Offering private chef and catering services for celebrities and athletes since 2007, Stacey Weber empowers families to eat nutritious, locally sourced foods.
Private Chef Stacey Weber, founder of EAT! By Stacey Weber was exposed to the joys of being in the kitchen and appreciating food from a young age, and since 2007, she has offered private chef and meal prep delivery services for celebrities and elite athletes with an emphasis on seasonal ingredients that are both local and organic.
“I just knew that was the path that was meant for me, and every day I feel that passion and excitement about food.”
It was her grandmother who helped her see the delight that cooking for others can bring, and she fondly remembers spending time with her while she cooked.
“My grandmother was an absolutely phenomenal home cook, and we got to spend every summer with our grandparents. Her desserts were so great,” Weber says. “She was an old-fashioned cook, there was a stick of butter in absolutely everything she made.”
Weber knew that she wanted to work in a creative field and tried her hand at painting and sculpting. After reflecting on the joy that watching her grandmother cook had given her and studying abroad in Florence, Italy, she decided to devote her career to food.
“I started cooking, and it came so naturally to me; I loved it. Still to this day, I get excited about flipping through a new cookbook and looking at the pictures,” she says. “I just knew that was the path that was meant for me, and every day I feel that passion and excitement about food.”
Stacey Weber began her journey as a private chef in Arizona with the goal of providing support to families and athletes with easily accessible healthy foods. She helped develop a nutritious culinary program for the Arizona Cardinals as their Executive Chef, and she has worked with Larry Fitzgerald and his family for years.
“I got connected with some really great local athletes,” Weber says. “It’s been really fun over the years getting to know the players and the organization, which I can’t speak highly enough about.”
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After gaining experience as a private chef, she realized how high of a demand there was for healthy, nutrient-dense options for busy families. Driven by the belief that everyone should have easy access, she started EAT by Stacey Weber as a grab-and-go eatery where anyone could walk in and get a convenient, balanced meal, seven days a week.
“I knew at some point it would be just amazing to allow everybody to have those healthy meals at their fingertips versus having to go into private homes and prepare the meals, so that’s how my storefront got developed and the catering aspect of our business kind of happened organically,” Stacey Weber explained.
Impressed by the quality and flavors of her food, her clients began requesting Weber’s savory recipes for their private events. Now, she offers full-service catering for private events, corporate events and everything in between.
As her business grew from private, in-home cooking to public events, Weber’s focus has always been on providing accessible, local, nutritious foods for all different lifestyles.
“We offer what I’ve made for athletes and in private homes. I took all those same recipes, and I created a preorder sort of grab-and-go meals service where it’s all nutritious, kid-friendly and in delicious single-serving and family-size containers that you can just order online. We can deliver them to your door, or you can come pick them up at our location,” Weber says.
“It’s meant not only to make life easier, but to make eating well easy, too.
“It’s meant not only to make life easier, but to make eating well easy, too. It’s great to have those snacks and meals in your fridge that you can eat at home or on the go,” she added.
While excited about the prospects of her expanding private chef business, Weber had to put her catering on hold last year as a result of COVID-19. During her break, she rediscovered her passion for creativity, and she started having more fun with food.
“I was able to slow down and really get back to the basics,” she explained. “I started this business being creative and connecting with my clients, and as we got bigger and busier, I got more disconnected in that way.”
Weber connected with clients who wanted to host small dinners for their friends and families, and she used those opportunities to stay in touch with her creative side and try out fun, elevated food.
“If there’s a silver lining in COVID for a private chef, it’s that there are many people that are becoming so much more aware of what to do for their bodies, and there are a lot of things that we can be doing on a daily basis that don’t have to be too challenging,” she says. “Like stocking your refrigerator with meals that are packed with nutrients.”
What does Weber recommend for families who want to eat well and take care of their bodies? Start with sneaky ingredients to make kid-friendly, healthy foods!
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“Throwing some turmeric in a soup or sneaking flax meal and shredded veggies in a meatball, that’s the kind of stuff I’m always trying to encourage parents to do, because I think so many times people link eating well to boring salads or eating nothing but kale,” Weber says.
She also recommends choosing foods that are nutritious and support your immune system, like shellfish, chicken, leafy greens, garlic and turmeric. Thanks to the connection between the gut and the mind, choosing healthier food options can also be beneficial for improving mental health.
Making changes to your diet doesn’t have to be a big challenge, it can be as simple as cutting up a bell pepper and eating it with an organic dip as a snack or sipping on some green tea to get some great antioxidant benefits. You can also add superfoods to your salads by making a fresh, simple dressing!
Weber also recommends taking advantage of in-season, local fruits and vegetables when possible, like the Vitamin C-filled citrus fruits that we have in Arizona on the trees each winter.
What’s next for Stacey Weber and EAT?
“We have some really cool things on our horizon,” Stacey Weber says. “We’re really looking to expand our meal prep delivery services across the valley. Stay tuned and we’ll have a really fun exciting announcement on how you can get our meals in the next few months.”
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