Sometimes, you visit a fancy restaurant and order their specials and exquisite dishes to cherish the experience at its best with your loved one while absorbing the ambiance.
While this desire to eat outside isn’t a very frequent urge but sometimes when you decide on a cook-out or family gathering then there is hardly any family time due to commotion and crowd at such places.
The gathering is all about connecting to your loved ones. There is no better place than home and no better activity than sitting together and eating and soaking in all the love while celebrating the togetherness.
But having something other than the regular meals like pasta, mashed potatoes, or the popular chicken soup, with some wine and barbeque is not often possible. You need something to tempt your taste buds rather than quenching your appetite. This is when you might feel the need for a private chef to experience the mobile restraint.
Who is a private chef?
These private chefs who provide private chef/personal chef services are ex-restaurant professionals looking for passionate works, less grueling tasks, flexible work hours, and better pay. They are generally employed full-time for a particular client and work at different places. It can be their residence, yacht, or hotel. They are assigned to prepare fresh meals at different times to serve the employer and their family and are even responsible for preparing for the employer’s private events and parties.
The difference between a personal chef and a private chef-
- Private Chefs have one employer to answer for their work.
Personal Chefs have multiple clients.
- Private Chefs often have the same residence as their clients.
Personal Chefs do not live with the client.
- Private Chefs provide fresh meals when demanded.
Personal Chef pre-prepared meals and the client has to reheat them when eating.
- Private Chefs work on-call and do work when required by the client that is at odd hours.
Personal Chefs follow their schedules.
5.. Private Chefs are salaried employees.
Personal Chefs are self-employed and run their businesses.
- Private Chefs may work in a team with housekeepers and butlers etc.
Personal Chefs mostly work alone.
Private Chef –Why hire them?
There are many reasons why a family would need a private chef and would prefer mindful cooking instead of home cooking or takeaway. In case if you are working full-time, your partner is working full-time, while your kids are small, and they have their tuition and recreational classes regularly while you have old people at your home, then you require well-informed chefs who ensure nutritional cooking considering health risks and nutritional values for everyone in the house.
- Custom menu- Custom cooking with the pre-prepared menu as per every member’s requirement, health conditions and allergies in mind is safe and best.
- Very efficient on social occasions– Private Chefs can change the entire game of social gatherings. In a family or business event, they can prepare some extraordinary and customized dishes according to your own needs.
These dishes can not only aid their future business prospects but also put on a show for the eyes and taste buds of the guests. These skilled chefs also ensure the event organizer has less anxiety.
- Additional Privacy- Going to a fancy restaurant to celebrate a big or important event is always an option when it comes to exclusive and mouth-watering food. But what a restaurant can’t avail you of is privacy. If a private chef is available, choose an intimate setting for sitting and dine with your loved ones with the privacy you desire.
- Affordable- When thinking about private chefs, you might think that as it is private and exclusive, it might cost a fortune but in reality, this isn’t the case. All the services they provide go much higher if you hire a helper for every single task which comes under hiring a single private chef. So, it is affordable if you bifurcate the task and calculate the cost of the tasks performed individually.
- Higher standards- Places where multiculturalism is very common, food should be cooked very precisely to honor the culture and tradition of the dish in question.
If you have a hired private chef there are all good reasons, he will be able to achieve the goals of the gathering by maintaining the authenticity of the food. This could be fun if you want to try out different cuisines around the world, while sitting at your home, relaxing.
- Having more time with your guests –When you have a trusted professional working for you in the kitchen and handling everything related to food you can enjoy more time with your guests. Preparing, plating, serving, and everything in between, which was something you were compelled to do as the host, is done by another professional. You can attend to the guest and give them all of your time rather than running back and forth in the kitchen.
- Child-friendly- Children below an age aren’t always mannered and behaved enough to be running around in places of fine dining, and you have your entire concentration on them so that they don’t get hurt or create some ruckus. To tackle this problem, you will hire a nanny or call your relatives to babysit the child for you. It is just a waste of money and time.
With a private chef, you can very well be assured of the fact that your food is top-notch and have peace of mind that your child is comfortable in your home.
- Variety-When you go out with family or friends to a restaurant, you tend to order the same stuff you have been ordering for ages as there is no sense in experimenting with food when you are hungry.
With a private chef at your service, you tend to appreciate different food varieties and dishes as the chef knows your taste. He will cook accordingly to expand your taste palate and still don’t overdo things.
- Convenience-Dining-in will always have the upper hand on fancy dining-out as the process involves getting ready, driving yourself to the place, traffic, the tough decision of choosing from hundreds of varieties available on the menu.
Dining in with a private chef is comfort at its finest.
Qualities to look for before hiring a private chef-
Some important qualities to look for in a private chef before hiring-
Leadership qualities- While hiring a private chef it’s important that they can work well and develop a bond with other people in the kitchen.
They should be able to lead them in meal preparation as they would be the most skilled person in the kitchen.
Good memory and concentration-This is an important feature to be noted as the short-term memory of the chef should be great.
The concentration should also be great as a meal preparation consists of several food items which would all be running in the back of their heads so mixing of the instructions and ingredients can spoil the entire meal in seconds.
Physical requirements- As you have to stand and run from here to there a lot while cooking, so it’s a physically challenging task and demands the chef to be in good shape and health.
Stress management –This is the last but most important requirement which you can inquire about from the prior employers of the chef.
In a workspace like a kitchen where you are guiding everyone around you to do things, a slight error by any one of the helpers will directly be your responsibility. Stress management, be it mental or physical, is extremely important and necessary.
How to hire a private chef-
Though it might sound and feel difficult to choose a chef who will meet the requirements of every family dinner, it is quite easy if you check the below guide.
- Select the location and type of event – Select the type of event, theme, and types of guests arriving and their tastes and number. This process will enable you to list and select the chef on your terms, conditions, and types.
- Choose a cuisine –While hiring, just tell your taste in food like you have a hankering for Mexican food. Go for private chefs who specialize in the cuisine of your liking before anyone else, so that you are satisfied with the outcome.
- Select the one for you – Once you have shortlisted chefs based on the events, cuisines, guests, and many more criteria, the final take is to check their residential locations distance from your house and is it possible to travel that distance daily.
See the customers or past clients to reassure yourself what you’re getting yourself in. Look for a sample menu too so that you know the cuisines the chefs are trained in.
Does the food picture rumble your stomach, and tingles your taste buds? Read the chef’s biography for a good overview. Knowing about their training and education is also a great thing to do before hiring.
Final Words
So, now no more careless home-cooking and spoiling the health of your family. But educational, trained, and customized cooking with a private chef and changing the lifestyle for the better. These chefs sure do have some magic in their hands, cooking some of the best delicacies you might have tasted.