😫 The Holidays Weren’t Always Like This for Us


Our Holiday Story

Hello Reader, It's Yukari!

We wish you a wonderful Christmas week!

If you spent the holidays cooking, wrapping gifts, or hosting, we hope you find time to relax and enjoy yourself.

The holidays can be beautiful and also exhausting.

Pull up a chair at our kitchen table, and let us share our Christmas story with you.


From Stress to Joy

Years in restaurants, especially during the holidays, showed us how stressful the season can be for everyone.

We witnessed more than just the busyness.

We saw frustration and exhaustion everywhere.

People were stressed about cooking, parties, gifts, and relatives visiting...

Often, that frustration spilled over onto servers, cooks, and managers in busy restaurants.

December lost its joy.

Exhausted, the season became something we endured.

Not enjoyed.

But recently, that changed.

Now, this season brings us gratitude and peace.


New Tradition

For the past four years, we’ve served one family’s Christmas Eve dinner.

A tradition for them and for us.

We look forward to sharing their favorite foods and celebrating with them every year.

What we cherish most is being invited into their lives, sharing stories and milestones.

We’d chat about our work, our fur babies, and our lives, and learn something new about them every year.

Their exciting new business, the house remodeling project, the baby girl, Sadie, turned five this year, and they welcomed a new baby girl, Scarlett...

We never experienced these connections working in a restaurant kitchen.

It reminds us that food isn’t just about what’s on the plate.

It’s about the people around the table, and the traditions you build together, year after year.

Annual Private Christmas Dinner Party
A female chef and a baby girl
Fig Preserves with Goat Cheese, Prosciutto on Crostini
Indian Curry in Phyllo Cup
Sausage Rolls
Two cute dogs

Why We Love What We Do

We’re grateful to be included in your traditions.

As personal chefs, our clients become extended family.

Whether for dinner parties or weekly meals, we see familiar faces and share in your journey.

We serve one reservation at a time.

In that moment, the table is yours.

We provide personal attention to make your dining experience memorable.

At the heart of our work:

Slowing down, showing up, and creating moments that matter together.

We’re here to celebrate and to make memories with you.

Thank you for letting us serve you on special days and every day.

We put a piece of our hearts into every dish and look forward to more unforgettable meals together next year!


If you feel like it, hit reply and tell us one small moment you’re grateful for around your table this year.

We read every message. 🧡

Thank you for being part of this growing Kitchen Table. 🙏

We’re so grateful to build this joyful cooking community with you on this cozy little corner of the internet.🧡


With gratitude and friendship,

Aric & Yukari
🐶🐱 (Senna & Ka-En are here for the scraps, as always)


Yukari Bianchi

Hi, I’m Yukari! My husband, Aric, a talented chef, and I are on a mission to bring people together through the magic of cooking. We want to build a virtual cooking community where we share budget-friendly meal prep tips, host fun challenges, and teach classes beyond recipes—we tell stories of love, life, and even the lessons we learn from our fur babies. Yes, our Bernese Mountain Dog, Senna, the Dish Pit Pup, and our Ginger cat, Ka-En, the Sous Chef Kitten, are part of the journey too! We believe food is more than just fuel—it’s about connection, culture, and creativity. If you enjoy heartwarming stories, engaging Q&As, and cooking made simple, we’d love to have you in our community.🔪🍲 Join us to cook, laugh, and share the love—one meal at a time.

Read more from Yukari Bianchi
Aric and Yukari in front of pantry shelves, smiling and laughing.

Hello Reader, It's Yukari! Hope you had a fabulous Valentine’s Day weekend. 🧡 Aric and I took a little break from work and had a “date day” we actually love...Pedicures together, happy hour…then he cooked me a full 3-course dinner at home. (Full transparency: this was Aric in chef-mode 😂 Our normal weeknights are much simpler.) How to make staying in feel like a treat (not a chore) We avoided crowded restaurants, loud music, and a prix fixe menu, and traded it for quality time, no...

Traveling, Food, and Connection. Hello Reader, It's Yukari! We’re back from Mexico, and before jumping straight into what’s next, we wanted to pause for a moment. This trip wasn’t about doing everything. It was peaceful, grounding, and full of small moments that stayed with us. 🇲🇽 What Mexico Reminded Us... We surprised our Spanish teacher and his wife by showing up at their school (a little tears were involved 🥹), reunited with a bar owner we’ve known since his 10-seat pop-up days, and...

A couple eating sandwiches

🇲🇽Hello from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! Hello Reader, It's Yukari! Quick hello from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! 🌴 When you read this email, we’ll be soaking up the sunshine in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The third place we’ve called “home” over the years.We also escaped cold Denver, Colorado, at the perfect time… right as an Arctic air mass was settling in for a few days. ❄️😅 🏡 Our Third Place We call “Home.” People often ask us why Puerto Vallarta means so much to us, so here’s the short version. I...