If your nanny doesn't know her quinoa from her couscous, there is help. The New York Times is reporting on a new service parents can sign up for to encourage their cooking-challenged nannies to prepare healthier, more sophisticated fare.
Yes, this is another glimpse of the lifestyles of the rich and nannied. But there is a demand for the service, which starts at $2,500 (U.S.).
Enter chef Marc Leandro, who reportedly spent six years with the family of J. Crew chairman Mickey Drexler. His business partner Mark Boquist cooked for footwear giant Steve Madden. "Some of these nannies already do the cooking in the family, but they're throwing chicken fingers in the oven, or worse, the microwave – they're doing the bare minimum," Leandro said to the Times.
The piece follows the pair as they map out a plan for a pizza-and-cupcake-loving five-year-old and hit Whole Foods with the child's nanny, who is from Wisconsin and reportedly doesn't know much about couscous or quinoa.
"It's knowing how to pick a ripe avocado or peach, really simple stuff you might not think of," Boquist said. "It's making sure something is organic, or trying to find products that are local."
The final dishes? Citrus-glazed salmon, black rice and edamame, cinnamon ice cream with toasted almonds, and Tunisian couscous with braised carrots. Sounds delicious.
Sure, the piece walks the line between exposing the rarified nature of 1 per centers. It also offers a practical solution to a complaint that many parents voice to each other sotto voce and/or online.
When one mother raised the taboo topic online earlier this year, saying her nanny fed the kids a steady diet of mac and cheese and pizza, she was met with a flood of outrage and common sense, including: "Seriously, it's not that hard to find 5 recipes and give them to her for each day. Who does the grocery shopping? If it's anyone but the nanny just stop buying pizza, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese etc. …" and "It's so funny, you expect your nanny to change, start cooking something else. Yet you, as the mother of the kids, can't even bother to cook on Sunday, search some recipes or do the grocery shopping. Hilarious."
Who are we to judge, though? Presumably the dads in these families aren't whipping up gluten-free kale salad on Sunday nights either.