I’m Chef Jeff… find out why I started My Diet Chef for YOU!
How I got started….
Hi there! My name is Jeff Pirtle, but most people just call me Chef Jeff.
Thanks for stopping by to find out a little bit more about me and our story. It really is an interesting one if I may say so myself.
I fell in love with cooking at an early age and I went to culinary school after I graduated from High School. It was awesome, I was cooking at Ski Resorts, and fancy restaurants and really enjoyed creating masterpieces on the plate.
While in culinary school I took a job at a high-end retirement complex. I didn’t realize it at the time but that decision sealed my fate going forward in my cooking career…
I was now immersed in the world of Health Care.
How did that ever happen?
Though all of the residents of this upscale Retirement Home had a lot of money to eat the finest food, I soon realized that as you get older there are a LOT of restrictions that you need to consider.
And for the first time, I had to actually think about the nutrition aspect of the food that I was cooking. I was actually working for a local food Management company that managed the food-service for health care facilities.
They must have really liked me because they kept promoting me and bouncing me around to different facilities to help upgrade the food program.
I was first promoted to Executive Chef, and then Director of food services, all while I was still in my early twenties!
As the company grew and got new accounts the more I moved and helped open those new accounts.
I would change their hospital cafeterias in to cool new cafe concepts with fresh, healthy, and delicious food.
The same cooking methods were introduced for the patient and resident menus as well.
I can’t tell you how many people I have trained from opening cans and frozen food containers to actually learning how to cook REAL food!
I had a blast doing that throughout my twenties and was even featured in several industry publications for the inspiring and new programs that I was bringing to the healthcare facilities.
I even became a certified dietary manager (CDM) through the University of North Dakota so I could best help patients with their nutrition needs and write in their patient charts.
As much fun as I was having, there was still a longing to cook that food that I was trained in and used to cook at those fancy restaurants…
Cooking My Healthy Food All Over the World!
I took a vacation to visit a friend from Culinary School who was working as a chef on a private mega-yacht in Florida.
I was hooked as soon as I found out that the owners and guests on these yachts wanted the finest foods, and almost exclusively wanted to eat healthy as well.
I’ve worked on these private Mega-Yachts off and on now for over 20 years. Traveling all over the world from Tahiti to the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and beyond has been a blast, I’ve cooked for more celebrities and billionaires than I can even list (or remember).
It really has been a perfect ride as I have been able to continue perfecting my healthy recipes and helping my private clients with their diets and now I get to share all of that with you.
I am currently working full time on a yacht that is based in South Florida in the winter and the Washington D.C. area in the summer.
Between that and helping you here, there’s never a dull moment!
