Welcome to the Chef Bill website!

I'm Bill Collins, a professionally trained chef in Massachusetts with over 15 years experience in professional and private kitchens.  Perhaps you are looking to hire a personal chef to cook in your own home on a weekly basis, to stock your fridge and freezer with healthy and great tasting foods.  Or possibly you want to host a fun cooking lesson party for your friends at your home. Or maybe you have a special dinner party coming up or are planning a romantic dinner for two with that special someone.  Let me help!

You really can be a guest in your own home.  Whichever service you choose, you'll love the great taste and convenience of all of my freshly prepared foods.

Bon appetit!

This Week’s Top Five List…Soup!

Every week, I’ll cook up a Top Five List covering a holiday, a seasonal food item, a fresh food item du jour, or whatever edibles pop into my head.  This week, it's some tips and shortcuts for making soup, the culinary antidote to winter!

1.    Soups are not as hard as they look.  They all have the same foundation: a lot of liquid, either stock (chicken, beef, fish or vegetable) or water.  A good amount of liquid is 2 quarts.  With whatever you add to it (meat, fish, vegetables, etc), this will be enough for approximately 8-10 servings
2.    If you’re making a soup with chicken stock, try this step first: simmer two bone-in, skinless chicken breast halves in 1 quart of chicken stock, and one quart of water.  Cook the chicken in your soup pot, without a lid, for 20-30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.  Then, remove the chicken and make your soup (it doesn’t have to be chicken soup).  When the your soup is done, shred the cooled chicken meat you’ve just cooked, and put it into the soup.  Your soup is now ready to be a filling entrée, and not just a first course.
3.    Soup is a great way to use vegetables you meant to cook earlier, but forgot.  These are called “garbage” soups because you saved the veggies (and other foods) from being tossed out.
4.    If you get a chance to sauté your vegetables before you toss them into the soup, do it, as that will give them a nice, slightly different flavor.  This works especially well with onions, carrots, and celery.  Plus, if you’re in a hurry, this will speed up your cooking time.  Like with this chicken soup recipe.
5.    It doesn’t all have to start in a  soup pot.  Roasted vegetables add an even better taste to your soup.  Like a roasted butternut squash soup .  And if you start the soup by boiling some chicken (see #1 above), this soup will make a great meal.  All you need is a baguette and a beverage.  It’s poifect.

Chef Bill's Blog