Rebecca's Feast

While in business since 2007, Rebecca has enjoyed cooking and baking for friends and family since she was old enough – and tall enough! – to reach the kitchen counter.

My earliest food memory is cookie baking at Christmastime – painting sugar cookie cut-outs. My mom had this cookie cutter collection that spanned any holiday or occasion you might celebrate. Half the fun was picking which cookie cutters to use and which colors to dye the egg yolk “paint.’ We lived in Oslo, Norway at that time; my father was in the Air Force. It’s a Norwegian tradition to bake an odd number of holiday treats so we baked our way up to 13 every year! I bake reindeer-shaped Pepperkocker cookies every year with my children & they are a client favorite during the holiday season.

My first food-related endeavor was the perfect pie crust. I was 12 and we lived in Yaounde, Cameroon – challenging climate to attempt all-butter pie crusts to say the least! Even then I was dubious of the worth of margarines and vegetable shortenings. We bought butter in 1 pound blocks from the French grocery market El Tigre. The recipe I was practicing was written for an American audience, the Fannie Farmer cookbook I think. I asked my mom how the block translated into sticks. She replied to just use half. Overthinking the task, as a future graduate student in Philosophy at Boston College, I wondered which way to cut the block and then which half to use! Seconds later we burst out laughing! I have since come to appreciate the merits of a half butter & half shortening pie crust which graces our Thanksgiving table, and those of clients, each year – tender, flaky and buttery.

While I have always been passionate about fresh food prepared well and with lots of flavor – I come from a long line of fantastic home cooks and at least two professional chefs in my family tree – it was my time in Boston that set Rebecca’s Feast in motion. After the initial love affair of frequenting cafes, hole-in-walls and restaurants from Cleveland Circle to downtown and back again, I decided it would more cost-effective and much healthier to prepare most of my weekly meals at home. So I called home and one of my first dishes was Chicken Curry – a recipe from a Pakistani family friend. Even though I used way too much garlic – my father is Filipino (is it really possible to use too much garlic?!), my future husband devoured his plate and then thoroughly enjoyed my All-American Apple Pie for dessert!

As the cookbook collection outgrew the academic resources, and cooking itself became more enjoyable than curriculum planning & exam-grading, a good friend arranged for me to spend the day with Joanne Chang, then pastry chef at Mistral. What an inspiration! Career change truly is possible! I then pursued summer stage work under the pastry chefs at Radius and Hammersley’s Bistro. The seed of professional cooking had been planted but it would take the life change of having my two beautiful children and returning to San Antonio to bring Rebecca’s Feast to life.

It is Rebecca's passion to provide each client with home-made gourmet goodness from savory to sweet!

Personal Chef Rebecca now serves San Antonio and surrounding areas with fresh, wholesome meals and in-home entertaining services from Romantic Dinner for Two, casual family occasions to fine dining experiences and small event catering. As of Sept, 1^st, Rebecca’s Feast opens a Home Bakery in accordance with the Texas Cottage Food Law.