ABOUT CHEF CARA

Chef Cara offers is a personal chef, that offers private chef, meal prep and catering service designed to assist and enhance peoples day to day lives through designing, preparing and delivering delicious, nutritious, chef-prepared meals.

We aim to address the challenges or obstacles faced by individuals who value good food but find it difficult to cook due to constraints with time, creativity or skills. Our focus is to provide you with the best balanced, bespoke and beautiful dishes to fuel your mind and body for your busy week ahead.

Chef Cara is incredibly passionate about food, nutrition and fitness and believes the food we consume has immense value in how we perform and feel on a day to day basis.

SERVICES

Chef Cara offers a variety of services tailored to the individual - from bespoke meal prep and private cheffing in your home or office, to intimate dinner parties and large-scale events.

Explore our Offering page for ideas, and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have something specific in mind - we’re always happy to create something bespoke.

Explore services

Last breakfast in Ibiza - will miss this ✨
@salt.escapes

French toast bake - you are cute pretty and so easy a toddler could make it

• 1 loaf brioche, challah or good white bread (about 400g), cut into 4cm cubes or torn
• 4 large eggs
• 450g milk
• 60g caster sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp fine salt

Mix milk eggs cinnamon salt together (optional add vanilla - I didn’t I didn’t have and worked fine).

Place torn bread into a dish and pour wet mix over the bread sit in the fridge for 30 mins minimum before baking at 30-40 mins at 180c.

Top with berries or fruits of your liking and some maple syrup!

I also made a vegan one just with almond milk and worked well!

Dreaminess cheffing in Ibiza for @salt.escapes 💙

Simple things, good food ✨

@salt.escapes

Cheffing for @salt.escapes ✨

This was boat day so it means a couple hours to myself, shopping and then paella prep 🤗

Wonderful team wonderful guests wonderful vibes - we love it !!

Oh what a joy to create ✨

Huge love to everyone that came or input into this special (hot) night x

@charlottehardwick
@majastable

@yorkshirepasta
@the.ferm.london
@drinklomi
@oilyoiluk
@drinkrep_

Birth a daughter that cooks so your birthday lunch is always sorted. Happy birthday @murphy.ginny you are the best mother I could ask for ✨ @murphy.ginny beautiful tablescaping @scarlrhodes fantastic sous cheffing and @murphyneill the best post washer to be found x

We love a no cook easy to assemble salad

Chicken Vietnamese inspired salad. I actually used to make this salad a lot when I was in Sydney perfect for hot days 🙏

nobody I look up to or admire does it alone. you just don’t see the asking part - the messages, the favours, the people they follow/ surround them selves to be better. It’s funny we are all so unique yet we are who we are because of all the people in our life, by asking more questions, being around more people - you simply are able to know more, be more and experience more ✨

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” Milton Berle

Came across this the other day and it’s stuck with me - hope you like it xxx

Random blurt on a Monday evening but there you go. Il make up for it with some foodie stuff this week lol

People including myself at one point assumed leaving banking for cheffing was a step down. I understood why for sure - different pace (well questionable), different pay, different prestige.

BUT it’s given me something i didn’t have before: work that actually feels like mine and a whole lot more purpose. I’m not saying one path is better than another because some people work for different reasons and some people find that same purpose exactly where they are or where I used to be and that’s just as valid.

This is more for the people sat wondering whether to make a change - it doesn’t have to be dramatic. it’s just about finding what feels like yours. If you are reading this and it relates to you then promise to your self that today or this week you will make one step or change into finding out what that might be for yourself!

You deserve to know xxx

Happy Friyay

Lacking on social content creativity right now post right so here is some B roll of me cheffing for a family in the Cotswolds/Warwickshire last week 🍴😁🙏

Breakfast + great lighting = ✨

And that’s a wrap to 5 days cheffing in Warwickshire x

A few things I’ve knocked up over the past few days

First of many ✨

Thank you to queen casey there would be no evidence of this supper club without her @healthylivingcasey

Sooo I did a thing. My first ever supper club with @rwl @rwlretreat at the wonderful @fivefourstudios (who have an unbelievable team that were beyond helpful!)

I felt pretty anxious/nervous in the lead up to this. Partly because I usually just turn up and cook - I don’t organise or put the event on. And partly because I’ve wanted to do something like this for over 5 years now. Even back when I was sat at a desk job, this felt SO beyond my capabilities, so far away from ever being possible. So when I finally agreed to do it, it felt a little strange!!

I am soooo beyond grateful for everyone who came, those I didn’t know, and those I did. It genuinely means so much to me, and I will always remember the people who have supported me from the very start ❤️ The enjoyment I get from this is purely because of the people, that buzz of energy, the smiles, the laughter. It gives me a high like no other!

Still letting it sink in for now, but proud of myself for doing something uncomfortable and hopefully bringing a touch of joy to some ✨🤗

@wearegoodphats thank you for the gorgeous olive oil
@drinklomi for the gorgeous matcha goods
@drinkrep_ protein shakes

Xxx

when it’s this hot, cooking properly is the first thing to go and snacking instead of eating real meals creeps in! I know this happened to me yesterday and then I crashed in the evening.

so this week’s about doing less: no-cook where you can like some of these salads, or cooking once and eating from it for days. things like a quiche or a tart that just sits in the fridge and tastes better the next day anyway! Or using stuff like mince that takes 10 minutes to cook.

pick one of the ten and see how you get on - the goal isn’t more effort, it’s less admin so you actually eat properly! X

A gorgeous set up for an Italian family style hen dinner in Bath - just starters shown 🇮🇹

Thanks to @lauren_kiely for the pictures and @lucymcullen for booking me! ❤️✨

S’mores brownie recipe 🍫

Made these for an event a couple of weeks ago and they went down so well - also made them for a friend’s baby shower. Rich pillow and crunchy from the biscuits 🤗

12 servings
Digestive crust, fudgy brownie, toasted marshmallow + chocolate top.

Ingredients
* 120 g digestive biscuits (for base)
* 60g unsalted butter, melted (for base)
* 140 g unsalted butter (for brownie)
* 120 g milk and dark chocolate, chopped (for brownie)
* 180 g caster sugar
* 60 g light brown sugar
* 3 large eggs
* 3ml vanilla extract
* 100 g plain flour
* 40g cocoa powder
* 2 ml fine salt
* 80 g mini marshmallows (for top)
* 60 g milk or dark chocolate, chopped (for top)

Method below 👇

I had this random thought on a walk in the Peak District the other day - it was while I was climbing a hill.

I thought why is it that people climb a hill or set a challenge ? Often to get somewhere they really want but then I thought how many people just climb that hill because everyone else is doing that and it seems like the thing to do? Probably a lot including myself 😂

The science bit: this is basically goal setting theory in action. Research from Locke and Latham (one of the most replicated findings in organisational psychology) shows that vague or borrowed goals produce weaker effort and satisfaction than ones a person actually defines for themselves. You can work just as hard toward the wrong goal as the right one, effort isn’t the differentiator, direction is.

There’s also a concept called the “arrival fallacy” (by psychologist Tal Ben Shahar), the belief that reaching a goal will bring lasting satisfaction. Plenty of people summit the hill (promotion, business, body goal) and feel flat, because the hill was never actually theirs to begin with.

Worth pausing to ask why you’re climbing before you’re halfway up!!

In just one week we’ll be hosting our first @rwl supper club ✨🤗🍽️

I can’t quite believe how quick the lead up to this has gone but having now tested all the recipes - I am very excited!!

We’ve only got a few tickets left, so if you’ve been thinking about it - grab one now, link’s in my bio ❤️

@rwl @rwlretreat @fivefourstudios

I realised I don’t really have an “intro to me” post, well this isn’t even one. But this gives you a little insight to me and my journey over the last 10 years of my life!

The truth is I didn’t even leave my job to become a private chef because I didn’t have any clue what I was going to do next 😂 some of the options included just going to another firm, living in Australia and working in the same industry? Trying out a different industry? Going into business with my university friend? Starting my own business? Starting my own clothing wear? Going back to university? Honestly the thoughts were endless but I just knew I was keen to try something new. If I’m entirely honest cheffing was at the bottom of that list because I thought who in gods name would want to hire a chef whose been at an investment bank for the past 4 years failing to even cook for herself 😅

I’m early still in this journey but as a result of simply being curious and definitely saying yes before I felt ready

I’m nearly 3 years into private cheffing (technically 2.5 as I bigged myself up the first year)
I’ve learnt so much more about food and nutrition and as a result qualified as a nutrition coach
Become part of the @rwl family
Cooked in so many beautiful parts of the world for wonderful people
Made so much mess in kitchens (and cleaned up A LOT)
Felt immensely proud at times
But also immensely low (it’s so true about the highs and lows)
Met and befriended people I adore and could never not imagine in my life today

THE LIST GOES ON. I’m basically trying to persuade you to get uncomfortable and pursue your dreams or if you don’t even know your dreams take a few risks and try to find out xxx

I’ve been VERY BEHIND on my weekly updates so here is a collection of the past chaotic few weeks 🎉🥳

Managing work, 3 weddings and more work and trying to rest when I can !!! Thanks to discovering Emily and Paris this has most certainly helped x

How fun is breakfast?! I just love doing brunches - there is something so exciting and unpretentious about the breakfast/brunches. I absolutely love the reaction i get from clients when they wake up to spreads like this. It makes it worthwhile ❤️

Lately I’ve been quite negative not because I don’t love what I do still it’s more because I’m juggling probably too much at the moment and im try to shift away from the mindset of “i’m struggling to do my best” and framing it to tell myself okay Cara this is your limit and your body and mental capacity probably can’t take on much more so = USEFUL INFORMATION

In situations like this I can get a little overwhelmed but this is usually when @maxwell_rodman says to me - “how cool is that you actually get to cook for a living” and it brings me back to reality because that is incredibly cool and i am so grateful that I no longer have to play pretend!!

I’ve found sitting with a feeling for a while is fine because it could be temporary but any longer where it feels like it’s becoming part of your life then it’s time to adjust or use that information to change. By changing nothing, nothing changes.

Peace out enjoy these pretty pictures xxx

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TESTIMONIALS

Client - Dinner Party

"Chef Cara was absolutely outstanding! She perfectly understood our brief for

Ottolenghi-style cuisine, providing delightful menu ideas. Her enthusiasm for the

food and the evening was infectious, creating a vibrant and exciting

atmosphere!"

Client - Meal Prep

"Cara’s food is fantastic. She takes time to understand your likes and dislikes,
alongside this ensures all meals are cooked fresh and delivered in a timely

manner. You’re paying for convenience and quality, and in my opinion Cara’s services are

well worth the extra cost."

Client - Retreat

"Cara was absolutely brilliant - honestly we couldn't have imagined doing this without her, made life so easy, and my gosh the food was outstanding - still dreaming of some of the dishes she made us!."

Client - Event

"We are honestly so pleased with how it went and our team are super impressed

with you and your work! Will 100% be putting you forward for any other

opportunities in the future."