If I Won the Lottery, My First Hire Would Be a Personal Chef

Friends, when the Eurojackpot (Europe's big multi-country lottery) climbed to 110 million euros the other day, I figured I'd finally play again. And as always, from the moment I buy my ticket until the drawing, I'm absolutely convinced I've hit the jackpot. I get lost in daydreams about everything I'm going to buy with all that money.

The afternoon before the drawing, I was sitting on the playground with another mom from daycare, and we started figuring out what we'd do if we won. What would you do with 30,000? What about half a million? What about 5 million? What about 110 million? It was a hilarious conversation, and we laughed a lot.

The truth is, the very first thing I'd do with a lottery win is hire a cook. I can't tell you how heavenly it sounds to be asked every single day what I'm in the mood for, and to answer, “Oh, today I'm craving Asian food. Lots of veggies and tofu, please,” or “I'd really love something with lentils today,” or “How about pizza for everybody?”

Cooking drives me up the wall

Cooking, grocery shopping, and even just having to think about what to make stress me out like crazy in everyday life. Maybe that's partly because my kids have very different tastes (my oldest doesn't eat meat, for example, while my son would happily start the day with salami pizza for breakfast), and none of them are great eaters to begin with. “Kids, come complain, dinner's ready” is a line that fits our house pretty well.

When I don't have the energy for mealtime grumbling, I play it safe: mashed potatoes, fish sticks, spaetzle (German egg noodles), pasta, rice pudding, flammkuchen (a thin-crust, pizza-like tart), gnocchi. Kid food, basically. But I don't want to eat kid food all the time, and I'm simply too lazy to make a second dinner on top of that. So I think it would be heavenly if somebody took that off my plate.

And while we're at it: never grocery shopping again. No more racing down the aisles, no more hauling bags, no more standing in line at the checkout. No more cramming everything into the fridge, no more checking what's left in the pantry. Just say, “This is what I'd love to eat,” and then, at some point, sit down and be served something delicious. My absolute dream.

So while other people might buy a car, a vacation, or jewelry first, I'd hire a cook. And now I'm curious: what would you buy first with a huge lottery win?

PS: I actually did win that day. A whole 9.60 euros 🙂