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 Chef Laura was an executive assistant and event planner for 15 years, and
decided she was going to turn her passion for cooking into her own business.
After endless years of throwing fancy dinner parties, she finally catered a
dinner with a friend of hers. Laura says “that’s when I realized I needed to
do this for a living!” Deciding this was a serious consideration, Laura
enrolled in the UCLA School of Culinary Arts attending in the evening while
working full time. Once she was out of school, she started her personal chef
business and quit her day job.
She was an intern at Ciudad, Chefs Mary Sue Milliken & Susan Fenigar’s
restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. “After interning there for 3 months, I
knew I couldn’t work in a restaurant. I had to do something else.” Turning
an obsessive hobby into an entrepreneurial vocation was a dream for Chef
Laura. “It (this business) hasn’t always been easy, but if you can get past
the first couple of years in the building process, it starts to come
together.” Laura has been running her company ‘Splash in the Pan’ since
1999.
Laura’s attributes a lot of her success to her family. Her father was an
accomplished gardener and fisherman when she was growing up, and there was
always an abundance of fresh vegetables and varieties of fish. Laura
recalls, “My dad used to cook all the time! He was a fireman and used to
cook for all the firefighters, and it was a treat when he would cook at
home.” Chef Laura’s father was an obvious influence in her decision to
become a chef, but her grandmother was the other. “My grandma was a domestic
working as a chef during the depression for a family. When I was growing up,
she used to do these elaborate dinners for my family, and always emphasized
to me how important presentation was on the plate. She would make sure there
was always curly parsley in the house to garnish with.”
Laura currently has about six people she services on a weekly or
semi-weekly basis. She also does everything from weekly meals for busy
professionals to small dinner parties, and buffets for up to 80 people.
Laura attributes her current success to the resources and support she
receives from the Personal Chefs Network. “I used to belong to another
organization, and it wasn’t until I joined PCN that I found out how helpful
chefs can be with one another!”
Laura also won first place in a nationwide recipe contest sponsored by
Trader Joes for Papa Cantella’s Sausage. She has also attended various
viniculture classes through UCLA, as well as the CIA’s Greystone facility in
Napa.
Laura’s specialties include Italian and Mediterranean cuisine, with
emphasis on organic and seasonal cooking. She resides in Los Angeles County
with her teenage daughter Kirsten, stepson Mason, and husband Allen. When
Laura isn’t cooking for clients, she obsessively goes through her cooking
magazines (she subscribes to at least 10 different ones!) and reads
cookbooks. She also likes to collect contemporary art glass. This has become
a passion for her and her husband.
The next step for Laura’s career is working with food in a completely
different way. “I would like to continue down the road of recipe testing for
cookbooks, and perhaps get into food styling for print media and television.
I’m also excited about teaching classes to people that want to learn
something new. I’m looking forward to the next chapter in my life!”
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