Personal Chefs Feed Thankful Families

Love to cook? Make a living doing what you love; train to work as a personal chef today.

by Brandi Schlossberg
brandi.schlossberg@cookingschoolsearch.com
Cooking School Search Columnist

In our busy world, free time is a hot commodity and maintaining good health is a real challenge. These two facts of modern life have inspired tremendous growth in the personal chef profession. If you can prepare meals that appeal to your clients’ palates, bolster their well-being, and save them precious time, you can be a successful private chef.

Not Just for the Rich & Famous

When most people think of a private chef, they picture an expensive, live-in employee, ever-present in the kitchen, creating fantastic meals. Depending on your definition of fantastic, this prevalent notion of the personal chef is only partially on-target.

In fact, most personal chefs create one or two weeks’ worth of meals, then vacuum seal them, freeze them, and provide reheating instructions, so they’re typically in and out of the home in one or two days. And the cost of a private chef is often equal to or less than the amount of money a family may spend on take-out, dining in restaurants, and purchasing food at the grocery store.

The Rise of Private Chefs

According to the American Personal Chef Association, 100,000 families employed a private chef in 2004 as compared to 1,000 families 10 years ago, and Entrepreneur magazine calls the personal chef industry one of the hottest in the nation.

In order to join the ranks of this exciting profession, it is best to have culinary training. A degree in the culinary arts will convince your clients that you know the kitchen inside and out, and that your services are valuable.

Feeding Thankful Families

As a personal chef, your job will entail getting to know your clients’ dietary needs. What are their favorite foods? Do they have any food allergies? How do they like their food cooked? Once you’re familiar with their individual tastes, you can create a menu of food for one or two weeks, which the client simply approves.

After that, all the client has to do is come home to a freezer full of food, reheat, and enjoy. It’s a win-win situation for all involved. If this sounds like a job you could do with a smile, look into a culinary degree, and get ready to make a living doing what you love.

Sources

American Personal Chef Association
Entrepreneur magazine
The Sydney Morning Herald

About the Author

Brandi Schlossberg holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She writes for a variety of print and online publications.

Posted on September 29, 2006 at 11:55 AM

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