It’s Been a Year – Turkey Meatloaf with Mushroom Gravy

It’s been two years since I retired from teaching and one year since I started my personal chef business. I am happy to say this second career has exceeded my expectations.

I didn’t know what to expect when I opened my figurative doors last June. I wasn’t sure if there was a need for meal prep services or if clients would stick with me once they gave it a try. I was hesitant to market myself and was worried about cooking in other people’s kitchens. I was nervous about the business aspects and whether I was in over my head. I didn’t know if my food would be good enough for clients, as I have no formal culinary training and have never cooked professionally. And even though I have always loved feeding others, I was worried that once I was in the industry, it would be too much, and I would grow to hate cooking.

My fears were for naught.

Almost as soon as I modified my website to highlight my personal chef business last June, the inquiries started coming in, and they have not stopped. While the phone is not exactly ringing off the hook all day, I get an email at least once a month requesting my services. There is clearly a market for personal chef services on Long Island, and I have had to start a waiting list for potential clients.

There was no need for me to pound the pavement and market myself, which is what I dreaded most. I did my research, designing my website to do it for me, and to my relief, it worked. Strategic posts about various features of the business, beautiful photographs of my food, detailed questions and answers, and calculated placement of keywords – collectively known as search engine optimization – helped raise my profile.

I have discovered that one of the challenges is cooking in different clients’ kitchens. All are functional, but some are spacious and well-equipped, others cramped and cluttered. Each requires its own strategy, however each works in its own way. I must limit menu choices, for example for the clients who don’t have a grill, and there is more flexibility if a client has two ovens rather than just one, opening a wider variety of menu options on each cook day. Of course, no matter the kitchen, I can make it work; I simply need to modify what I cook or how it is prepared.

Regarding the business facets of starting this venture, they turned out not to be so daunting. Again, I did my research and was guided with the help of an online course. The internet has a wealth of information if you are willing to sort through it, and our local Small Business Development Center offered free consultations and guidance. Government websites make it easy to navigate the bureaucracy, believe it or not, and even if I skipped it, you could pay someone to set up the whole business for you if it is more your style. I found it interesting and exciting to wade through the steps and learn how to start a business, and I believe it will help guide my future decisions because I gained the knowledge about how the business works.

As for my customers, they are a pleasure to work for, and they appreciate and like the food I prepare for them. Despite the fact that one or two clients have come and gone, I work for five families cooking a week’s worth of meals in their home on each cook day, some for almost the whole year. And they keep asking me back. It gives me great pleasure when they tell me how tasty a particular dish is and share that I am making their lives easier by removing a task they find daunting. My meals, although perhaps not Michelin caliber, have made the grade and are satisfying enough that customers order certain menu items repeatedly.

And what about me? Have I grown to hate cooking? The answer is a definite “NO.” After a long day of cooking for a client I may not want to stand over a hot stove to prepare dinner for my wife and me, but I still enjoy the act of cooking and feeding others. I have learned to modify when I cook for us at home versus when we have leftovers, go to a restaurant, or get takeout, so as not to get overloaded. In addition, my cooking has gotten better, faster, and more efficient as I spend more time in numerous kitchens. And I’m fortunate to be able to limit my professional cook days to a few a week so I don’t burn out and can enjoy my well-earned retirement.

Over the past year I’ve learned quite a lot about cooking professionally, starting and running a business, and even myself. I now know that in retirement I need the structure that working as a personal chef provides me, even if it’s only a few days a week. I am fortunate to have discovered an enjoyable, rewarding second career cooking for others.

Turkey Meatloaf with Mushroom Gravy

I am decidedly not a meatloaf person. It probably relates back to the bulky slices of dry meatloaf my father made us take to school for lunch on thick slices of homemade whole wheat bread with nary a speck of ketchup or gravy or sauce of any kind. It was like we were eating sand in a desert.

When one of my clients requested turkey meatloaf, I had to get over my hesitation and do some research to develop a recipe to make them happy. I used components from numerous recipes and created a version I can call my own. Even though it is fairly traditional, there are some interesting ingredients. The addition of grated apple, for example, does not add much in the way of flavor, yet makes for a moist meatloaf, a far cry from what I was served as a kid.

While this meatloaf itself is tasty, and my clients really enjoy it, I still am not a meatloaf lover. But the mushroom gravy that covers the slices, now that would even make an old shoe taste delicious. It is creamy and rich and is perfect on top of the meatloaf. One client orders this Turkey Meatloaf with Mushroom Gravy practically every other week, and a second tells me it is their favorite dish.

serves 4, about 1 hour

For the meatloaf:

1 lb. ground turkey

1 small onion, peeled and finely diced

¾ cup breadcrumbs

4 oz. tomato sauce

1 egg

½ apple, peeled, cored, and grated

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. kosher salt

½ tsp. fresh ground black pepper

½ tsp. garlic powder

½ tsp. dried basil

vegetable oil spray

For the mushroom gravy:

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided

8 oz. white button mushrooms, sliced

½ tsp. kosher salt, plus more to taste

½ tsp. fresh ground black pepper

½ tsp. dried thyme

3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

¾ cup chicken stock

¾ cup beef stock

1 teaspoon sherry vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 350 ^oF. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a sheet pan.
2. In a large bowl, gently, but thoroughly mix all meatloaf ingredients (except vegetable oil spray) until well combined. Form into a roughly 5 x 8-inch loaf on the sheet pan and lightly spray all over with vegetable oil spray.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to one hour, until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 ^oF, measured with a stem-type thermometer. Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool slightly while you finish the gravy.
4. After the meatloaf has cooked for about 40 minutes, start preparing the gravy. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat in a heavy skillet large enough to comfortably hold all the mushrooms. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms have started to turn golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and thyme and cook for a few minutes more. Transfer mushrooms to a bowl and set aside. Do not clean the skillet.
5. As the meatloaf rests, finish the gravy. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter to the skillet and melt over medium heat. Sprinkle in the flour and stir constantly with a whisk, scraping up anything that sticks until the flour forms a light brown roux, about 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully add the chicken and beef stocks, a ¼ cup at a time, whisking constantly, again incorporating browned bits from the bottom of the pan, until all the stock has been added and you have a thick, glossy gravy. Stir in sherry vinegar and reserved mushrooms and taste, adding more salt if needed.
6. Slice meatloaf into ¼ to ½-inch thick slices and serve topped with mushroom gravy.

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