# WHAT I COOKED IN A WEEK OF BEING A PRIVATE CHEF IN BEVERLY HILLS #3!

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRjYXwbaFuk
Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/uRjYXwbaFuk
Generated: 2026-03-02T22:01:19.197+00:00

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## Quick Overview

The private chef prepared multiple meals, including spaghetti squash with meatballs, chicken piccata, Asian chicken salad, Nicoise salad, seafood paella, homemade gyoza, churro-style buñuelos, and stir-fried vegetables, all while managing client requests and tight schedules in Beverly Hills.

**Key Points:**
- The chef prepared six meals worth of food requiring 8 hours of prep, including spaghetti squash with meatballs as a low-carb pasta substitute.
- Chicken piccata was made with deboned chicken thighs and breast, seasoned with kosher salt, and served with a lemon-caper butter sauce.
- The chef made homemade gyoza wrappers from scratch and prepared a filling of ground pork, napa cabbage, aromatics, and mushroom powder.
- A seafood paella was cooked on a grill, utilizing bomba rice and stock made from shrimp heads/shells, with seafood added in stages to prevent overcooking.
- The chef prepared a Nicoise salad featuring roasted salmon, small potatoes boiled with thyme and rosemary, and a dressing made from lemon juice, Dijon, and herbs.
- For dessert, the chef made buñuelos (not churros as initially planned) and served them with chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate shortbread crumble.
- The chef's busy day included preparing meals for lunch and dinner for multiple clients, demonstrating a wide variety of culinary skills.

![Screenshot at 01:11: The chef is shown finishing the tomato sauce by adding fresh basil and tasting it before seasoning, demonstrating a key step in the complex sauce preparation.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/uRjYXwbaFuk/00-01-11.jpg)

**Context:** This video documents an extremely busy day for a personal chef working in Beverly Hills, showcasing the preparation of numerous complex dishes for different clients. The chef details the techniques used for each dish, ranging from Italian classics like spaghetti and meatballs and chicken piccata to Spanish paella and Asian-inspired meals, emphasizing time management and accommodating specific client dietary needs and preferences.

## Detailed Analysis

The personal chef outlines a very busy day managing prep for six meals over the weekend and cooking for clients throughout the day. The preparation started with spaghetti squash, which the chef substituted for traditional pasta when making spaghetti and meatballs. For the meatballs, the chef used a panade made with Wonder Bread soaked in almond milk (as clients dislike dairy milk) and a mix of beef, veal, and pork, seasoned with basil, parsley, crushed garlic, grated Parmesan, Italian seasoning, and pepper. The mix rested for 30 minutes before being formed. The sauce involved caramelizing onions and garlic slowly in a Dutch oven for 4 hours, then adding tomato paste and crushing garlic in at a higher heat to cook out the raw flavor, followed by crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, Parmesan rinds, and simmering. The chicken piccata involved deboning chicken thighs and breasts, seasoning them, searing the skin until crispy, and finishing them in the oven. The sauce was made in the same pan by sweating shallots, deglazing with white wine, reducing, incorporating chicken stock, and finishing with capers, parsley, lemon juice, and butter emulsified in carefully. For the Nicoise salad, the chef prepared boiled baby potatoes (smashed and roasted for crispiness), blanched green beans, roasted cherry tomatoes, and cooked salmon, served with a dressing of lemon juice, Dijon, parsley, chives, honey, and olive oil. The chef also prepared gyoza from scratch, making the dough with flour, salt, and hot water, resting it for 15 minutes, and then pan-frying the dumplings. The chef also made a Korean BBQ-inspired wild mushroom dish using a short rib marinade for the mushrooms, which were roasted. For another client's dinner, the chef prepared an Asian chicken salad with two bases (one with rice, one without) featuring shredded chicken, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, hard-boiled eggs, crispy wontons, and avocado roses. Finally, the paella was cooked outdoors on a grill, starting with a sofrito, toasting bomba rice, adding seafood stock and saffron bloomed in hot water, and cooking until the rice was 90% done before adding the reserved clams and mussels, and letting the shrimp and scallops crisp up on top. The chef also made churro-like buñuelos for dessert, piping the dough into oil, frying them, and coating them in cinnamon sugar, served with chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate shortbread crumble. The chef concluded by cleaning up and heading home, asking viewers for their favorite dumpling type.

### Spaghetti & Meatballs Prep

- Spaghetti squash was used as a low-carb pasta substitute
- Meatball filling included beef, veal, pork, panade made with almond milk, basil, parsley, garlic, Parmesan, Italian seasoning, and pepper
- Sauce was slow-cooked for 4 hours after caramelizing onions and tomato paste.

### Chicken Piccata

- Chicken thighs and breasts were deboned and seared skin-side down for crispiness, then finished in the oven
- Sauce involved sweating shallots, deglazing with white wine, reducing, adding chicken stock, and emulsifying with butter, capers, parsley, and lemon juice.

### Nicoise Salad & Asian Chicken Salad

- Nicoise components included roasted salmon, smashed/roasted baby potatoes, blanched green beans, roasted tomatoes, eggs, olives, and a vinaigrette
- Asian Chicken Salad featured shredded chicken, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, hard-boiled eggs, crispy wontons, avocado rose, and a soy-based dressing.

### Seafood Paella

- Cooked outdoors on a grill using bomba rice and stock made from roasted shrimp heads/shells
- Seafood (clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops) was added in stages to ensure proper cooking and crisping of the rice bottom (socarrat).

### Dumplings & Dessert Prep

- Homemade gyoza dough was made with flour, salt, and hot water, rested for 15 minutes, and filled with pork, cabbage, aromatics, and mushroom powder
- Dessert was buñuelos (piped and fried) coated in cinnamon sugar, served with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream.

### Client Interactions & Cleanup

- The chef noted specific client requests, such as no bell peppers for the paella and the request for a light gyoza dinner
- The chef ended the day by cleaning dishes and taking out the trash.

![Screenshot at 00:03: The chef begins the busy day by writing down his prep list on a notepad while in the car.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/uRjYXwbaFuk/00-00-03.jpg)
![Screenshot at 00:24: The spaghetti squash halves are seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper before being placed face down on a sheet pan to bake.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/uRjYXwbaFuk/00-00-24.jpg)
![Screenshot at 00:47: The chef seasons the mixed ground meat for the meatballs, adding kosher salt, Italian seasoning, and fresh cracked pepper.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/uRjYXwbaFuk/00-00-47.jpg)
![Screenshot at 01:20: The roasted spaghetti squash is being scraped into a bowl to create the noodle-like strands.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/uRjYXwbaFuk/00-01-20.jpg)
![Screenshot at 04:37: The final plated chicken dish is shown, featuring sliced crispy chicken thighs and breast served with bright green snap peas, roasted yellow squash, and crispy potatoes, drizzled with piccata sauce.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/uRjYXwbaFuk/00-04-37.jpg)