I hired a personal chef to cook a week of meals for my family. My son now wants a butler.

For a week, I put my family's dinners and snacks in the hands of a professional. Dolly Faibyshev for BI I grew up in a Bagel Bites and SnackWell's kind of '90s household, descending from a long, prestigious line of women who did the cooking required of mothers without once pretending to enjoy it. Take, for example, my Grandma Lillie, a brilliant woman who deserved to go to college alongside her brother in the 1930s, but instead became a beloved homemaker. She engineered her family's meal rotation down to a science: Monday meatloaf, Tuesday steak and french fries, Wednesday liver and onions, etc. The system freed her up for things she actually enjoyed. My own mother always ensured we were well fed, with a few signature dishes we could look forward to, although the microwave was her cooking tool of choice.