Carpet Cleaner Hopes to Clean Up as a Personal Chef

In one of the more unusual career transitions, Huntington Beach carpet cleaner Kenneth Watt has launched a side business as a personal chef.

Watt, 59, said he started The Pampered Palate about a year ago, partly as a creative outlet, since he loves dabbling in brisket and mashed potatoes.

While the Perma Kleen carpet-cleaning business is still Watt’s main gig, his cooking should bring in $50,000 to $100,000 this year, he said. Eventually, he hopes to do more food and fewer carpets.

“I get more personal satisfaction out of the cooking because I’m creating,” Watt said. “For me it’s therapy. It’s not a chore. I love to create a meal.”

Candy Wallace, president of the San Diego-based American Personal Chef Assn., said Watt is part of an expanding community of about 3,200 personal chefs now whipping up meals across the country. They represent one segment of the rapidly expanding personal-services industry, which has evolved to meet the needs of busy Americans, she said.

“This is a national trend,” she said. “People need to be taken care of.”

A number of similar businesses are now operating in Orange County, including Haute Cuisine, which opened in January. The Irvine company is owned by Wendy Gubman.

Watt, who has no formal culinary training, said he generally visits his customers’ kitchens about once a month. Armed with his own equipment and aided by an assistant, he prepares meals that are labeled and dated and then refrigerated or frozen.

Meals are designed according to the preferences of customers, who are surveyed at the outset to determine their likes and dislikes. While he’ll make vegetarian entrees and meals free of dairy products if that’s what his customers want, Watt admits he is “a meat-and-potatoes guy” who likes cream and butter.

Most customers choose to have 20 meals prepared at a time, he said; their bill for that service comes to $200, plus a 15% fee for incidentals. Customers also pay for the groceries, which Watt buys.

He’s not sure when he will make the final transition from carpets to kitchen, because he is counting mostly on word of mouth to foster his new career. “I don’t suspect I’ll be in the yellow pages any time soon.”