The personal cook sells time, not food

A stellar reputation and a lot of acquaintances among wealthy people. This is how a personal chef job in Canada was perceived yesterday. Today, healthy eating and related services are no longer the privileges of wealthy people. The average citizen can easily afford to hire a personal chef to cook meals in order to free up time for more important things, such as caring for a family, hobbies, or preparing for a celebration.

Imagine that you have 2 hours a day or 15 hours a week free. This is the time you don't waste on shopping, preparation, cooking, and cleaning, but instead, you can do sports, hobbies, or education.

The personal chef business is one that received an impetus for growth after the pandemic of 2019 start. The social life of many people was limited, and many began to feel sad because they were unable to spend time with friends and colleagues as they used to. Professional serving dishes from the personal chef does not completely replace the atmosphere of your favorite restaurant, but it will allow you to briefly feel like you are in a familiar environment. In addition, inviting a few acquaintances to dinner is still safer than visiting a restaurant.

Is a personal chef worth it?

According to Fee4Bee cook experts, their client base consists of several groups. If you recognize yourself in any of them, then you can feel free to consider the possibility of finding a personal home chef.

1. Busy Families - in modern life, it is not uncommon for both parents to be employed. And it becomes complicated to carry out a number of household chores. For many, it has already become ok to hire a nanny for the children or someone to walk the dog. If you can entrust your child to another person, why not delegate a meal prep?
2. Dietary restrictions - they can be caused by different reasons, from weight loss to food sensitivities. A skillful chef understands the consist and caloric content of each dish and can make you such a menu that will meet your dietary needs. He will also be able to eliminate or replace ingredients that cause food allergies or offer a suitable vegan menu.
3. Seniors and people with disabilities - elderlies or people with special needs at some point find it difficult to cook on their own. And it's not only about the hot stove, the time spent on your feet, but also in the attendant processes, such as grocery shopping, working with a sharp knife, cleaning a kitchen - all this is extremely tiring.
4. Finally, people who do not cook. Not everyone knows how to prepare gourmet meals. Many resorted to the services of a personal chef at home to be able to eat at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Some people are not ready to return to restaurants. Prepackaged food by portion allows you to take lunch with you, even if you work in the office again without the risk of contact with strangers.

How does it work?

The duties of a personal chef: 

• The meal plan and the set of products will be discussed with you and the chef goes to purchase them on the same day when he will cook at your home. 
• Meals are prepared on the basis of 1-2 servings for each family member for a certain number of days. Most often, for a week, since storing food in the refrigerator for longer can be a problem. 
• After cooking, the chef will pack them in portions and cool or freeze them. You will also get easy-to-read preparation instructions. 
• Before leaving, he will clean up the kitchen and sanitize.

What is a personal chef for a special occasion?

The feast is one of the important parts of any celebration. Think of at least one party without any treats. If you succeed, I bet that it was not the coolest of parties.

Personal chefs that are cooking for parties are greatly popular whether it is a small family dinner party in a quiet atmosphere, a romantic dinner for Valentine's Day, or a banquet on the birthday party, Thanksgiving, or a Wedding day.

Recently, the trend of theme parties has an impact on personal chef jobs. The inaccessibility of many restaurants has led to the fact that more and more people take chefs when they want to taste something special such as Asian, Indian, Polish cuisine, or chef-prepared dessert.

The personal chef menus specialization is an important aspect that you should consider beforehand. This is the main difference between eating in restaurants that you can change at any time and eating at home when a personal chef prepares for you. You can't swap it for an Asian chef if you suddenly crave sushi. Therefore, you should discuss which cuisine you prefer and what your chosen chef can cook.

Features of having a personal chef

Usually, an experienced chef won't make a deal until he sees your kitchen. This aspect, among others, will determine its pricing policy.

With all the advantages of having a chef at home, you need to keep in mind that good equipment is needed for full-fledged cooking. Some things, such as a set of kitchen knives, he may bring with him. However, the rest of the tools - a working surface, an adjustable stove, an oven, all this you must provide him.

You also have to pay attention to household utensils - pots, salad bowls, juicers, and blenders - as a cook cannot do with one cutting board and a knife to prep meals. You will most likely have to buy some tools on demand.

Menu customizing can be more time-consuming than it sounds, especially at first. Adrian Bergens, a Canadian personal chef who works over 8 years, says: “Customers can have a hard time figuring out what they want when it comes to preparing meals for the week. Therefore, I usually offer a number of typical dishes, which during the discussion can be complemented or changed depending on taste preferences.

Usually, it comes like this:

- What would you like?

- I am ready to eat anything if only the food is healthy!

- Ok! Then, there are baked broccoli, steamed asparagus, and low-fat meat with spices on the menu.

- Nooo! I do not like broccoli, let's exclude it.

-Ok. Here is another option, beet salad with goat cheese.

- Not! I carry goat cheese badly, you need to exclude it too...

Well, you got it."

Like any entrepreneur, a personal chef must register his business and deal with taxes and is well advised to maintain general liability insurance. Nowadays, graduating from a culinary college is enough to work. But as restaurants continue to close and more chefs are out of work, additional nutritional knowledge will soon be needed to attract customers.

Personal chef rates

When it comes to how much is a personal chef, there are a few ways that they charge their fee. This may depend on the format of your collaboration - culinary for an event or cooking for a family, the number of dishes, cuisine, and others (for example, if it is required to go to the farm for ingredients).

Some operate on an hourly rate plus purchases, then the average price in Canada will be close to CAD 60-75 per hour. Otherwise, a personal chef charges for a day of work. Then it may start from CAD 450 per day.

There are also options when the chef takes payment for the number of servings or per person, but they are not popular. There are many variables here since dishes take different times and the counting gets a lot harder.