Rise of private dining chefs: Why I’d rather cook in a home kitchen than a swanky restaurant

Source from The Straits Time Singapore NOV 12, 2023, 5:51 AM SGT

 

SINGAPORE – The allure of being a private chef for hire is drawing some away from well-equipped, top-billed restaurant kitchens into the dinky home kitchens of their clients.

They have the freedom to cook what, when and for whom they want, as well as enjoy kinder hours than in a commercial kitchen.

The low overheads of this arrangement and the high casualty rate of food and beverage (F&B) businesses also attract many who do not want the financial pressure of starting their own eateries.

Pierce Yee, 47, who had to shelve plans to open a restaurant when Covid-19 struck, re­invented himself as a private chef. The former eatery owner has no plans to return to full-­time restaurant work.

The Straits Times catches up with private chefs who savour the challenge of turning out restaurant-quality meals in unfamiliar, ill-equipped home kitchens.

From owning a restaurant to cooking in small kitchens

With two decades of experience as a chef and co-owner of a restaurant, Pierce Yee, who became a private chef for hire in 2020, has no intention of donning chef whites again in a commercial kitchen.

Control over his menu and time are the key reasons for the 47-year-old.

“As a private chef, I can serve menus of my own style and choice, while customising them to diners’ preferences and dietary restrictions.

I answer directly to my customers, not to my superiors or shareholders,” he says.

 

 

Having control over his time and enjoying work-life balance are also top priorities for the father of two – a son, 15, and a daughter, eight.

Yee, who has a diploma in culinary arts from Shatec, started his career as a commis cook at a Mediterranean restaurant in 2001. His last-held position as an employee was executive sous chef at Ristorante Da Valentino, where he worked for a decade before leaving in 2016. He felt burnt out.

He took a year-long break, delving into buying and selling pre-owned luxury watches and watchmaker tools on online market Carousell.

The experience helped him develop negotiation skills, discover how people spend their money, and learn the basics of running a business and how to provide better customer service.

In October 2018, he returned to the F&B industry as a co-owner and executive chef of a casual Italian restaurant, Sale Marino at Eastwood Centre.

But he left the restaurant 11 months later after disagreements with his two business partners on how it should be run.

He reflects: “It is easier to find a spouse than the right business partner.”

He was preparing to start another restaurant with new partners in early 2020 when the pandemic forced them to shelve their plans. But it presented another business opportunity, which turned out to be a springboard to becoming a private chef.

He started a home-based business selling home-cured meats during the circuit breaker in April 2020.

 

 

He made his own guanciale (cured pork jowl) and pancetta (salt-cured pork belly meat) in his four-room HDB flat kitchen, selling these for about $45 a kg, later expanding his range of products to aged steaks, ready-to-eat pasta sauces and stews.

As restrictions on visitors to homes eased, he received inquiries from customers if he could cook for them in person. He started out charging a minimum of $400 a session ($80 a head for a party of five) or $200 for two diners.

He recalls: “Running my home-based business and taking on private chef gigs allowed me to put in the least amount of capital and was far less risky than starting a restaurant.

“The concept of having a chef cook restaurant-quality food for them at home was appealing to diners who didn’t want the hassle of dining out because of the restrictions on dining out then.”

He specialises in modern Italian cuisine, which features his home-cured meats, such as guanciale in carbonara. Prices start at $80 a person and go up to $300 a head for more premium fare such as caviar, uni and Japanese wagyu beef.

 

He estimates that 15 per cent of his customers are HDB dwellers, 55 per cent live in condominiums and the rest in landed property. As long as they meet his $400 minimum spend, Yee makes the trip and designs menus around the number of diners.

He enjoys interacting with his clients, something he did not get to do for most of his career as a restaurant chef. Some invite him to join them for drinks after he is done with the dinner service.

Despite having more than 20 years of culinary experience, Yee says the toughest part of being a private chef is working in small, unfamiliar kitchens with limited equipment.

He usually tells his clients what he needs – a working stove, ideally an oven too, and pots and pans if available.

 

He says: “I have learnt to prepare myself mentally and have contingency plans. I pack my own equipment such as pans, knives, utensils and a chopping board. You will be surprised at how some home kitchens, no matter how beautifully designed they are, may not have basic equipment that chefs take for granted, because the clients do not cook at home.”

Improvising on the run is also part of the job.

“There was once when I was roasting pork loins and the oven failed. I switched to using the client’s small toaster oven to finish cooking the meat,” he says. 

One of his most stressful jobs was preparing a private dinner for three persons on board a yacht. The client had informed Yee that the heat source was limited to an electric grill on the upper deck of the yacht – where the meal was to be served. The client also requested a pasta dish.

Yee had planned to heat the pasta sauce in a pan over the electric grill. But when he boarded the yacht, he discovered that none of the pans he took along fit the convex grill plate.

He recalls: “The sea was choppy at that point, and I was already struggling to maintain my balance with the rocking motion of the yacht. I was panicking over the cold sauce, but I had to stay calm outwardly as I was in clear sight of the guests.”

Luckily, he had aluminium foil on hand, which he quickly shaped into a makeshift container to place on the grill, and used it to heat up the pasta sauce.

“I had to keep smiling and assure the client that everything was fine, as he was wondering why I was taking such a long time with the pasta,” he recounts.

At present, he cooks two to three private meals on location a week, for groups of six to 10 diners. For larger-scale events with up to 25 diners, he ropes in his son or former colleagues to assist him with serving and cleaning.

Aside from being a private chef, he also takes on ad-hoc jobs such as working as a demo chef for food suppliers to showcase their products and standing in for restaurant chefs who need to go on a break. 

He estimates his annual income is now 20 per cent more than what he used to make working full-time in a restaurant.

“I am not going to get rich being a private chef, but I have a lot of control over my time. Four bookings a month allow me to pay for my family expenses and the costs of running the business,” he says.

He adds: “Initially, when I started going to the swanky homes of my clients, I felt envious of their wealth. But I soon realised that many of them had worked very hard and sacrificed a lot to get to where they are. I am not prepared to sacrifice that much and I am risk-averse.”

Thrifty by nature, he does not own a car and mostly travels by public transport, resorting to private-hire cars only when he has to lug along several bulky bags for his engagements.

“It is not likely that I will return to work in restaurants full-time. Right now, I enjoy cooking for a living without it being a daily grind,” he says, before adding wistfully: “My dream is to be able to cook without thinking about costs.”