Chef Keitha Fisher is PCN's Marketing Coordinator as well as chef/owner of Cornwall and area's Your Personal Chef. Chef Keitha joined the Personal Chefs Network in April of 2003 and in the short time since then has grown her business from a dream into a success story!

While Chef Keitha graduated with honours from the Haute Cuisine Program at Algonquin College in 1999, she says her love for cooking began much earlier in the kitchens of her mom and grandmothers. With over forty family members on her mother's side of the family and nearly 30 on her father's side, it's not hard to imagine great cooks gathering together to feed all of those people! When Keitha first moved out on her own, it was not uncommon for her to have dinner guests almost every night of the week!

When Chef Keitha began working in restaurants in 1993, she would find herself getting together with different staff members on their days off, cooking for each other and all trying to outdo the last meal they'd cooked for each other. They'd pick a certain theme or region and go from there. She jokes, "If there had been a hidden camera during those nights, we could have had a successful show on the Food Network by now!"

While Chef Keitha has lived in Ottawa and Montreal, two of Canada's great food cities, she now resides with her husband in Cornwall, Ontario. Living in a small city helps Chef Keitha get to know what her clients are looking for. As a member of Women Entrepreneurs and the Seaway Business Exchange, she's constantly meeting new and interesting people who love helping her spread the word about her business. Similarly, because she grew up in a small town nearby, she's known throughout the community and has spoken to several different groups about being a personal chef. Because personal chefs are not as prominent in smaller cities as they are in larger areas, Fisher realized it would be take some time to get her message out. "It was a challenge to explain to people that I was not a caterer," she says.

However, Keitha's never been one to ignore a challenge. In the past year, Your Personal Chef has introduced some interesting additions. Cooking classes, family oriented meal plans and a grocery shopping and menu planning service are three of the latest offerings.

Chef Keitha's most recent additions are actually up and coming. This September, she and her husband Richard will welcome two new additions to their family. Mom and Dad to be could not be more thrilled!