When people have never heard of a personal chef before, they think that all I do is cater.
They couldn’t be more wrong.
If you’ve been around here for any amount of time, you’ve heard me wax poetic about weekly personal chef services.
They are my favorite service to offer by far!
But that’s not to say I don’t do other things.
Although I can count on my hands (or maybe even one hand) the number of catering jobs I choose to do each year, I do sometimes cater dinners, co*cktail parties, brunches, and other small events.
I’ve also taught classes. Everything from demonstration style, to hands on, to corporate team building cooking events.
Prefer to watch? Here’s a Facebook live I did about the Top 3 Services All Personal Chefs Offer…
These are the main three services that Personal Chefs offer.
- REGULARLY SCHEDULED PERSONAL CHEF SERVICES
- CATERING
- COOKING CLASSES
REGULARLY SCHEDULED PERSONAL CHEF SERVICES
If you’ve been with me here for any amount of time you’ve heard me wax poetic about regularly scheduled personal chef services here.
Regularly scheduled personal chef services are my favorite for several reasons.
PROS of Regularly Scheduled Personal Chef Services
Consistent – when you have weekly, biweekly, or monthly clients, that is regularly scheduled, reoccurring work.
Relationship – you have time to build a relationship with the client which again helps have a long-term relationship.
Timing – takes place during weekdays and during the day when kids are at school, and most people are at work. This can keep you on the same schedule as your kids/spouse/the rest of the world.
I love cooking regularly for clients I’ve known for years. Sometimes I feel like they’re part of the family!
I always know my schedule and how much I’m going to make for the month.
I get all my work done while the kids are in school and have weekends for family time.
CONS of Regularly Scheduled Personal Chef Services
Monotonous – You might think it’s boring. Day in and day out it’s the same thing, even if you’re cooking different things.
Consistent Income Tied to Regular Clients – If a regular client goes out of town or quits, it leaves a gap in your regular income you need to fill.
CATERING
If you want to cater, there are a ton of different types of catering jobs you can take on as a Personal Chef. A banquet for 1000 will be out of your reach without a commercial kitchen and full staff, but more boutique style catering is perfect.
PROS of Catering
Exciting – if you like parties, this is right up your alley. You can cater co*cktail parties, dinner parties, wine tastings, birthday parties, sports watching parties, graduations, anniversaries, brunches, the possibilities are endless!
Profit – On the right events, when done well, you can make quite a bit.
CONS of Catering
Consistency – Most clients don’t throw parties all the time. Although they might use you every year for a birthday party, or a couple times a year when they have an event in their home, these jobs are generally a one-off.
Timing – Most events are nights and weekends so that might not fit with your family schedule. Even if you have a lot of requests during the holidays, you can only fit in so many catering jobs.
Profitability – Events can be a ton of work and each one can be totally different. You need to be careful with your pricing, food management, and the amount of time you put into an event to make sure it’s profitable for you.
Staff – If you’re catering an event that you need help with, you need to deal with finding people, training them, managing them, and paying them.
I’ve catered everything from dinner parties, to campaign parties, to bridal shower brunches and intimate dinners for two.
They can be a lot of fun and it’s nice to mix things up but generally I like leaving nights and weekends for family. I usually will take a couple jobs during the holiday season.
COOKING CLASSES
If you like to teach or perform, cooking classes are perfect!
PROS of Teaching Cooking Classes
Fun – we all like to share what we know about cooking. It can be a lot of fun to work with people who want to learn.
Flexibility –You can provide many different types of classes. One-on-one classes, demonstration where you’re in front of a group showing them how to cook, hand’s on where you’re helping the students learn and prepare the food they’ll eat at the class, even online classes.
CONS of Teaching Cooking Classes
Profit – How much you’ll make can vary wildly. You can make far less than on a regular cook day so you need to be mindful of what type you want to do, and how many students you require.
Liability – You need to make sure you’re insured and that you have students sign a liability waiver in case a student is hurt during your class.
Again I’ve done everything from standing in front of a group teaching a cooking class, to working with people hands on to learn and create their meal, to coordinating a competitive team building cooking event. There are even companies that hire personal chefs to do in store demos of appliances or specialty foods!
