Suddenly the light bulb came on—why not start a business doing what I loved?

Launching the business in 2017 was exciting, though not especially lucrative. In truth, it was a slow and somewhat pale beginning. The area simply didn’t support a personal chef business. This was my home turf, the region where I had grown up, and the Pennsylvania Dutch culture prized self-sufficiency. People cooked for themselves, and they cooked well. Looking back, I never actually researched whether personal chefs existed in Berks County, but I suspect there weren’t many. The food culture I was moving toward just didn’t quite fit the place I came from.

My time creating menus at Adam2 Café and traveling had expanded my palate and imagination. I had discovered a world full of flavor and possibility, and it was clear I was heading in a different direction than my kinsfolk. I had been raised on simple fare—meat and potatoes, honest and good food—and there is nothing wrong with that. But I always found myself curious about what lay beyond the familiar. Food became a way to explore the world and satisfy a deeper hunger to learn and experience something new.

To my surprise, shortly after officially forming my LLC, I landed my first client. He was a very wealthy man who lived alone and wanted me to cook for him regularly. I still remember standing in his kitchen during that first visit, pausing in the middle of my work just to take in the moment—what I was doing and where I was doing it. Maybe the grammar of the thought wasn’t perfect, but the feeling certainly was. It was an awesome moment for me.

Soon, other opportunities followed. I began catering private dinners for an affluent clientele—bankers, lawyers, and others who appreciated the experience I was offering. It was rewarding work and an eye-opening glimpse into a small demographic that valued good food prepared well. For a time, I had found my place, and I was their guy to deliver the goods.

This continued for about two years. Alongside the private work, I was still cooking at Common Ground for retreats and special events. Yet despite the satisfaction of the work, it never quite provided for us financially the way we had hoped. It all felt like a dream that had not fully taken shape.

Then everything changed.

Carrie was offered a job in Whitmore Lake, Michigan, just twenty minutes from Ann Arbor. Our long-term plan had been to move there eventually to help care for her mother, who had been widowed for two years, but that move wasn’t supposed to happen for another three years. Life, however, had other plans. By February of 2020, we were packing up and heading to Michigan.

Three weeks after we arrived in Ann Arbor, the world shut down because of COVID-19.

It was a strange and unsettling time. Almost overnight, life as we knew it changed completely.

You know the rest of that story. . . . !#?