Speech language pathologist serves up new dish
Each month ''Transitions" profiles an individual who has made significant changes in his or her work life and highlights the techniques used to make the changes.
Lisa Henning, 40
Born: Newark
Education: Master's degree in speech language pathology, Hofstra University, 1989; certificate, Culinary Business Academy, 2003.
Career transition: A former speech language pathologist, Henning now runs Queen of Cuisine, a personal chef service in Southeastern Massachusetts.
Lisa Henning had a fulfilling 17-year career providing speech therapy to hospital patients and people with various language disorders, most recently at the Southcoast Health System in Southeastern Massachusetts.
But it nagged at her that she did not feel passionate about her work. Then, in 2003, a close friend near her in age was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thinking about her career after learning of her friend's illness, Henning said she felt she was ''spinning my wheels."
''When my friend got sick," Henning recalled, ''I said to myself, 'That's it. There's something else out there for me.' "
Fortunately for Henning, the seeds of that ''something else" had been sown years earlier.
In her early 20s, as she watched Julia Child one day, Henning realized she loved to cook. Once she settled down into a home with her husband, she started doing more cooking and collecting cookbooks; the couple were also perpetual ''party-havers," she said.
She plunged into the Internet, to research how she might turn her love of cooking into a career. When she discovered the personal chef business, it was a ''eureka" moment. ''I'm supposed to do that!" she remembered thinking. She also knew that at her age, she did not want to start out in lowly positions in the restaurant business. As a personal chef, ''I could be my own boss."
Within a month of hearing of her friend's illness, Henning signed up at the Culinary Business Academy, which specializes in training and providing accreditation to personal chefs, for a one-week, 50-hour course that she took in Cherry Hill, N.J.
''In the morning we learned how to run the business, and in the afternoon we worked in the kitchen," Henning said. At the completion of the program she was awarded a certificate as a personal chef.
She started Queen of Cuisine in January 2004, and landed her first client in March.
At the beginning she worked both jobs -- as a speech pathologist and a personal chef. But she soon realized she was not giving either job 100 percent. ''It was not the Lisa way," she said.
So with her husband's support, in February 2006, Henning closed the door on her speech pathology career and devoted herself to being a full-time personal chef.
She works mostly from home, but does the meal preparation at clients' houses. She creates menus, shops for groceries, and stocks clients' fridges with up to a week's worth of dinners. She cooks in 20-meal packages -- five entrees, four servings each. Her clients include singles, couples, and families. Personally, Henning prefers to cook dishes with fresh ingredients.
''I love to make fresh pasta from scratch, Indian cuisine where I press my own cheese, hand-filled potstickers, or huge batches of homemade bread," she said.
Her clients prefer comfort food, such as roast chicken, pasta, and beef stew. A specialty of hers now is vegetarian dishes. ''I am often in the produce section of a new store trying to find something new to cook," she said.
Many of Henning's clients also have special dietary needs or are following certain diets, such as South Beach. Henning also offers one-on-one cooking lessons and ''interactive dinners" in which she runs a dinner party in a client's home while the client and guests assist in the preparation, fun, and learning. She keeps her business within a 40-mile radius of her home in Carver, hitting some communities on the Cape but never going as far north as Boston.
She has learned to market her business through various channels. The key, she said, has been a weekly networking group for entrepreneurs called Business Networking International. Henning has been president of the Old Colony chapter for three years.
Henning also has a website and a newsletter she mails to current and former clients and others. She also distributes brochures to local merchants to display. Because of her healthcare background, she also has relationships with three different area hospitals, a source of client referrals. Yet another way she gets recognition for her business is by donating her services to charity auctions.
Henning has five steady clients and hopes to get to 12. Her financial goal is to get back to at least half of the $60,000 salary she earned as a speech language pathologist. She also wants to grow the business enough to have her own commercial kitchen.
Her first career required a lengthy education and was both emotional and rewarding every day. ''It has been difficult to let go of that expert, educated part of myself," she said, and having grateful patients who would tell her, ''you helped me so much."
''The new career," she added, ''is much more physical and challenging. But at the end of the day, I never felt better."
It's still early in her new business. But Henning is an optimist and she said she does not regret making the move.
''I really love it. And I'm trying very hard to learn from all the changes and to look forward and not be scared," Henning said.
She also has perspective on her transition. ''I know I had to be at a certain place in my life to make the change," she stated. ''I needed to follow my heart. Now if it comes with a decent paycheck, that would be very cool."
Do you have a career transition story you would be willing to share? If so, please let us know at transitions@bostonworks.com. Be sure to include your name, phone number, and e-mail address along with a brief description of your career change. 
