Extra Hands in the Kitchen

It’s been said that there’s nothing like a home-cooked meal. Through Delish, a personal chef service, Courtney Matheson is taking the stress and worry out of meal prep and cooking for her clients by creating and serving healthy meals in their homes throughout the week. She also offers chef services for special occasions. 

From busy professionals, older adults, exhausted parents, vacationers and people experiencing major illnesses or diet restrictions, through Delish’s weekly meal plan service, Matheson offers clients convenient access to healthy, fresh chef-prepared meals, cooking four meals for her clients each week.  

Saving her clients time and energy, she purchases and picks the food and ingredients, prepares and cooks the meals in the client’s home and cleans the dishes.  

“It’s freeing up time,” Matheson said. “We all know that meal planning, grocery shopping, prepping and cooking and then cleaning up afterward, take a long time. So, if you are busy, (my service) relieves a lot of people’s stress, not having to do that part of life.”   

But doing that part of life, the cooking and food prepping, is something Matheson enjoys.  

“I love cooking,” she said. “I’ve always been the cook of the house.  If I had roommates, I would be the person that made the family dinners. I also cooked for myself a lot as a kid.” 

Matheson was born in Syracuse, New York, graduated from Buffalo State University, and lived in Brooklyn before moving to Wilmington about 21 years ago. In Brooklyn, she worked as a textile designer, but she found her niche in professional cooking when she started working in restaurants in Wilmington.  

Matheson first worked in front-of-the-house positions, but during her first time cooking at Elijah’s restaurant in downtown Wilmington, she quickly felt at home. “When I got in the kitchen, I felt so comfortable and with my people,” Matheson said.   

Matheson cooked at various local restaurants, including 10 years at Elijah’s, where she served as a sous chef. After her son, Hendrix, was born in 2012, Matheson soon left restaurant work to spend more time with him, turning instead to personal cheffing.  

She launched Delish in 2013, where she serves the Wilmington area, areas up to Topsail Beach and down to Sunset Beach. 

Matheson said she enjoys making it possible for more people to have a personal chef. “I love being accessible to everyone because everyone deserves to eat healthy, good food,” she said. “It’s not just for people with million-dollar mansions or people who have a lot of extra money, but I enjoy being able to provide a service for everybody of any social-economic status.” 

Delish’s meals include fresh ingredients Matheson said are locally sourced from local farm markets and pastures in Southeastern North Carolina and her garden. Clients of Delish’s weekly meal service can customize provided meal plans to fit their diet and preferences.  

Delish also offers personal chef and cocktail service on location for special occasion events, providing service for beach rental dinner parties, bachelorette parties, anniversary celebrations and more. Matheson said the special occasion service attracts a variety of people, especially vacationers and people who want a nice dinner but don’t want to drive or wait in lines.   

Matheson limits this service to gatherings with under 20 people, emphasizing her service differs from catering services.  

“I try to keep things really small so that all of the food is cooked fresh,” she said. “The thing about catering is that you’re cooking food at 2 p.m. to serve at 6. They’re so many people, you have to pre-cook everything, and that’s just not my jam. I like everything to be fresh.” 

Upon request, Matheson customizes meals to meet special diets, such as vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free and low-carb diets. 

Matheson said she’s seen an increased interest in services like hers, and it’s not just for convenience, but also healthier meals.   

“I think eating healthy and clean is becoming more trendy, and more people are learning about it,” she said. “People are becoming more aware of what they are eating and how nutrients affect your body, including how they can help you heal.”   

Eating healthy, however, requires work.    

That work sometimes includes researching alternative ingredients and ways to make good-tasting food fit special diets. Matheson said many who choose her service want to eat healthy but lack the time or don’t know how to do it. 

“Eating healthy is more work because you’re prepping vegetables, and that’s a huge thing,” Matheson said. “People don’t want to chop 14 different vegetables to put into something. I do a lot of grain alternatives, such as spiralizing sweet potatoes or spiralizing zucchini, (making) spaghetti squash and cauliflower rice. Those things are labor intensive, and they take time.” 

Matheson said for her, being a personal chef goes beyond cooking for people; it’s also about building connections. She said it also feels “amazing” to be part of some clients’ health journeys. “Food is my love language,” Matheson said. “For me, connecting with people is easiest with food.”  

Whether her clients are undergoing treatments like chemotherapy and have food restrictions or need help reducing or eliminating a certain type of food from their diets based on their doctors’ instructions or personal health goals, Matheson embraces the times her clients let her help them make important dietary changes. 

“I’m working with them and trying to help them with their health, and that’s a big thing,” she said. “I’m very connected with my clients for sure.”