Montrose - Daily Press

Caitlin Switzer

MONTROSE - She has wandered the earth, trying her hand at a variety of occupations, feeling the soil of many countries beneath her feet.

It was on a visit to her native Germany, in fact, that Inge Cheatham's latest inspiration struck her - in fact, you might say it dropped from a clear, blue sky.

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"I went to Germany on a trip home," the longtime Montrose resident recalled. "I was trying to get a catering business off the ground back here at the time, but it was tough, and I was a single parent. I wasn't sure what I really wanted to do.

"I visited my cousin," she recalled. "When I walked out her front door, all of a sudden, out of the sky falls a leaflet. I almost stepped over it - it had been dropped from a plane.

"But I bent down and picked it up."

What Cheatham held in her hands was a flyer for a private chef service, an idea that took hold for the passionate cook, who had trained at Le Cordon Bleu in France when females were still a rarity there.

"I thought, wow, here it is," she said. "That's what I can do! I couldn't wait to get home."

For Cheatham, whose past careers included a stint as a nanny in a castle outside Munich at the age of 15, as well as work in customer service, as a paralegal, bailiff, and head chef at a popular resort, the idea of working as a private chef struck a chord.

"My brother is the chef/owner of a hotel in Switzerland," she said. "I think I love to cook because my whole family loves it. When I was first married, I didn't do gourmet things like I do now, but at least I could always cook a decent meal.

"It wasn't such a passion then as it became later on."

Cheatham quickly got to work, trying out recipes and creating menus.

"I have always had friends who were willing to eat what I cooked, and to eat the mistakes," she said. "They never asked what, they just asked what time."

Her first job as a chef came about fix or six years ago, when a local man hired her to come to his home and prepare a special anniversary dinner for his wife.

"I picked out a menu, I told him what I needed, and I told him to get flowers-you have to tell men this," she said. "He called his wife and told her he had a surprise at home, and that it was bigger than a bread box.

"When she got home, I was in my whites and cooking," Cheatham said. "The kitchen was upstairs, and when I heard the door, I wasn't quite sure how to position myself so I wouldn't scare her to death.

"So I stood at the top of the stairs, said 'surprise!' and flung my arms out," she recalled. "I gave her a glass of wine, and by the time I was through, she said I could come by every day."

That anniversary dinner was a wonderful experience, according to Steve Blair, the man who hired Cheatham to surprise his wife, Nancy.

"I met with her previously, and she had quite a nice folio of menus and suggestions," Blair said. "We picked out several different courses-she questioned what kind of utensils I had, and since my wife is quite a cook too, we had a lot of the things she needed.

"We set up a time, and Inge came in and prepared a meal," he said. "We were both still at work when she got here. Nancy came home first, and was quite surprised to find all of these wonderful smells emanating from our kitchen. We had four different courses, and everything was absolutely wonderful-I would highly recommend her to anyone."

In the years since, Cheatham has slowly increased her clientele.

"It didn't catch on at first, because it is kind of a strange idea," she said. "People are not used to it. But it has picked up."

She also enjoys teaching cooking classes whenever possible.

"I have taught a really wonderful children's class," she said. "I show them how to eat, how to use utensils, how to set a table-it's so much fun. Kids are so serious, and they really want to learn. It is amazing, the questions they ask."

When it comes to her own table, Cheatham enjoys a variety of cuisines-and she firmly believes that even everyday foods can become delicacies if properly prepared.

"I like European food," she said. "People think you have to buy special ingredients, but they are all things I can buy in Montrose-just prepared a little differently. For example, I was at a friend's for Christmas, and we talked about brussels sprouts. They can be really good if you know how to prepare them, and don't just boil them to death. You can fix them like a soufflé-I tried it on a couple of friends, and they didn't even know they were eating brussels sprouts."

When it comes to fine cooking, the little things can make a big difference, she said.

"It's about doing things just a little differently, about adding different spices and herbs," she said. "Just basic things, like not salting meat before you put in the oven, so as not to toughen it-little tricks of the trade."

Her own favorite meals might include champagne salmon with a vanilla sauce - not sweet, she notes -with white asparagus cognac soup, and perhaps linguine and sautéed cucumbers.

"People never do anything with cucumber except stick it in a salad," she said.

Another favorite is an elegant eight-ingredient salad with homemade dressing, followed by Beef Wellington.

"The main reason I do this is because I get so much joy out of it," she said. "I can do all kinds of cooking - vegetarian, Italian, German, French- even some American. American cooking has come a long way - we don't make fun of it anymore."

Despite a recent bout with ovarian cancer, Cheatham, now 60, continues to enjoy her life to the fullest.

"I still travel a bit," she said, noting that her son now lives in Portland and her daughter and grandchildren in Alabama. "I would go anywhere that they are. And I have a trip coming up to New York, to see the opera-this year, I think I will see 'Don Giovanni' and 'Madam Butterfly.'"

She also continues to be passionate about her work.

"A couple in California wanted to do something different for Christmas," she said. "So they bought a gift certificate for cooking lessons-I gave them some choices of menus, and when they call to set it up, I will take them shopping, so they know how to pick things out and what to look for. We will create a whole dinner at their house, and when they start to eat their romantic dinner, I will leave."

Cheatham remains a citizen of the world, having lived in a number of places, including Europe, New York, Chicago, Alabama and Omaha.

Yet it is Montrose, a place that she came to by accident after her car broke down in Whitewater 18 years ago, where she feels most at home.

"I like Montrose," she said. "I have the most wonderful friends here."

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