and are adventurous at the same time.

“Being a private chef with an untethered kitchen and diverse clients allows me the ultimate flexibility to indulge in my desire to constantly design and cook creative menus in different settings,” said Chef Phan.

Her creativity allows her to offer a wide variety of cuisines. “Exclusively, we are able to offer feasts served on various parts of our private property, which is a beautiful chunk of authentic gold mining land that overlooks the surrounding mountains, holds our open-concept modern farmhouse home, and features a century-old mining tunnel that we just started to host dinners.”

When Chef Phan isn’t cooking or building a menu, she is enjoying Colorado through watersports of all kinds. If she’s not in the water, she is skiing, four wheeling or bungee jumping.

For a little serenity, she tends to her garden to grow a harvest for her diners. Her comfort food includes Japanese Takikomi Gohan, which is cooked Kyoto homestyle rice casserole with chicken thighs, shimeji mushrooms, onions and carrots cooked together in a savory sake dashi broth. If that description made you salivate, she can create this dish for diners, too.

Fish On Rice: Chef Mark Dinh

The pandemic drove Chef Mark Dinh to build a business that would allow him the flexibility to choose his own hours. Through Fish On Rice, he offers high quality omakase also known as chef’s tasting menu.

“I think being a private chef allows for more human connection to the food,” he said. “Most times when you go to a restaurant, you don’t get to see the people behind the meal. This allows your story as a chef to have more influence behind the ideas of the food.”

Chef Dinh certainly hit the bullseye, as his weekend schedules are booked for the next five months.

“When I started this business, I was blessed to learn from successful people in the Denver area. They taught me that your story is your most powerful arsenal as an entrepreneur,” Chef Dinh said.

“Conveying your thoughts into food is difficult but getting to know guests on a personal level makes a huge difference.”

For example, Chef Dinh is proud to share that his mother, Dana Shin, makes pastries. Follow her on Instagram @pasteries_by_ dana.

“I believe my mom helping make baked goods and desserts illustrates that this is a family business. I want to show how proud I am of my mother and her amazing desserts.”

Through Instagram and word of mouth, Chef Dinh’s customer base is growing, allowing him to hire a personal assistant to handle his administrative work so he can focus on creating menus. Some of his clients live in Aspen, Vail, and Beaver Creek. He has received invitations from Montana and referrals from South Carolina, but has not committed yet.

He indicates his average clientele rents a house or condo, skis all day, then comes back for dinner prepared by him. Chef Dinh also works with customers, who have restrictive dietary needs such as soy allergies or vegan preference. He has created “fake unagi” out of plant-based ingredients such as eggplant.

His culinary talents come from attending The Culinary Institute of America in New York and working 15-hour days in New York City. When he returned to Colorado, he applied for a sous chef position in Vail. The mountain restaurant hired him on the spot. He could command a six-figure salary, working at a Japanese mountain restaurant but preferred to stay close to family in Aurora.

His plans include establishing a bakery for his mom with a customized kitchen in the back and access to an offsite facility to continue his omakase menus. In addition, building a greenhouse to offer farm-to-table dining and room for event spacing are ideal conditions for a potential infrastructure in building his restaurant concept.

In addition, Chef Dinh shared he would like to become a certified sake professional. He is researching more about a program in New Jersey that teaches the nuances and styles of sake.

“Sake is very versatile and I would love to see that growth,” he said.

When he’s not creating sushi, his favorite go-to comfort food includes “Asian grandma stews” such as: kimchi jigae, bun rue, duk guk, Japanese curry, and sukiyaki. His favorite comfort food is grilled cheese with kimchi tomato stew.

Mixed with Korean, Vietnamese, Irish and American ancestry, Chef Dinh enjoys the Korean restaurants located On Havana Street in Aurora— Thank Sool Pocha and Tofu Story. His other favorites are Savory Vietnam in Denver and BRUTO, a Mexican-inspired counter service venue with a bar, in the Dairy Block of downtown Denver.

Green Cuisine Chef: Ire Evans

GreenCuisineChef.com instagram.com/green.cuisine.personal.chef

Chef Ire Evans, who is from Indonesia, has been cooking since her middle school years. She attended the Culinary Business Academy, where she learned how to create a personal chef program. The company set her up in Denver. She interned for the Asian Chamber of Commerce under the direction of former president, John Wright.

She started her business, Green Cuisine Chef, in 2008 when her children attended a local charter school. Through her own family experience, she realized how busy parents engaged in shuttling to school, after-school activities and visiting fast food restaurants for their daily and weekly meals. She knew she found a niche to volunteer and offer her services to other parents. In addition to providing the service, she educated children about healthier ways of eating. Her cuisine included food from around the world with an organic twist, cooking from scratch.

With more than 200 clients on her roster, March is a chance for her to catch up with marketing, accounting, and logistics. Although confidentiality prevents her from revealing her celebrity clients, she shared several come from the Denver Broncos football franchise.

Her favorite meal is anything with tofu as an ingredient. She prefers homecooked meals over visiting restaurants.

In March, she participated in Mile High Asian Food Week a few weeks ago and discovered Ace Eat Serve on 501 E. 17th Ave., in Denver. “I was really impressed with their food,” she confessed. “It’s really good and I love the uniqueness.”

She refuses to participate in cooking competitions, adding that she knows she can cook fast but doesn’t want to be on someone else’s time. “I can cook three lunches and three dinners in one hour,” Evans said.

When she’s not cooking, she is enjoying hikes with her daughter throughout Colorado. Her relaxation comes from her gym work. “I enjoy boxing with weight training,” she said. “It’s a way to get rid of my frustration and stress.”

She is hoping to create a pop-up business to offer food from her southeast country. She plans to retire in five years. Before that happens, she is developing an online class on creating Indonesian cuisine.

“I want to share the history behind Indonesian food,” she said.

Husband and wife team Chef Aric and Yukari Bianchi created a business in Aurora to offer personal chef services, inhome weekly meal prep and home and/ or virtual cooking classes. Plus, they developed a concept to offer micro-wedding menus for parties smaller than 50.

With a background in Japanese cuisine, the duo incorporates other cuisines and accommodates restrictive diets. Chef Aric works the front of the house, while Chef Yukari handles the business side of the company. Cooking since he was 14 years old, Chef Aric moved to Japan and immersed himself in Japanese culture. The experience captured his imagination and altered his palate.

“I couldn’t stop trying new ingredients,” he said. “I just wanted to explore unusual ingredients, including raw or fermented products.”

He met his wife Yukari in Japan. To expand their culinary repertoire, the couple moved to Mexico from 2017 to 2019. This