Catering to the Hunger for a Simpler Life

Simplification is a hot trend, as evidenced by a spate of new magazines like “Simplification” and “Real Simple,” both cruelly full of ads for lovely things most women couldn’t possibly afford.

But as the rich have always understood, the easiest way to simplify your life is to have other people do things for you--starting with keeping the bathroom clean. Having someone else prepare a meal from time to time is another excellent way to simplify your life, which is why most people have the phone number of their favorite pizzeria on speed-dial.

Since November, two Woodland Hills women have been helping people with sufficient funds simplify their lives by preparing gourmet meals and comfort food that their clients are welcome to pretend they cooked themselves. They call their Calabasas-based company Dinner’s on the Table.

The enterprise started when Betsy Bowers offered to become the personal chef of neighbor Cathy Schrader. A successful entrepreneur, Schrader and her husband, Robert Nordlund, are partners in a firm that does financial planning for homeowner associations. She is also a mother of two and an unrepentant non-cook.

“I have to confess I haven’t cooked for 10 years,” says Schrader. “I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to cook, besides being too busy.”

Bowers, on the other hand, has happily wielded a saucepan since she was a child, working in the kitchen alongside her late mother, Bette Anne Raddatz. Mrs. Raddatz lured little Betsy into the kitchen as soon as she could toddle and introduced her to such simple pleasures as freshly chopped basil.

When Bowers moved to the Valley from Chicago three years ago, so her architect husband, John Bowers, could join Frank Gehry’s firm, she went to Westlake Culinary Institute and later worked at Spago.

The women live across the street from each other, and their children--Schrader’s 9-year-old Bobby and 8-year-old Samantha and Bowers’ 6-year-old Hanna--attend the same school and play together.

Indeed, Schrader recalls how she first discovered Bowers’ culinary gifts.

“My kids were swimming in her pool with Hanna. Betsy was in the kitchen with some of her chef friends, and every 15 minutes she brought out something wonderful to eat. I remember thinking, ‘This is good.’ ”

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Aware that Schrader was kitchen-phobic, Bowers said she’d be happy to be her chef. Schrader was hesitant at first, fearful that a professional relationship might damage their friendship. But the arrangement worked perfectly.

“When Betsy was our chef, it was the middle of soccer season,” Schrader recalls. After working all day and driving Bobby and Samantha home from practice, Schrader was thrilled to find Bower-cooked meals waiting for her.

“We’d get home at 5:30 and be sitting at the table, eating, at 6 o’clock. My husband said, ‘This is great!’ ”

Like Schrader, Bowers has a business background (she was vice president of a printing and direct mail company), and both saw a niche waiting to be filled with a new business.

There are a lot of people out there, they reasoned, who don’t want to cook every night but do want to eat with their families. Many people are tired of eating in restaurants several times a week and can afford to pay someone else to cook at least some of their meals, even if they can’t afford a personal chef (Bowers charged $35 to $50 an hour for her services).

The concept they came up with was to offer seven dinner choices a week. They purposely limited the number of options for simplicity’s sake. There are 10 different menus, a mix of gourmet dishes with sauces and other flourishes and feel-good, memory-trigger foods, like chicken pot pie and meatloaf.

This week’s entrees were beef Stroganoff, halibut steak encrusted with Parmesan cheese and pine nuts, roast leg of lamb, honey-roasted chicken breast, teriyaki chicken satay, stuffed veal rolls and vegetarian cheese ravioli. Among the side dishes were sauteed spinach, baby carrots, polenta, roasted potatoes, roasted tomatoes and snow peas.

Bowers developed most of the recipes herself. Others, such as the plum-tomato sauce and Swedish meatballs, pay homage to her mom, whose recipes were passed on to Bowers by her father.

New items are always being added.

Explains Schrader: “Betsy’s daughter asked her if she’d put Sloppy Joes on the menu. We did, at first as an extra, and now it’s one of our regular meals.”

Clients choose three to seven entrees from the menu (they prepay and order by phone, fax or e-mail the week before). The meals are delivered on Wednesdays to their doors in cardboard boxes, topped with a purple bow, wrapped around a sprig of rosemary or Mexican sage.

Prices range from $75 for three adult meals to $120 for seven adult meals. Children’s portions are available, as are weekly specials--this week, clients could opt for calamari salad in a lemon-lime vinaigrette and/or pumpkin soup served with creme fraiche and roasted pecans.

Because of Bowers’ ability to price dishes and knowledge of vendors, combined with Schrader’s business acumen, the enterprise was profitable from Day One. They lease Spago’s kitchen in West Hollywood to do the cooking.

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The food arrives chilled and usually requires heating in the oven before serving. Many clients freeze meals for later.

The women have 25 regular clients, including an elderly couple whose daughter bought them the service as a gift. A few are two-earner families, and there are also a few single men and single mothers. Schrader is still a client.

Apparently, once you get used to somebody else making the pumpkin soup, it’s a hard habit to break.

One client called to say she had lost her job and wouldn’t be using the service until she found another. The next week she was ordering as usual.

“I can’t skip,” she explained. “I told my husband to work harder.”

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Spotlight appears every Friday. Patricia Ward Biederman can be reached at valley.news@latimes.com.