CHEF TAKES MEAL DELIVERY AND MAKES IT GOURMET.

Byline: Pam Park Staff Writer

Maybe encrusted salmon steak, lightly seared, with lemon sauce, summer squash and asparagus. Or white spinach lasagna with Alfredo sauce and three cheeses, served with broccoli and garlic bread. Or shrimp etoufee with white rice, green beans and warm French bread. If such a meal, prepared by a former Spago chef and delivered to your door, sounds like dinner on the table, that's just what Betsy Bowers intended.

Dinner's on the Table is her business.

Bowers, formerly a Chicago printing company vice president, moved to Woodland Hills three years ago because of her husband's job change, but she turned the move into an opportunity to pursue her dream of becoming a chef.

``I've always wanted to cook,'' said Bowers, who grew up in a family of good cooks.

After the move Bowers enrolled in the Westlake Culinary Institute and had a job at Spago before she even finished the program.

She loved the work, but the late nights cut into her time with her husband and 7-year-old daughter.

``When you love it, it's not a hardship. But when you love it and there are other things tugging at you, it's a problem,'' Bowers said.

She reasoned that other people who want more time for their families, don't like to cook or are too busy to spend their evenings chopping and dicing could use some expert help. Just over a year ago, she cooked up Dinner's on the Table.

Once a week, Dinner's on the Table delivers three to seven gourmet meals for one person or a whole family. Each meal is packaged in disposable containers and labeled with instructions on how to prepare it, which in most cases involves putting it in the oven for about one-half hour. Some foods can be stir-fried if Mom or Dad want to appear to be cooking a homemade meal, Bowers said.

Customer Celeste Gosnell of Woodland Hills said her evening priorities are keeping up with her four children's activities and homework and having time to spend with them.

``Between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., when we are all trying to accomplish things, is our busiest time of day,'' she said. ``Dinner's on the Table works very well for me that way, and it's a lot more nutritious than fast food.''

The meals come together quickly, and with a large family's individual tastes, she can even serve different entrees at the same meal.

``I have taken Dinner's on the Table to potlucks before. I can show up with this really nice thing, and people (ask) who brought the paella,'' Gosnell said.

Georgia Mercer of Tarzana appreciates the quality and convenience - and there's no cleanup.

``You take the tins and you put them in the trash,'' she said. ``It's just been such a wonderful opportunity to stay in your own home and feel like you're out at a good restaurant.''

The meals arrive in a cooler with ice packs that will keep them cold for 12 to 18 hours, even in direct sunlight, so no one needs to be home to receive them, Bowers said.

On a schedule of three meals per week, the price is $75 for one adult. Each additional adult costs $50, and each child, $25. That's about half what people pay for a personal chef in Los Angeles, and without the intrusion, Bowers said.

``This is the invisible personal chef.''

David MacKay, founder of the United States Personal Chef Institute in Rio Rancho, N. M., said delivery of prepared meals is called home meal replacement, and it's a different spin on meal delivery.

Personal chefs usually bring the groceries to the client's home, prepare an agreed-upon number of meals, clean up the kitchen and disappear.

Prices can vary widely by region, and most clients request comfort food rather than gourmet food, but the average nationwide price for personal chef services would be about $10 to $15 per plate, he said.

Janet Lowder, consultant for Restaurant Management Services in Rancho Palos Verdes, said there is a market for personal chef services and variations.

``I've seen quite a bit of the personal chef-type services. The key in that market niche is convenience, and everybody is looking for more convenience in their lives,'' she said.

Bowers' customers are located from Hollywood west to Malibu and along Ventura Boulevard from Studio City to Calabasas.

In addition to busy families, clients include single people, the elderly and the ill.

Some adult children worry that their elderly parents aren't eating well and order the service for them, Bowers said. She also serves a couple of cancer patients, and that's very gratifying for her because her mother died of cancer.

``It makes me feel so good that I could give something back.''

Customers get a menu each week and choose their entrees for the following week.

Bowers cooks the meals in the kitchen at Spago in West Hollywood on Mondays, when it's closed. She uses the same suppliers as the top restaurants in Los Angeles and buys fresh vegetables and herbs from farmers markets.

On Nov. 1, she had 27 clients. Her goal is to have 100 within two years.

``It has been growing at a very nice pace. It has never lost money. It has turned a profit from day one,'' she said. ``I would love to see this in a situation where it's a household name. The sky's the limit.''

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Betsy Bowers personally delivers a meal cooked in the Spago kitchen to Victoria Barrosse of Woodland Hills.

(2 -- color) Betsy Bowers cooks in the Spago kitchen.

(3 -- color) Victoria Barrosse unpacks her special meal.

(4 -- color) Dinner's on the Table delivers to the door.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer