Chef strikes a chord at dinner parties
SHELTON — If you’ve ever fantasized about throwing a dinner party at home where there’s live music and someone else to do the shopping, cooking and cleanup — your prince is for hire.
Former restaurant owner Daniel Trzcinski, a culinary instructor at Ridgefield High School and singer/acoustic guitar artist who performs professionally, has combined his love of culinary arts and music in a new business, “Cooking and Chords.”
The service, as he says, allows hosts to be “a guest at their own event.”
“If you’re stirring the sauce, watching the chicken and making the salad, how can you visit with guests?” he said.
Trzcinski developed the business during the pandemic with his love/business partner Barbara Grasso, of Newtown, a paralegal by day. So far, they’ve done three events and have two more booked.
“A lot of couples can’t work together, but Barb and I click on so many different levels,” he said of Grasso, whom he met about a year ago. “Barb is my ideal customer. She wants to entertain, but she’s busy and doesn’t want to do the prep work.”
The couple does parties for up to 20 — it’s not a catering business — and prices vary widely, but it’s not cheap.
It’s about $2,000 for the couple to walk through the door for a party of up to 10 people, plus the price of food. Trzcinski meets with customers ahead to plan, design the menu and follow any theme.
Client Tracy Hoekenga of Newtown hired Cooking and Chords for her mother’s 70th birthday on her patio last summer and it was such a hit she hired them two months later for her father-inlaw’s 73rd.
Hoekenga, who didn’t want to hold the celebrations in a restaurant during the pandemic, said she thought the service was pricey at first, but the experience was so “perfect” she said it was worth every penny.
“We got to experience a close and personal day,” she said. “I thought, ‘I can’t believe this food came out of my kitchen.”’
Hoekenga said Trzcinski was “warm and engaging,” and the food was scrumptious that her father-in-law ate a full plate of food to her mother-in-law’s out loud amazement.
Trzcinski played the guitar and sang James Taylor and other soft rock songs her mother loves and even broke out the Christian music for her father-in-law at his farm. The family sang along.
She said he also happily answered questions as family popped in and out of the kitchen.
Between the two parties they had grilled pizza, glazed pork chops (her mom’s request), pan seared ahi tuna with a seaweed and ponzu sauce, grilled eggplant with mozzarella and bruschetta, Brussels sprouts with pancetta, watermelon salad, French toast bread pudding with maple caramel sauce; butternut squash and apple soup with cinnamon croutons and crème fraiche drizzle.
Trzcinski, a chef of over 30 years who was trained at Johnson & Wales University, can make five-star anything the customer wants and those choices include fresh herb mascarpone crostini, sliced steak with micro greens; roasted filet mignon with fresh thyme and red wine brown sauce; on the bone chicken scarpariello with garlic, cherry peppers, rosemary, balsamic brown sauce; Chicken Brianna (named after his daughter) - sauteed chicken breast with wild mushrooms, creamy sherry brown sauce and fontina cheese.
Kimberly McCoy, who along with her accountant husband owned two successful restaurant businesses with Trzcinski for several years — La Cucina in Milford and Antonio’s in Fairfield — called him a “renaissance man,” beyond being a fabulous chef.
McCoy said his new business is “like a performing art” and puts Trzcinski’s creative streak to good use.
“He’s a multi-talented guy,” McCoy said. “He could put anything into play that he wanted to,” she said. “I think it totally fits in because he’s a lover of music and also has a love of the culinary arts. “
Trzcinski and Grasso struck up a romance last year after a chance meeting. It turns out they attended Andrew Warde High School in Fairfield at the same time as teens but didn’t know each other.
Trzcinski said he and Grasso spark new ideas in each other and, “That’s what makes us a great team.”
They came up with the idea during the pandemic while his teaching went online, keeping in mind that some people aren’t ready to return to restaurants.
“It forced us to have creative thought,” he said the pandemic. “I’m an entrepreneurial, spirited guy.”
Grasso didn’t have any restaurant experience — but she’s learning.
Grasso said she was “enamored with Danny,” after seeing him perform and work with food because he has so much “passion” for what he does.
“He had that glow about him,’’ Grasso said.
Grasso, who does her share of work, including cleaning the kitchen while he entertains, said he creates an “unforgettable” experience. Grasso had her love do a graduation party for one of her children.
“He makes everything seem effortless…it takes away all the stress and you can enjoy yourself,” Grasso said.
Trzcinski said Grasso is his “ideal customer,” type because “she wants to entertain, but she’s busy and doesn’t want to do the prep work.”
The catch sentence on his website states: “Want to Entertain and be a guest at your own event?”
Trzcinski, also known as “The Singing Chef,” and formerly a culinary instructor at East Haven High School, plans with the customers, does the shopping, brings the groceries in, preps, cooks and cleans up afterwards — sometimes leaving a kitchen cleaner than when they got there, he quips.
He has played acoustic guitar since he was a kid and also plays harmonica.
Trzcinski performs mainly soft rock cover songs from the decades of the 1950s through the 1980s.
He plays during dinner and wherever else he can fit in — sometimes also during appetizers too before completing the main course.
He does covers of performers such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ed Sheeran, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, John Prine and many more.
“I read the crowd,” he said of choosing which decades to play. “This comes natural to me — food and hospitality.”