You and your spouse have both finished work for the day. As your spouse begins the long commute home, you've already taken your daughter to dance and it's time for your son's soccer lesson. Then comes the dreaded question: "What's for dinner?"

Your head spins as you think of your choices: leftovers (but there aren't any), pizza delivery, the drive-through or back to that restaurant where your family has the menu memorized. Sound familiar?

Maybe a personal chef could come to your rescue. No, really. Personal chefs are no longer just for the rich and famous. Today's personal chefs are often hired by ordinary people with busy lives.

Keiki Lani Heulett of Butler was already leading this busy life when her husband's dentistry office was lost in the fire at the Morgan Management building in June 2003. Scrambling to get a new office going made their lives even more hectic.

"We were starting to maintain the practice, plus building the new office," Heulett said.

"It was terrible, we were always eating out," she said. "I had the Eat 'n Park menu memorized."

It was her husband, Dr. Donald Brockley, who saw an ad in the newspaper for a personal chef service. For Heulett, who describes herself as a busy woman who doesn't like to cook, this was a welcome solution.

"We have (out-of-town) friends who use a personal chef, but we hadn't seen any advertised around here," she noted.

Lauren Edinger, chef and owner of Lauren A. Edinger Personal Chef Service of Butler, has been working for the family of three since May.

"(When I met them), they had been eating out every night for two years because they didn't have time to cook for themselves. They are still busy and still get home late, but now they have a meal waiting there," said Edinger.

When she first meets with a client, Edinger has them fill out an extensive questionnaire detailing their eating habits, their likes and dislikes, dietary needs and food allergies. She then makes out a menu and the client goes over it and approves it or makes changes. She'll also make special family favorites if the client leaves her the recipes.

A typical cook day for Edinger starts around 5 a.m. She gathers her spices and packs up her pantry box with things she has on hand. Then she loads up her Saturn SL1 with two enormous boxes of pots, pans, mixers, a blender, coolers and packaging materials.Her next stop is the grocery store, usually one close to the client's home in order to get the freshest ingredients."I have all the grocery stores memorized," she said.Once she's finished shopping, all the meats and other refrigerated items go into the cooler and she heads for her client's house.Edinger said it takes 15 to 20 minutes to unload and set up. Then the cooking can finally begin."I start with the longest cooking items and work down to the simpler dishes as I wind down from the day," she explained.It can take anywhere from three to eight hours for the cooking process, depending on what she's making that day.When the cooking is done, she does all the dishes, cleans up the kitchen and packs up her dishes for home.When the family arrives home, they open their refrigerator, which is filled with meals for the week. Each package is labeled with easy-to-use and read instructions, complete with color-coding to match entrees and side dishes.The family can then decide which meal they want to eat each day.This weekly package of five meals for a family of four costs around $300. Everything is included in that price: the customized menu, planning, shopping and cleaning, plus the completed meals. Typically a full week of meals includes a beef dish, two chicken dishes, one seafood, and one vegetarian dish. But Edinger stresses each menu is individualized for each family.

Nicole Bell is chef and owner of Nicole's Kitchen in Allison Park. Her services are similar to Edinger's, but she charges a little differently."I charge a service fee for the labor, plus the cost of the groceries. It depends on the number of days you want the service and the number of people. It may range from $100 to $500 per week or month, depending on what the client wants."It's not just for the wealthy," said Edinger."If you factor in the time and cost to go out, I'd say she's reasonable," said Heulett. "The meals are planned better; they're not high in fat; the food is fresher."She's saved us time in a lot of ways. We're not waiting in restaurants, so we can come home earlier. We only have to throw something in the oven. It saves us time and money shopping and preparing, too."It mostly comes down to this: Do you want to spend time cooking and cleaning after a 12-hour day? Usually, the answer is 'No.'"Heulett says she's also able to spend more time with her 12-year-old daughter. "Dinner will be cooking, and we can be talking or working on her homework."Bell said it's not just families that benefit from these services."Single business owners, executives are also working long hours. The takeout food isn't cutting it," she said. Many people are looking for healthier alternatives.People on special diets benefit by having a personal chef cooking for them, too. There's less of a chance of straying from the diet if someone else has prepared the food.

Personal chefs have existed in one form or another for a long time. Even in the colonial times, families would trade meals in exchange for help with other tasks. In its modern form, personal chef services have been around for about 20 years.Brian T. Koning, author of "Becoming a Personal Chef," says it's difficult to estimate the number of personal chefs due to a lack of verifiable statistics. While many chefs wouldn't want to be in business without belonging to one of the national organizations, there are no requirements to do so. There are currently no regulations over this career, as there are in the catering or restaurant businesses.Bell felt it was important to be certified as a food safety manager. She is certified by both Allegheny County and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture."It's not legally required, but it adds a lot of credentials," Bell said. Bell serves the Fox Chapel, Hampton, North Hills, Cranberry and Wexford areas.There are many reasons people are turning to personal chef as a career. For Edinger, she saw it as an answer to an idea she had years ago.

"My mother made meals for a single gentleman for a whole month and I thought it would be neat to do that on a larger scale," she explained.When the 22-year-old Edinger, who has been working in the food industry since she was 16, found herself without a job, she decided to make her move. Already armed with a culinary degree from Johnson and Wales, she followed the home study program from the U.S. Personal Chef Association and began her own personal chef service. She currently serves Butler, Lawrence, and Allegheny counties.Nicole Bell has a culinary degree from Indiana (Pa.) University's Academy of Culinary Arts. She started out in the restaurant business and worked for six years before realizing she needed a change."I got burned out from the long hours and took an office job."Several more years in a sales and marketing job made her realize that she wanted to get back to her first love."I just wanted to get back to what I love doing on my own hours, not working 70 hours a week in a restaurant," she said. "I have a daughter now, so this allows me to spend more time with her."

Bell had first heard about personal chefs on the Food Network. When she researched, she found there were three national organizations dedicated to the personal chef: the U.S. Personal Chef Association, the Personal Chef Network, and the American Personal Chef Association. All three organizations provide similar services for the personal chef."I joined the Personal Chef Network," said Bell. "They send you everything you need to get started." They provide help with business start-up, legal aspects, Web assistance, recipe and packaging ideas and also emotional support, said Bell.Personal chefs offer other services besides the weekly meal plans. Both Bell and Edinger offer gift certificates for their services. Edinger provides meals for small gatherings, dinner parties and meetings. She also offers a "Romantic Dinner for Two" package. It includes soup, salad, appetizers, entrée and dessert."I make it, clean up and disappear," she said.Bell also offers dinner parties and dinners for two for anniversaries or Valentine's Day. She also offers a service for new moms for the first week after delivery."It's hard to find clients," said Edinger, "but business is picking up. A lot of people don't know the business is out there."Bell concurs."We get confused a lot with catering, but we're not. A personal chef comes into the client's home with groceries, cooks all day and cleans up.""The best part is knowing that you're helping someone out," said Edinger, "that it's one less thing for them to stress about."