An ad in Cooking Light magazine captured the attention of Elizabeth Bourget — not to mention her imagination. Bourget’s fateful flipping through the magazine’s pages took place in 2002 and eventually led her to a career for which she had always seemed destined.
The ad was for a training program for personal chefs in Arizona, and Bourget (bor-ZHAY) was immediately intrigued. She enrolled in the program and will mark her 10th anniversary as a graduate this month. As the owner of the Scotts Valley-based Gourmet to Go, Bourget, 53, has made a name for herself in a number of areas showcasing both her culinary talents and business savvy.
She is currently the personal chef for 10 families on a regular basis. She also runs a catering service and appears as a celebrity chef at gourmet shows. Many of her Saturdays are spent providing cooking demonstrations at upscale appliance stores in the Bay Area. She also teaches cooking classes and recently began mentoring fledgling personal chefs looking to begin their own careers.
“The training I received was basically business training,” Bourget said. “It didn’t have anything to do with learning how to cook — they expected the students to know how to cook. It was more about the nuts of bolts of starting a business.
“When I first started as a personal chef, it was so hard,” Bourget continued. “It took time to get all the equipment right and figure out how to shop and design menus efficiently because every family is different. Now, I help mentor other personal chefs.”





















