Demand for private chefs is booming! High-net-worth individuals and families are increasingly choosing to enjoy Michelin-star quality food in the comfort of their own home rather than traipse to a restaurant or deal with the hassle of reservations.
So many families are looking to employ their own chefs that in some regions demand has outstripped supply, leading to top restaurants struggling to hold onto their chefs. It’s not surprising given that salaries for these private chefs can now easily exceeding six figures.
We spoke to Chris Demaillet, previously of Alain Roux’s three-Michelin starred The Waterside Inn near London, who has worked for a string of billionaires for going on twenty years.
Demaillet now runs Montclair Chef, a match-making agency headquartered in Palma de Mallorca that pairs up the best classically trained chefs with clients across the world.
“I was a private chef and a yacht chef for almost 19 years,” Demaillet says. “I worked with different families from the US, the UK, and Europe. I usually traveled with them, or I was working on the superyachts and staying with them.”
He worked directly for Amancio Ortega, the billionaire founder and chairman of Inditex Group, the clothing empire behind Zara and Bershka.
“I was working on his 72 metre superyacht Drizzle,” Demaillet says. “He and his family would use the yacht for about 20 weeks per year for summer and winter holidays, and I was working exclusively for them during that time.”
While Ortega was demanding and exacting, Demaillet says the family were overall great to work with.
“As a private chef, if you find a family that is polite, respectful, and really values you as a human as well as an employee, you tend to stay longer with them. This is why I did nine years with them.”
Chris Demaillet, founder of placement agency Montclair Chef.
Demaillet says working with the world’s wealthiest means expecting the unexpected.
“I love the fact that you never knew what they would come up with,” he says. “Sometimes you would be working with a family, and there would be an event at the last minute or some business meeting that you were not prepared for. You would have to pull a tasting menu out of your hat at the last minute for 12 guests when you thought there were only two people for lunch. That was always great, and it pushed me to get better and deliver the impossible.”
Memorably, Demaillet once cooked three meals in three different countries in one day while traveling with the Ortegas.
“We woke up in a villa in southern France, and I would cook them a hot breakfast. We then rushed to the airport in Cannes to get on a private jet to fly to a second location [he forgot where it was]. And because the second location was quite far away, the jet had to refuel so we had to stop somewhere and I cooked them lunch, then we jumped back on the plane and flew to the final destination, where I cooked dinner. It’s pretty incredible, and not every chef can say they have done that.”
This is the exception, and Demaillet believes that in reality, a tomato salad can matter more than a tasting menu: “Billionaires value consistency and simplicity more than fireworks. The chefs that understand that keep their job.”
Private chefs also sometimes have to deal with clients that can be excessive in their expectations.
“They are very successful, very busy, and very demanding because they have access to the best of the best everywhere they go in the world: the best travel, the best accommodation, the best cuisine, and the best restaurants,” he says. “As a private chef, you have to be able to deliver that: three meals a day, no matter the location.”
Demaillet decided to make the switch from cooking himself to match making other chefs with clients. “When my daughter was three-years-old, I decided to launch into the unknown, start my own career and venture, and launch Montclair Chef,” he says.
“In the early days of the agency, like any business, we were trying to get new clients. Getting chefs was never a problem because my personal network is very well connected. We have a lot of groups now on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram where we have chefs who communicate with us, connect with us.”
Finding clients was more difficult, but now he has built up a firm roster.
“At the start we would pretty much try to help as many clients as possible. Today we only really want to get the best clients who offer the right level of salary and compensation for the chef.”
Demaillet declines to comment on what salaries his private chefs earn, but says wages have increased significantly in recent years.
A report by household staffing agency Morgan & Mallet last month found that private chefs in the US are now paid an average salaries of $300,000, and $264,000 in the UK, the second-highest paying market.
“Even if you're lucky and work at a Michelin-star restaurant, you would probably get between €50,000 and $100,000 in the US as a head chef,” Demaillet says.
He agrees that the US is the best-paying and fastest-growing market. “We have a lot more demand now in Texas and Florida. We see a lot of families relocating from anywhere else in the US, and the Miami/Palm Beach area is probably the fastest-growing today.”
Alexandre Khalaf worked at Michelin-starred Pollen Street Social and The Five Fields in London, before deciding to strike out as private chef.
Khalaf worked for the same families for several years. “Once a household trusts you, they tend to keep you: you learn how they eat, how they entertain, how the family works,” he says. “Trust is the whole job, really, and it’s why I won’t talk about individual households, past or present. Our clients’ privacy is non-negotiable.”
Seeing the increased demand for trusted discreet private chefs, Khalaf and French sommelier and mixologist Paul Biwand set up their own agency AP Private Dining.
“Recently our clients discovered that the best table in town can be their own, and a whole generation of wealthy families - many of them American - now entertain at home far more than they go out,” he says.
Individual preferences and the need for custom diets has also helped to generate more business.
“Dietary culture changed too; wellness, allergies and preferences are part of every brief now, which suits a bespoke service.”
London may be Khalaf and Biwand’s home base, demand is growing faster elsewhere. “Paris and the South of France never slow down, and Italy - Tuscany especially - is growing fast,” Khalaf says.
They also follow their clients' holiday itineraries. “Americans tend to go to the same places we love working - Provence, Tuscany, the Amalfi Coast, the Alps, the Med - so it fits rather well.”
Despite the birth of the ‘Instagram restaurant’, Khalaf says social media has conversely increased the appeal of private dining.
“Social media puts chefs in the public eye, but at the top end clients care more about privacy, not less,” he says. “The more public the world gets, the more valuable discretion becomes - and that’s exactly the corner we built AP Private Dining on.”
-
