After 30 years working as a chef in busy kitchens, Brian Bean thought working in food sales would be more relaxing.

But six months into it, he was bored.

“I didn’t think I would miss cooking as much as I did,” he said. “Sales was not my thing. I enjoy cooking and being around food. I decided to try to find a way to get back into it.”

This month Mr Bean launched Cedarberry Kitchen, offering private home chef services.

His target audience is Bermuda’s visitors. He expects the demand for Airbnb accommodation in Bermuda to skyrocket when the worst of the pandemic is over.

“I thought it would be a great idea to add another layer of service for those who are coming in,” he said. “This would be a choice for visitors. I can go to their Airbnb and cook the full meal. I can do more of a formal sit-down fine dining, or I could also do something more along the lines of family style – a bit more casual.”

He said it can be fun to go to a local market when you are on vacation, but nobody wants to be shopping, cooking and doing dishes the whole time.

“I want people to come and relax and let me take a piece of that off of their shoulders,” Mr Bean said.

One of his challenges is to create menus that will work in any kitchen.

“An Airbnb might have anything from a mini fridge kitchen to a fully equipped kitchen,” he said. “You don’t know what you will get.”

He wants to focus more on Bermudian-inspired dishes rather than traditional food.

“I want to have fun with what is here to create something memorable with a Bermudian feel to it,” he said. “I want to be something different, to a certain degree.”

He wants to use what is in season in Bermuda and locally made products, as much as possible.

Mr Bean loves to get into his kitchen and “play around” experimenting with different dishes.

“I am working on pear poached in hibiscus tea that is sweetened with Bermuda honey,” he said.

Mr Bean said he has no particular preferred cuisine to cook.

“I cook everything and anything,” he said. “The act of cooking is fun for me. Learning is fun. I have been doing this for so long and I still know so little. I love the process of taking ingredients and turning them into something memorable. That to me is the magic of it.”

Cedarberry Kitchen will be a one-man operation to start, so catering to 12 people will be his limit. “At this point, I am not doing location stuff or big events,” he said.

Before returning to Bermuda four years ago, Mr Bean worked as a sous chef at the Scotiabank Saddledome, a multi-use arena in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The location plays host to everything from hockey games to music concerts.

“I was in charge of the fine dining aspect of the dome,” he said. “For an NHL hockey game the stadium might host 20,000 people. Of that 20,000 we would be dealing with 2,000 to 3,000 customers.”

The challenge was creating menus that were both fine dining and quick to prepare. Because hockey games at the Saddledome are televised worldwide, fans have to be in their seats by 7.30pm.

“When I first started working there I didn’t know much about hockey,” Mr Bean said. “Hockey is huge in Canada, and being a part of it was intoxicating. Now I am a big fan of the Calgary Flames.”

Celebrities often performed at the Saddledome. Over the years he cooked for everyone from the Dalai Lama and Fleetwood Mac to Janet Jackson and Garth Brooks.

“I have met some of them,” he said, “but we were never allowed to go up and ask for an autograph. There have been times when clients come down to the kitchen to say thanks.”

Most of the celebrities he cooked for were down to earth, but they had very specific dietary requirements.

“Ninety per cent of them were vegetarian,” he said. “And they wanted to eat organic food.

“We had special people who would go out and shop so I could cook. The celebrities didn’t necessarily want anything fancy in terms of presentation but they were very specific about where the food was harvested and where it came from. That was a big thing.”

• For information call 707-1131 or see www.cedarberrykitchen.com .