Transcript

Transcript is autogenerated and may contain typos, errors, omissions etc.

[00:00:00] Okay, let’s talk about the elephant in the kitchen. You love cooking. You wouldn’t be watching this if you didn’t. You’re passionate about the food, but you’re wondering, can I actually make real money as a personal chef? Like pay the bills, kind of build a future kind of money. Well, I’m about to spill all the tea on what chefs actually earn.

And more importantly, I’m gonna show you how you can skip the restaurant grind and build something way better. Stay with me because what I’m sharing today might completely change how you think about your culinary future.

Hey there, chef Shelley here. If you’re new, I’ve had a successful personal chef business for 20 years now, and when I’m not cooking for my clients, which yes, I still do, I help passionate cooks just like you start your own personal chef business. Whether you want one client, whether you want six figures, whether you’re coming from a huge hospitality background or starting this as your first [00:01:00] venture because the clients are out there and they’re hungry for what you’re cooking.

No 80 hour weeks, no restaurant drama. Not even culinary school if you haven’t gone already, you can absolutely be self-taught and build a business, getting paid to do what you love.

And today, we’re getting real about the money because I know some of you are watching this thinking, but can I actually make a living doing this? Is that voice in your head asking if you’re crazy for even considering this? Hey, we’re gonna quiet that all today, all that mind drama with real numbers.

First, let’s talk about what most people think of when they hear chef salary. They’re thinking restaurant chefs, right? And here’s the thing, those numbers. Well, they can be not that pretty. We don’t immediately go into Gordon Ramsey restaurant chef salary.

We don’t immediately go into high-end executive chef [00:02:00] salaries. Now, do we, your typical entry level line cook. Maybe 25,000, $30,000 a year. Even sous chefs that’s second in command, you are looking at 35, maybe 50,000 a year, and executive chefs, sure they can make 60 to a hundred thousand, but do you know what they’re doing?

80 hour weeks. Working every holiday managed a stressed out staff dealing with razor thin profit margins. Possibly a crazy business owner, maybe working with food they’re not even passionate about. Or maybe by the time they’re executive chef, they’re not even doing the food anymore. All they’re doing is admin.

Seriously restaurant chef is not the dream that we were taught it was. Is, but here’s what nobody’s talking about. There is another path. A path where you set your schedule, you choose your clients, and you keep [00:03:00] everything you earn.

Let me tell you about having your own personal chef business, because this is where the culinary money gets good. The average personal chef makes 45 to $70,000 a year. That’s just going off an industry average of $335 per meal prep service cook day. Maybe you wanna be part-time, maybe you wanna make more than that.

Maybe you wanna add in catering events now before your brain starts with “but I’m not top tier. I don’t have 20 years of experience”.

Now, forget all that. Let me stop you right there. You know what makes a personal chef with a profitable business who’s making great money, it’s not a fancy culinary school degree.

It’s not having worked in fancy restaurants. It’s understanding your business, serving the right clients, positioning yourself properly, knowing how to cook good food. That’s literally it. And here’s [00:04:00] the beautiful part. While restaurant chefs are working nights, weekends, and holidays, personal chefs typically work normal business hours during the week.

That’s when your meal prepping services happen for clients. Then maybe you’ll wanna do dinner parties, which would happen of course on weekends. But you get to choose what you charge and how much you make, and that is all the difference. Now, I know some of you might be thinking, but I don’t live in New York or LA Hey, great news.

There are personal chef services needed everywhere. Sure, if you’re in a big city like that, people are paying more for the service, but it also costs more to live there. Right? I have clients in small towns who still make great money as personal chefs because they’ve set their business up the right way.

They know how to promote their services, supply and demand, even to be fully booked with only meal prep [00:05:00] services, you wouldn’t have more than 12 clients. Are there more than 12 people in the area that you live? Supply and demand, and let’s be honest about something. Wealthy families who need personal chefs, they’re not just in Manhattan, and spoiler alert, they don’t even have to be wealthy.

These are regular people in suburbs across America, busy executives. Growing families, people with dietary restrictions, people that are just tired of spending their money on DoorDash and Uber and GrubHub. Your ideal client might be that family right down the street who both parents work full time and they’re desperate just for delicious home cooked meals.

Maybe even something a little bit more healthier than all that crappy takeout for them and their kids.

But you know what? At the end of the day, the money is just part of the story. When you’re working as a personal chef, you get something that restaurant chefs dream [00:06:00] about. You get creative freedom. You’re not making the same menu every night for hundreds of people over and over. You build your recipe collection that you love and then attract clients.

Who want the food that you love to make, you’re creating these personalized meal experiences for your clients. Again, whether that’s weekly meal prep services or small event caterings, you could be helping busy moms feel good about what they’re feeding their families, giving a senior couple the gift of nutrition and flavor.

All just become too challenging for them at their age. You get to do those small events and see people love your food and enjoy it, but without sacrificing your personal life and all your family time, at the end of the day, you get to go home. You get to see your family. You have energy [00:07:00] left for your own life and that my friends is priceless.

So here’s what I want you to know, and I need you to really hear this. You don’t need a culinary degree to start. You don’t need to have had restaurant experience. If you have, that’s great and you’re probably able to charge more. You do need passion. You do need food safety knowledge, a good recipe collection to cook tasty food.

Have people told you they love your food? There you go. Mainly you need the courage to get started.

Your path looks like this. Start with meal prep services for one or two clients. Learn the business side. Build your reputation. Raise your prices as you grow. Add services like small dinner parties and holiday catering as you get more confident if that’s something you even wanna do. Yes, there is stuff to learn.

Pricing, [00:08:00] insurance, all that stuff. I know it sounds crazy. Here’s what I’ve learned after having thousands of passionate cooks make this transition. The business stuff is learnable. It’s your passion that is the magic that money can’t buy. If you love to cook and you’re passionate about sharing that with other people and getting paid to cook, you are in the top percent.

Most people have zero desire to cook or hate to cook. There’s even a smaller portion of people that love to cook and want to get paid for it. Listen, that voice in your head that’s been whispering, maybe I could do this. That’s not crazy talk. That’s your intuition. Recognizing an opportunity. You have skills that people desperately want and need.

You have passion that can’t be taught, and now you know the numbers. This isn’t just a dream, this is a viable, profitable business that thousands of people are already [00:09:00] doing. So here’s your next step, and I want you to do this today. I want you to think of people in your life who are already stressed out about dinner all the time, just three.

I want you to imagine what it would feel like to solve that problem for them while doing something you absolutely love. That’s it. That’s where this all starts. Not with a perfect business plan or a, you know, perfect home kitchen, that you’re working out this beautiful photos and stuff like that. It’s just recognizing what you already have inside.

That’s what it takes. If this resonated with you, you can get my How to Do Meal Prep Services for Paying Clients. Guide down below that walks you through it step by step. Give this video a thumbs up and subscribe. I share practical tips for building your personal chef business every single week, and even drop a comment below [00:10:00] and tell me what’s holding you back from getting started or from getting fully booked if you’ve already started your business. I read every single comment and I promise whatever fear you’re carrying, you are not the first person to feel it. You’re not alone. You’ve got this. Your culinary journey has nowhere to go but up.

Recent Posts