Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Cindy Walker offers mealtime solutions through Gourmet Dreams, her catering service with a difference.

Gourmet Dreams solves all sorts of culinary problems

By Suzanne Cristallo

Pick what applies: You love to eat but hate to cook. Your diet has changed you into a boring eater. You love to cook but hate to shop and clean up. You want to be with friends or family, but the time is eaten up with dinner chores.

Cindy Walker has a solution. She calls it Gourmet Dreams--her name for a catering service she and her team of chefs can bring into a customer's home either for a special event or on a regular basis.

Working parents who believe they've earned respite from super-mom or super-pop status might call Walker into their kitchens every week to prepare four or five days' worth of family meals. Sometimes neighbors or friends form a cooking group, using just one house for the cooking and pick-up.

"We'll meet first with people to determine what are the healthful foods for the family," Walker, 39, says. "It's different for everyone, so we'll do an extensive analysis of what they know about their own bodies."

A Los Gatos resident, Walker spent 13 years in product development and marketing for a natural-foods company and another part of her career teaching yoga and running the wellness program at the Los Gatos Swim and Tennis Club.

Walker was worn out by the corporate travel she had to endure in the food industry, and her entry into the health field became not only a refreshing change of pace but a door-opener when four of her students learned of her aspirations to cook. Since she had earned a degree in culinary arts from UCLA and spent her formative years cooking at the side of her "gifted Italian grandmother," Walker was prepared and eager to get going in her own business.

"My students said they would put me in business," she smiles, "and they did. Within four months, I had a full-time business going--all word of mouth."

Some of the selections she and her fellow cooks suggest, after an array of hors d'oeuvres such as brie in puff pastry, are soups such as Basque pumpkin and white bean. Entrées range from marinated chicken shish kebabs and leg of lamb to beef pot pie and grilled swordfish with vermicelli. Pasta runs the gamut from fusilli with duck to spaghetti and meatballs.

Vegetarians might be energized by zucchini crust pizza; quinoa, leek and tofu casserole; or shepherd's pie with garlic-onion mashed potatoes.

"Children are a challenge," Walker says of the home menus she prepares. "They hate gourmet stuff, so you tend to do simple side dishes for them, like lasagna and baked potatoes. But for the most part, the exposure is good for them."

Certainly some of the desserts Walker offers might stimulate a child to aspire to finer things: maple Indian pudding with vanilla ice cream, chocolate decadent cake with raspberries and cream, cheesecakes, cookies, cobblers, cakes, brownies, pies, puddings, scones and tiramisu.

It takes Walker about five hours to prepare a menu, shop and cook for an average family. For one to four people, that amounts to $40 per hour for the week plus groceries. Walker and her staff will also get the kitchen in order, a service that includes culling out old spices on the shelf and using the chefs' special equipment. Dinner parties, tailgate parties, bridal showers or picnics all vary according to the number of people and the labor involved to serve them.

Gourmet Dreams, 135 LuRay Dr., Los Gatos. 358-1777.

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