Dear friends,
we sincerely hope that all of you are doing well. Holly and I are doing well also, and we want to keep it that way.

I am going to be a granddad soon again. My older daughter who lives in London is having a baby girl within the next two weeks. It is my second granddaughter in a year, after my other daughter who lives in Germany had a baby girl last May. They came and visited me here in Rhode Island last August and I was very, very happy. It was the last time I saw anybody from my family in person and I am not sure when I will see anybody of them in person again.

Now, with all of the travel restrictions and safety measures we video txt and talk and exercise social distancing to the best of our abilities, knowing it could last for quite a while. Hugs are unfortunately “out”, but at least we can see each other through the cloud when we need and want to and can talk. However I do miss hugging them in person a lot.

With the necessary social distancing in place you might miss hugging your loved ones also, and I totally can relate to that. But look at it this way: if you do the social distancing now then you can look forward to hugging them again. If you do not, you increase the chances that you will never be able to.

PLEASE STAY AT HOME.

At My Chef Lara, Holly and I made a crucial decision a couple of weeks ago, when the situation started to evolve and we are sticking to it. We are going to help everybody we can with their food needs to the best of our abilities and eliminate all risky services which might be unsafe.

We did cancel several social dinners and parties (one bride to be actually also canceled her wedding), the knife skills classes at Stock will not happen until May earliest, also there is no International Food Festival in April or any Pop-Up Dinners. We want to create a safe environment for the services we are continuing, however there are also stricter safety measures necessary for performing them.

Now, that everything is changing My Chef Lara has adapted also, and we wanted to let you know how it might impact you.

We are no longer performing “IN HOME” cooking services, but all of our services have been switched over to “DELIVERY”.

Also, we have changed our delivery policies to all of our customers. Since last week we started to deliver the individual meals in a sanitized container to your home on a given delivery date and will leave it outside of the home. We will text you before we arrive and then ring the bell so that the person inside knows that we are there. Then we will wait until you show up and we will wave at you from a safe distance. All of the meals are inside the container for you to take inside and enjoy. “No contact” payment options are available for all of our services.

We will leave the plastic bin with you until you receive the next delivery and then we will exchange it with a different sanitized one. If you had e.g. a chair to deposit the bin on makes it easier for you to grab and transport it inside. If you have difficulties transporting the food, we will find another safe solution to get it into your fridge and or freezer. We are safety experts.

This way it makes it a lot safer for both of us and eliminates any contact. (Which we do not like, but what we need to do)

We also will no longer conduct “in person” interviews, but we will offer options to do the interview either by phone or video and we will help you to set it up.

Please believe me that Holly and I see it as our utmost priority not to get infected AND not to transfer a virus to anybody and we have incorporated several new procedures to our daily routines besides washing our hands like crazy, always wearing gloves when we go shopping and then disposing of them, sanitizing all containers and other items which have come in contact with the groceries.

We also have strictly limited the access to our kitchen to only TWO people (i.e. Holly and I) when we are working and even when we are not working in it.

Furthermore we are taking twice daily our body temperatures to know if there is anything which had changed from 8 hours before. We also keep a log who we were in contact with (always at a safe distance of at least 6 ft) or where we went in order to be traceable. We also choose store hours in our Supermarket where we know there are only very few people and and and and……..

It is our highest priority to provide you with great food AND a safe environment. We have several elderly clients who heavily rely on US and we will do our utmost to fulfill this trust and cook sanitary, clean and tasty food for them.

Holly and I, we jointly made a decision that we keep My Chef Lara going, trying to help as many people as we can, so that they can stay home in a safe way rather than shutting the business down and wait for the storm to pass.

We appreciate the trust in us and we will continue to serve you to the best of our abilities.

Please let us know if these procedures would be safe enough for you, or if you feel we should change any of them.

I strongly believe you are safe with us and we are looking forward to hugging you again in a couple of weeks.

Best Regards

Holly and Norbert