Paul Finney is in the “personal chef” business, which may seem odd because the bulk of his clients are senior citizens — some on fixed incomes.
Finney and his October Kitchen business in Manchester doesn’t focus on the rich and famous, but to folks craving balanced, nutritionally cooked meals delivered to them weekly. Seniors make up about 50 percent of his 1,000 or so customers; the others include adults (young and old) with families; single professionals; widows and widowers. Priests, lawyers, retirees, financial advisors, and insurance professionals are among the clientele.
The key to the business, Finney said, is that his products are nutritious and affordable. Having a personal chef, he insists, does not have to put a hurting on the wallet. A week’s worth of dinners (six dinners, two pints of soup, container of green salad, and half a dozen low fat muffins) cost about $65 to $75.
“You’re going to have to eat one way or another,” Finney said in his office at the Green Road kitchen. “When you factor in the cost of planning, preparing and cleaning versus having someone do it and deliver it to you, it’s worth it.”
Like any service, the personal chef business is about meeting a demand in the market.
“You got a plumbing problem, you call a plumber,” Finney, 43, said. “You got an electrician problem, you call an electrician … You got a dinner problem, you call a chef.”
He worked nearly two decades in the restaurant business and served as chef for several Greater Hartford restaurants. In 2000, a year after he married, Finney and his wife Alison opened October Kitchen, a personalized chef service that went to client’s homes.
“I got a little burned out on the restaurant business,” Finney said. “It was 80 hours a week, all nights, all holidays, all weekends. When I started being a personal chef I had a lot of clients who couldn’t go to restaurants without having issues. Either they had a food allergy or diet restrictions, maybe they were vegetarians. So, I really had to go from cooking for myself and what I wanted to do, to gearing it toward what they needed.”
He prides himself on preparing balanced low-salt, low fat, low-sugar meals that are never fried, but grilled, roasted, sautéed or baked. A sample of the dinner menu includes: Chicken chili served with tomato, and over rice and beans; turkey meatloaf served with roasted potatoes and zucchini fries; and grilled flank steak, tossed with corn, tomatoes, green beans and horseradish dressing.
“Making stuff that was healthy was always one of my goals,” said Finney, who described himself as a child as “a fat kid who loved to eat” and cook. In the past year, he shed 50 pounds and attributes the weight loss to much healthier and balanced meals. “I’ve seen a lot of horror stories in terms of restaurants not caring how much fat and salt and sugar goes into the food, as long as it tastes good,” he said.
Born in Hartford, reared in East Hartford, Finney fondly recalls being hooked on Julia Childs’ cooking show. He was able to attend a culinary program for two years while in high school. Finney’s first job at 13 was working on a friend’s food truck. Eventually, he earned a full scholarship to Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, where he received an associate’s degree in culinary arts and a bachelors’ degree in hospitality management.
A defining moment in his business life occurred in 2008. Finney’s grandmother became ill, moved in with his parents and he began to cook for her.
“When she was by herself and you go and look into her fridge, you’d see hot pockets and bananas,” Finney said. “She wasn’t hungry. She wouldn’t eat. She wouldn’t shop. But, boy, when I was cooking for her you put a plate of food in front of her and she’d clean the plate. She was starving … It happens so often that people are over 65 and under-nourished just because it’s such a burden to have to cook.”
As he began cooking for grandma, other friends and relatives asked if Finney could also prepare meals for their elderly relatives. The scope of the October Kitchen began to change. The Green Road kitchen opened in 2010. The client base expanded.
Two vans deliver about 200 meals each week. Food is prepared fresh by eight employees in a 1,500-square-foot kitchen. Some clients only order weekly lunches; others go for lunches and dinners. Each week, there are five different fresh entrées to choose from. Customers can choose to pick up the weeks’ worth of food, rather than having it delivered. They can also come in on any given day and purchase a meal that can be re-heated later.
Expansion plans call for doubling the size of the kitchen and, eventually, opening multiple locations.
At October Kitchen, things are cookin’.
Stan Simpson’s ‘Faces in Business’ column appears monthly.
