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Personal Chef
Personal ServicesYou cook custom meals for wealthy clients in their homes, which sounds glamorous until you're meal-prepping 30 containers of paleo-keto-low-FODMAP food in a kitchen that has a $10,000 stove they've never used. Your clients have dietary restrictions that require a spreadsheet and opinions about food that change weekly based on whatever wellness podcast they listened to.
Salary Range
Low
$35k
Median
$60k
High
$110k
10-Year Growth
faster than average
US Workers
15K
Education
Culinary school degree or equivalent professional kitchen experience
Environment
indoor
Tools & Technical Skills
- ▸Menu planning for dietary restrictions and allergies
- ▸Culinary techniques (classical French, Asian, plant-based)
- ▸Food safety and ServSafe certification
- ▸Grocery sourcing and budget management
- ▸Meal prep and batch cooking systems
- ▸Kitchen equipment maintenance
People & Mindset Skills
- ▸Client communication and adaptability
- ▸Creativity with constraints
- ▸Time management
- ▸Business and marketing skills
- ▸Discretion in private homes
What you'll actually do
- 01Plan custom menus around dietary restrictions that read like a medical chart
- 02Shop for organic, locally-sourced ingredients at 6 AM because the farmers market closes at noon
- 03Cook in someone else's kitchen where nothing is where you'd put it
- 04Meal-prep for the week in containers labeled with reheating instructions they'll ignore
- 05Accommodate last-minute diet changes when the client reads a new health article
- 06Invoice clients and manage the business side because you're also your own accountant
Related Shifts
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