Nutrition is the most important thing when it comes to sustainability in your cheffing for clients. There is a wealth of information online that can help make your life and culinary career a lot easier.

I was doing my research online for the nutritional profiles of some of my ingredients and I found a lot of great sites that gave me a good snapshot along with some extra added bonuses I think you will like. Try adding an educational component to your clients' programs. It gives them one more great reason to keep using your services. They stay informed and it helps you to get the healthy and tasty things into their systems. Try adding these areas to your finished package:

Calories
Fat Percentage and Ratios
Vitamin and Mineral Content
A little dish/ingredient History

Calories
For some calories are extremely important. When you breakdown the calories of a meal for your clients it:

* gives your clients an idea of how their meal is potentially going to impact their weight maintenance programs;

* empowers them to make informed and/or necessary adjustments to stay within their desired dietary goals.

Not a bad idea to take the guessing game out of your meals for your personal chef clients. It's one of those small things that they may take for granted, but will spoil them for the other chefs out there. It helps form the 'why' behind why your service is the best thing out there and why they should continue doing business with you.

Fat Percentage and Ratios
There are those clients who couldn't care less about the calories, their biggest concern is the fat. Focus on percentage per serving, and the type of fat and benefits. If client comes from a family of morbidly obese people, people with heart or cholesterol problems, people with liver and/or gall bladder issues, etc. or a myriad of other considerations, they would be more concerned than your average person of the fat count in the menu you're creating for them.

Vitamin and Mineral Content
Most food labels will have your vitamin and some of the mineral contents, but that's not always the case when it comes to the plates of food you sit down to eat. This addition is a big help for those clients needing to know if and how they need to supplement their diets to meet their health needs.

History
One of the most drawing things to a good cookbook, meal or culinary item aside from the flavor or use, are the stories behind them. Take the time to gather some of that info on the dishes you're prepping for your clients; it can round out the whole experience of their culinary enjoyment.

I've included some sites below to get you started on your quest for nutritional information.

Nutrition Data

Nutrition

Calorie King

USDA

Vegetarian Resource Group

and one of my favorites

The Food Museum Online

I'm hoping that this information and these resources come in handy in your very near future. As always, it is my pleasure sharing with you resources and information to help build your personal chef business. Until next time...