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Dear Friends,
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The time has finally come to change the format/content of  ChefsOpinion.
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For many years,  Chefsopinion  was a reflection of my priorities in life (outside of family and friends, of course)
It reflected the love of my profession as a cook, and the lifestyle which resulted from the career I was lucky to have, which provided me with a tremendous amount of experience in cooking, teaching, mentoring, and life in general.
After starting out as an apprentice and a few short years as cook at the bottom of the food chain (pun intended), there was worldwide travel, living and working in the most beautiful spots on Earth, great financial rewards, incredible hands-on education in all aspects of life, languages, meeting wonderful people and peers, and, rather early in my life, slowly but surely moving up in the worldwide hospitality industry.
Among other venues, I was involved in :
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Cruise Lines (Worldwide), -executive chef, senior executive chef, food & beverage manager,
Higher Education (US College) – manager and instructor,
Hotels and Restaurants (Worldwide) ALL brigade positions, including executive chef, as well as area-executive chef, food & beverage manager, owner.
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It was during my time as chef instructor and program chair at  Le Cordon Bleu  that, together with my beloved wife Maria, we decided to start a food-related web site (www.chefcook.us), which, after the passing of Maria in May of 2013, I simplified into this blog in its present format/content.
Throughout the years, I tremendously enjoyed publishing  Chefsopinion,  even when taking into account all the work, time and money I invested. In contrast to our previous commercial website,  this blog was never intended to generate income. Therefore, I was happy that the cost of running it was covered by the (single) advertising and a few donations.
During the first few years, there were not as many food blogs out there, and during the first four years, there were about 100.000 clicks a year just from the subscribers to the blog alone, without any outside links. This showed me how much people enjoyed my photography, stories and recipes.
Then, I started to post links to LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, FB, and a few more of these types of sites. At present, the vast majority of clicks come from links to LinkedIn (up to sometimes nearly 1000 clicks a day for an interesting dish), while clicks from direct-subscribers have dwindled to about 3.000 to 6.000 a month.
Unfortunately, the changing culture of the web has lead us to the point where most people do not give a rat´s ass about the folks who´s labor they enjoy on an almost daily basis.
Case in point:
Nowadays, I get an average of 200 to 300 clicks from direct-subscribers to the blog a day, mostly from the same folks who have subscribed for years. Yet, sadly, nearly all of these fine people can not even bother to click on the ads (EVERYBODY knows that this gives the only revenue to my blog, just about enough to cover the cost), or, same easy task, click on the “like” button to give a little thanks. Yet, hundreds of folks re-visit every single day, for years, – but a tiny sign of appreciation is too much to ask? 😦
I have never been angry or bitter about this lack of support by subscribers who have taken pleasure in visiting  ChefsOpinion  over and over again over the years, and it still makes me happy to think that my cooking is able to bring a smile to the majority of people who subscribed. 🙂
However, lately, my health and energy is not what it once was, I have to prioritize my time, effort and financial outlays, and I have to adjust my food and  ChefsOpinion accordingly.
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The Bad News :        I have decided that, just for the sake of  ChefsOpinion  alone, I will not prepare elaborate food for Bella and myself at home anymore.
The Good News :     I still have hundreds of unpublished dishes with their recipes and photos in my files, which I will continue to publish on  ChefsOpinion  in the usual, original format.
More Good News :   Of course, Bella and I will still eat great food every day (God willing). Up until now, I posted these simple and less decorated, but nevertheless yummy dishes on FB, where folks seem to be a lot more generous with their appreciation. The big difference between my posts on FB and on  ChefsOpinion  is that there are fewer pictures and no recipes, but of course, as always, I will provide the recipes if requested.
On FB, I post these dishes under the heading  “Chez Bella” , and in the future, I will use the same sub-header on ChefsOpinion.
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So, to clarify (I hope) 🙂 :
In the future, food posts will alternate under the sub-header  “From Chez Bella”,  with the sub-header ” From my Archives”,  which are the dishes I previously prepared and which are in my archives, about 450 of them, enough material to last for years to come.
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Basically, the changes you can expect (assuming you have continued interest in ChefsOpinion) is a more personalized blog that reflects more personal aspects of my life with Bella, not only the food we eat but also (occasionally), other, non-food related stuff we´d like to share with our friends. 🙂
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Dear Friends,
please let me give a heartfelt thank you to all the subscribers who supported ChefsOpinion, Bella and myself throughout the years. You know who you are, and I know who you are.  🙂
To all the newbies here, (there are actually quite a few who signed up during the past few months), welcome to this special blog, where food is the star of the show, and the show must go on……………
I hope that we can continue together for many years to come on this wonderful path of good food and good vibes.
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Bon Appétit !   Life is Good !
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Below are but a few pictures of the 1500+ recipes/dishes you can find on Chefsopinion.  Enjoy !
(To find the recipe and all pictures of a particular dish, go to ARCHIVE on the top of this page and select by name or picture. If you select by picture, copy the name of the dish, paste into the search box on the top-right, go ahead and click and have fun. If you select by name, clicking on it will take you straight to the page of the dish.)   🙂
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P.S.
Sometimes ! there are traces of ChefCook.US to be found at the Web Archive (Timemachine) 
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