Aruba, Jamaica, ooo I wanna take ya Bermuda, Bahamas, come on pretty mama Key Largo, Montego, baby why don’t we go ...

The lyrics to the old Beach Boys’ song “Kokomo” came to mind last Wednesday as I sat in on “An Island Picnic” class taught by Raymond Isacsson — “Chef Ray” — at the Southbury Senior Center.

The calypso-style beat of this tune, still played on the radio, kept going through my head as the aroma of Isacsson’s Mango-Jerk Chicken wafted throughout the center’s kitchen and into the hallway.

Intertwined between the scent of the chicken, smothered in Chef Ray’s own blend of a dozen spices and baking in the oven, was the fragrance of his mango-and-garlic sauce cooking until bubbly hot on the stove.

Off the Florida Keys, There’s a place called Kokokmo.  That’s where you wanna go to get away from it all ...

If you can’t get away, maybe Chef Ray’s “Island Picnic” is the next best thing.

Besides the chicken, Isacsson’s menu included Island Cole Slaw; Twice-Fried Plantains/Tostones with Mojo Dipping Sauce; and Caribbean Rum Cake. (See his recipes in this section.)

“Making a meal is multi-tasking,” said Isacsson as he began his lesson with the cole slaw and quickly went on to the chicken.

The tall, clean-cut chef had chopped up all needed ingredients the night before and placed them in separate plastic bags. Each ingredient looked so preserved and so good in those bags.

“Only use fresh cilantro, also called Chinese parsley or coriander,” advised Chef Ray, the principal of Always Gourmet, a Danbury-based personal chef service.

“Dried cilantro seeds lose their flavor when cooked,” he commented in his pristine chef’s jacket monogrammed with his name, his company’s name and a tiny American flag.

He tossed the slaw mixture with a brown sugar blend and his jerk rub, which he sells under the name Always Gourmet Jamaican Jerk Rub.

“Serve it with jerk chicken at any barbecue and you will get a lot of oohs,” he told the class of 20.

We’ll get there fast, And then we’ll take it slow.     That’s where we wanna go. Way down to Kokomo .Ÿ.Ÿ.

To make the jerk chicken, the chef uses only free-range birds and Pacific brand chicken stock, which utilizes only free-range chickens.

He layered the chicken breasts in warmed-up pots, all of which he brought with him, along with his own knives and his own serving bowls in various shades of blue.

Chef Ray also toted an indoor grill from Williams-Sonoma to cook the meat on for about five minutes “to get the nice grill marks,” as he put it.

“For a crispy outside, put the chicken on a real grill. Turn pieces over once before putting them in the oven,” he recommended.

As he added the jerk rub to the chicken pieces, he commented, “Chefs never measure. They just put some spices in, taste it, then add more or less if needed.”

“You forgot to say ‘Bam’,” someone from the audience piped up.

“Bam!” Chef Ray dutifully replied.

The reference to chef Emeril Lagasse’s signature word made Chef Ray think of something.

“Everybody thinks chefs are playboys,” Isacsson said to titters. “Not true. Emeril Lagasse’s breath could knock a buzzard off a garbage truck. His wife has nothing to worry about.”

While making the mango-and-garlic dip, Chef Ray said to constantly “keep the garlic moving in the pan. Otherwise, it will burn.”

Afternoon delight. Cocktails and moonlit nights. That dreamy look in your eye. Give me a tropical contact high. Way down in Kokomo .Ÿ.Ÿ.

“Can you substitute bananas for plantains in your tostones recipe?” Carole Damon, director of the senior center, wanted to know.

“No,” replied Chef Ray, as he demonstrated how to get to the plantain fruit out of its thick peel.

“Cut the ends off the plantain,” he instructed. “Pierce the skin lengthwise, cutting from end to end, at three different places on the plantain. Then just lift off each strip you’ve created. You might have to tug a little.”

After heating vegetable oil in a pan, the oil began to sizzle. “When you hear the oil speaking to you, it means it’s time to put in the food,” said Isacsson, who gently placed his plantain slices into the pan.

“Cook plantains in a single layer. Don’t overcrowd,” he cautioned. “The temperature will come down and they won’t crisp up.”

When the plantains turned lightly golden, he took them out and smashed them flat one by one. To do this, you can use a small pot, a small plate, or the palm of your hand covered with foil, he directed.

“You have to smash them so they won’t get too starchy,” he said.

Aruba, Jamaica, ooo I wanna take ya. Bermuda, Bahamas, come on pretty mama. Key Largo, Montego, baby why don’t we go .Ÿ.Ÿ.

At one point, the chef revealed this was his first-ever cooking class. You’d never know it from his expertise and poise.

The eldest of eight siblings, Chef Ray said he owes his cooking abilities to his mother (Rosemary Isacsson, an employee at The News-Times).

“She didn’t know how to cook at all, so my father took over when I was 14, and I began helping him out,” he explained with a grin.

Cooking runs in his family, said Isacsson, whose heritage is Swedish. His paternal great- grandfather was a cook for publisher William Randolph Hearst.

Although Chef Ray was in the information technology business for 20 years before turning to cooking, he said he’s never been far from his love of food.

“Over the years I’ve done catering for family and friends,” he remarked.

Chef Ray and his fiancee, Barbara Curcio, made a Caribbean Rum Cake the evening before the class. The two plan to wed next week. “I cook for her all the time,” he said. “And mention our Italian greyhound, Jesse, if you can.”

After the class, the seniors buzzed with excitement.

“I’ve used mangoes and some of his other ingredients in my cooking,” commented Dave Fisch of Heritage Village, Southbury. “But I’ll make his chicken and mango sauce for sure. I make a different mango sauce now.”

“I’ll try the chicken. The jerk spices smell so good,” said Adrienne Cutignola, also of Heritage Village.

Port Au Prince, I wanna catch a glimpse. Everybody knows A little place like Kokomo ...

With “An Island Picnic,” it could be your own back yard.

Raymond “Chef Ray” Isacsson III’s hand-blended spices — Jamaican Jerk Rub, Italian Blend, Chipotle Chile Rub, International Fire-Roasted Chile (a blend of 12 of the world’s hottest chiles), European Paprikash, Asian Blend, and Southwestern Rub — sell from $5 to $10.

Call Always Gourmet at (203) 482-3555 or visit alwaysgourmet.com.

Republican-American , Country Life, Thursday, January 16, 2003

It's your kitchen, but you don't have to cook                                                   Personal Chef Isacsson blends own spices and culinary lineage with his love for cooking      By Lisa Hoffman  

Some people say, "variety is the spice of life: but for Ray Isacsson III, "Spice is the variety of life."A personal chef, Isacsson runs his own personal business, "Always Gourmet," designed to simplify the working person's life, as well as making any dinner party or other affair a delightful culinary experience, where the at home hostess can relax and dedicate all her time to her guests.

Chef Ray prides himself on providing his clients with his own spices - he has his own line of spice blends, such as Italian, Asian, Chilean, Hungarian, Moroccan, Southwestern and Garlic - which he incorporates into his own cooking. He is currently preparing to market his spice line on the Website under his "Always Gourmet" label. He says that everything he uses is fresh, "I never buy anything off the shelf."

The oldest of eight children, Chef Ray always had a penchant for cooking. When he was 10 years old, he wanted an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas and while other little boys collected baseball and football cards - he had a shoebox full of recipes cut out of newspapers and magazines. "I kept them to myself," he said. "I didn't show them to other people. They were for my own enjoyment and reading. I always wanted to cook, but my mother, with eight children in the house didn't want children underfoot in her kitchen." When he was 14, he became a long distance runner and competed in the,Junior Olympics. He started cooking for himself to supplement his diet, and it was then that he began to experiment with spice blends.

In spite of this early interest in cooking, Chef Ray began his career as a professional chef only later in life.  As a teenager, he wanted to see thc West. "The mountains intrigued me," he said; "and I wanted to go there for a little while and see what happened.. I ended up staying there for 18 years." I attended Pike's Peak College in Colorado Springs, studying electronics and computers. "

In the '70s, computers were the big thing to get into," he said in explaining that choice. "So I went into computers and worked in this field for MCI as a telecommunicator. "But I missed my family and I decided to take a job on the East Coast and moved back to Connecticut, working for seven years at IBM, right here in Southbury. That ended my 20 years in computers. "

Even while working in the computer field, he had kept cooking his primary focus in life. Whenever he had the opportunity, he enrolled in cooking classes at the prestigious Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs and continually read and collected cookbooks. "The first cookbook I ever bought, "The Coyote Cafe," was written by my favorite chef. Mark Miller," he recalled. "He was the culinary leader of the Southwester movement, bringing the flavors of Mexico, Texas and the Southwest and putting them all together in a cookbook, probably the first Southwestern cookbook. 

Returning to Connecticut and buying a home here, he dreamed about starting a restaurant or some kind of culinary business, and eventually enrolled in the French Culinary Institute in New York City. "Cooking runs in the family," he said. "Two of my brothers graduated from the Culinary Institute of America," he noted, adding that both became executive chefs in prestigious California country clubs.  Chef Ray's great- grandfather was the personal chef of William Randolph Hearst, cooking for him on his yachts and traveling with him and his reporters and journalists all over the world.

"When the Spanish-American War was going on, my great-grandfather went down to Cuba and was there when the Maine was attacked and blown up. My great-grandfather managed to find a lot of artifacts from the Maine. "He retrieved them out of the water and brought them on the ship and passed them down to his son, my grandfather, then to my father, and my mother donated them to the Smithsonian Institute. So now they're in Washington, D.C." Chef Ray still has the menu from the time that Hearst sent his yacht to Cape Cod to pick up President Cleveland and bring him back to New York City. "My great- grandfather brought him back, and I have the menus he cooked for President Cleveland," he said.

As a personal chef, Chef Ray will come to your home with everything he needs to prepare a meal. "I do all the grocery shopping," he said, "and I bring all of my tools, my own set of Wuesthoff   top of the line German knives. "I buy real high quality heavy steel pots and pans. Everything I have is top of the line equipment, so that I can cook food the best way possible. All I use is the stove and the sink in your kitchen." He offers a free consultation to all his prospective clients. "I like to sit down with you and find out if there are any allergies or other health problems, like cholesterol, things like that," he explained. "Then I cook a diet that's best suited for you.  think that's really crucial. Because what you eat is what you are."

He will accept clients in Southbury, Woodbury and other surrounding towns; and he says that hiring him as a personal chef is actually cheaper than entertaining guests at a restaurant, where drinks and tips are added to the bill. His fee is $35 per hour, plus cost of ingredients. He will also give cooking classes in your home, allowing you to spend some time with your friends learning how to sear meat properly or how to use carving knives and then enjoy a delicious meal at the end.  

Chef Ray thinks that the most important thing is to be happy with what you do in life. "You really have to enjoy your job," he said;  "and that's why I picked culinary, because it's in my blood and I just love to cook. And if you're happy, you can bring that happiness to other people." For more information, call (203) 482-3555 or e-mail alwaysgourmet@snet.net.

Time Magazine                  Monday, Apr. 08, 2002                                                     

It's 6 p.m. in Columbus, Ohio, and the Bacha family is famished. Sarah, 41, a marketing consultant, has been firing on all cylinders since 7 a.m., getting the kids off to school and then juggling phones, e-mail, paperwork and a lengthy strategy meeting. Her husband Jim, 47, has lumbered home after another taxing day as an attorney with American Electric Power Co. Will, 6, and Henry, 4, are antsy for parental attention. As usual, no one has had time to cook. What's a time-crunched family to do?

Sit down to a freshly made, aromatic Burgundy beef stew, of course--unless they're in the mood for chicken Tetrazzini or black-bean soup with ham. "Mmmm. It smells great," announces Sarah to no one in particular, as she savors the steaming stew. The sumptuous dinner was the creation of the family's personal chef  who left hours ago. The only evidence of her efforts is the tantalizing aromas lingering in the kitchen and the three weeks' worth of meals freshly stocked in the refrigerator and freezer.

Even in a slumping economy, more and more two-earner families like the Bachas have been hiring personal chefs who do the shopping, cook in clients' kitchens and clean up after themselves. Five years ago, there were just a few hundred such workers; today an estimated 7,000 personal chefs are finding that demand for their services around the country is robust.

Since Sept. 11, personal chefs have been inundated with requests for simple comfort foods like chicken pot pie and noodle soup. "People are still reluctant to go out to eat," says Candy Wallace, who heads the American Personal Chef Association. "They'd rather be home."

Personal chefs are different from private cooks, who usually work full time preparing gourmet meals for the wealthy. Instead, personal chefs are tempting two-earner households with customized menus at reasonable rates.  Before the first cooking date, chefs and their clients address everything from calorie content to seasoning levels in devising menus that suit the household. When client families get home, they find a meal ready for the evening, as well as a refrigerator and freezer stocked with future dinners, each of which includes instructions for reheating. The process can save clients as much as 15 hours a week in shopping, preparation, cooking and cleanup time. But customers are not completely off the hook. Says Debra Ruder, 43, a communications specialist who lives in suburban Boston with her husband and two sons: "You do have to remember to take something out of the freezer the night before."

Personal chefs hope to shed the perception that they are only for the wealthy. If you can afford a lawn service and housecleaning, they say, a personal chef is likely to be within your budget. "This has made a real difference in our family life. It's a relief not to have to worry about dinner anymore," says Cindy Abbott, 39, an attorney for Motorola who is the mother of two. The Abbotts spend about $300 for 10 meals that they eat over the course of each month, supplemented by takeout meals and Cindy's cooking. Like many clients, she finds that household spending on food has declined since the chef started work a year ago, because the family is eating fewer restaurant and takeout meals.

Hallie Vanderhider, 44, a single mother of 15-year-old twin boys in Houston, hired a chef in January to prepare three family meals a week for $200, including the cost of the food. "Before this, sometimes all I had time to make was peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches," she says. Evenings with her kids are much happier, she adds. The three of them have reached a consensus on ingredients: no mushrooms, onions or artichokes. Says their chef, "No problem." Vanderhider, chief financial officer for a money-management firm, has just one regret: "I wish I had thought of this sooner."

Personal chefs are no longer just for the rich                                                                 Kitchen equivalent of day care' trickles down to the middle class

By Jerry Shriver
USA TODAY   Feb 09, 2001

A power shift is astir in America's kitchens, and it has nothing to do with those little buttons on your blender. In the not-too-distant future, the country's most sought-after chefs may no longer be the celebs overseeing trendy urban restaurants and starring in TV cooking shows. Takeout food from restaurants and grocery stores may no longer be the automatic in-a-pinch choices for the harried, hungry masses. There may not even be a pinch.

The emerging pacesetters are chefs who cook in customers' homes and empower them to specify the cuisine, menus, calorie content, spicing levels and dinner hour. These pros more closely resemble your grandmother than Escoffier: They also do your shopping, wash the dishes, even take out the garbage.

''This is the kitchen equivalent of day care,'' says Clark Wolf, a New York-based food and restaurant consultant. ''Just as we have accepted other people taking care of our kids with our instructions, we have accepted other people cooking for us with our instructions.''

When in-home chef services came to national attention in the mid-1990s, the prime customer base was affluent couples, usually with families. But the number of personal chefs has mushroomed since then, and today they're increasingly filtering into mainstream markets such as Sunbelt retirement communities and middle-class homes in the heartland.

Typically, personal chefs visit a home once or twice a month. They prepare a dozen or more meals at a time and store them in the refrigerator or freezer for the client to reheat later.  Wherever they go, in-home chefs are bonding with diners in a way that Wolfgang Puck or Emeril Lagasse might envy.