In our ever-expanding busy lives, the act of conjuring up another idea for dinner when the new neighbors will be over for martinis on the patio in an hour can take more creative energy than anyone is willing to sacrifice. Few people can count event planner, chef extraordinaire, and sommelier among their list of talents. So why is it when it comes to planning, we take on so many responsibilities? Madness, I tell you, it is madness. With so many professional resources available today, embrace your catered life.

Personal chef services and event staging specialists not only offer culinary and party services but also make your life literally more abundant. Many make the assumption that personal chefs are only hired to cater special events—oh, how wrong thou art! A personal chef will come into your home at your requested time and create your desired meal(s), lovingly packaged and labeled and placed in your refrigerator ready to serve when and wherever you want to eat.

Personal chefs are hired to use the full range of their expertise, not only in cooking elaborate meals but also in creating daily/weekly/ monthly balanced menus, selecting the freshest and best ingredients at the market, stocking your cabinets with enchanting condiments, and have everything positioned so you can easily have dinner served and ready on Monday night in under twenty minutes.

Becky Trowbridge, owner of Marvelous Meals, says that “the number-one reason people use my personal chef service is shared by two grievances: people are tired of going out or they don’t like to cook.” Or both. The time you spend considering what you will make for dinner knowing that you don’t even want to cook could be better spent honoring yourself with an activity you truly enjoy and savor.

Trowbridge also says that the objective of her scope of services is to meet the lifestyle desires of her clients.

“My goal is to provide my clients with what they really want that best suits their preferences—whatever that means to them,” she says. Dream abundantly of what you want to eat and your personal chef will make it happen.

In addition to routine dinner, there may be an evening during which you want the personal chef to prepare a more elegant dinner in your home for your associates. A true professional will design the menu and create an appropriate serving presentation for you to make it as comfortable as you would like.

Now when it comes to abundantly arranging the other elements of a more formal dinner, a staging specialist is also your new best friend. A staging specialist is the joyful talent that comes into your home and sets your table, arranges your fresh flowers, selects your music, lights the candles, creates a beautiful presentation on your buffet, and then hightails it out when your guests arrive so you can take all the credit for making the evening fabulous.

While you shower and pamper yourself in preparation for your guests to arrive, a wizard is working magic in your home, making sure that you have delicate orchids in the bathroom and that the cocktail napkins are perfectly fanned on the coffee table. All the details you fret over in the past fall under the auspicious eye of your staging specialist, Kim Porche of Soiree Specialists. Porche educates her clients to know that they are responsible for creating an experience for guests and also to be part of that experience—not being too busy making sure there is enough ice, for instance.

“Once guests arrive, the host has a responsibility to set the tone for the evening—one that is welcoming, relaxed, inviting, and not preoccupied with details,” she says.

True abundance means being in bliss not only when the flowers arrive and the Cristal is being poured, but also in finding ways to make planning and creating the event easy. Determine which part of the creating you enjoy participating in, and leave the rest to a professional you trust.

Becky Trowbridge of Marvelous Meals is now based in Pasadena, but she still creates special events for clients in Long Beach. She can be reached at marvelousmeals@cox.net. She recommends using uspca.com and hireachef.com as wonderful resources to locate a personal chef.

Kim Porche is a Long Beach-based staging and event specialist who produces imaginative events and accommodates intimate affairs. She can be reached at (310) 968-3550.