The Hungry Huntsman

The Hungry Huntsman High end home chef specializing in wild game recipes

08/20/2026

I’m a week and a half out from a five-course dinner for 150 guests, and this is one of those small details that has to start early.

Salt-cured egg yolks are about as simple as it gets: yolks, salt, and time.

The salt slowly pulls moisture out, firms them up, and concentrates the flavor until they’re dense enough to grate over a finished plate like cheese.

It’s a small component, but when you’re building 750 plates on your own, those small components are the dinner.

A lot of the work happens long before anyone sits down at the table.

08/19/2026

Two weeks out from making a five-course dinner for 150 people. That's over 750 portions of food, and I'm
doing it all on my own. Today's piece of the build was simple: pick up the chicken fresh from the farm. I
could order it off a truck, but for this dinner I want the food to have a place attached to it - local birds, local
people, local story. What do you want to see next: prep, cooking, or service?

🔪

08/19/2026

The best career moves do not always look like promotions. I took less money, worse hours, and lost my weekends to
spend a year as a butcher because I knew exactly what I needed to learn. Eight months later I was breaking down deer
on site and cooking it over the grill at an event. That year looked backward on paper. In practice, it built part of the chef I
am now.

08/14/2026

Cooking from scratch does not mean starting from zero every day.
The best kitchens run on prep because doing the right work ahead of time lets the final meal get more attention, not less.
I use a simple planning idea I call Base & Branch: cook one strong Base meal or component with enough intentional extra to Branch into later meals. Smoked
chicken can become dinner one night, then Alfredo, tacos, or soup later. The same logic works with sauces, vegetables, starches, and specialty ingredients.
Less prep. Less waste. More intentional meals.
What is one meal you already make that could branch into two more?

08/13/2026

I still cannot cleanly call becoming a personal chef easy or hard.
Some of what made the work click for me felt familiar from the military: earn the opportunity, prove you can deliver, show up, perform, earn trust, repeat.
The part I had to learn was building the business itself. There is no next assignment handed to you. You decide what success looks like, build the structure,
find your lane, and keep earning the next opportunity.
The work ethic transferred. Building something from scratch did not - and that has become one of the most rewarding parts of it.
Veterans: what was the biggest adjustment you had to make after getting out?

08/12/2026

Three hard truths about personal-chef work:
1. Cooking is the visible part. The planning, shopping, prep schedule, and last-minute changes are what make service look effortless.
2. Freedom means you own the result when the plan changes.
3. The mistakes that can hurt you most usually happen before service starts.
None of that is a reason not to do this work. It is what you learn to handle as you become a professional.
Which one do you think would be the biggest adjustment for you?

08/11/2026

Good food is not enough if the decisions behind it start getting sloppy.
Personal-chef work means making a lot of calls every week - menus, shopping, prep, travel, preferences, and all the little problems a client may never see.
When my head is cooked, pushing harder usually does not make the work better.
One of the things I value about owning my business is being able to step away when I need a real reset. For me that might be hiking, scouting, checking
cameras, shooting my bow, or starting dinner early. The activity changes. The point is coming back able to think clearly again.
For me, that is part of doing the job well. What about you?

08/10/2026

This one came across my feed and I wanted to look at it the same way I would look at a dish I was considering for a client: what already works, what I would
change, and why.
The point is not to tear apart the original. It is to show how I think through a dish instead of copying it exactly.
What should I review next?
Credit the original creator before publishing.

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