If the life of a big-city private chef is glamorous but lonely, as reported recently by The New York Times, working in Chattanooga softens both narratives.
Local chefs say it would be unusual for a job to require jet-setting travel or a prolonged stay with a client. The vast majority of bookings are one-time special events where the host wants standout food with the added cachet of having a professional chef at work in the kitchen. The biggest drawback for local chefs working off private bookings may be the inability to maintain a consistent workflow — and the steady income that comes with it.
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It helps to know that while the titles "private chef" and "personal chef" are often used interchangeably, there can be differences in the services each provides. A private chef may be employed exclusively by a single client or family to provide all or most of their meals, while a personal chef is largely self-employed and serving multiple clients. Both typically work in a client's kitchen, unlike a caterer who cooks food off-site and delivers it before a special event.
Chattanooga chef Jeffrey Martinez says he can provide all three services with his company, Simple 2 Elegant.
"There's definitely pros and cons," he says of the work. "Generally, I love it."
Martinez says he was in the corporate world for almost 25 years, working at golf resorts, country clubs and hotels across the United States before deciding to be his own boss in 2018.
"When I first started, I was mainly doing weekly meal prep for clients," he says. "I had an established list of clients I worked for every week."
Pandemic quarantines ended those home visits, but he kept the business going, supplementing for a while as a chef at a retirement community. These days, his focus is on private dinner parties, romantic dinners, bachelor and bachelorette parties and corporate retreats that often take him to cities within a three-hour radius of Chattanooga.
The job is often solitary, if not lonely, Martinez says.
"In a classic setting, where you're working in a restaurant, a hotel or a country club, you're working with staff and have that camaraderie," he says. "When I'm working private events, I'm consulting, shopping, traveling and executing dinner events pretty much by myself. I lean on my clients to keep me inspired and motivated."
In addition to his website, Martinez accepts bookings through Food Fire + Knives, a nationwide network of on-demand chefs. Chattanooga has a handful of chefs featured, with prices starting at just under $60 per guest.
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Chef Mike Clayton says he's been on the site for about a year and a half and has found it to be a good way to connect with clients.
"When you go to book something — say, 'I want a dinner in Chattanooga' — it will show you all of the menus from every (participating) chef in Chattanooga and you pick and choose who you want to go with," he explains.
He's handled romantic dinners for two, including one with a marriage proposal, but most of his bookings are dinner parties for six to eight guests.
One of his recent bookings was a surprise 40th birthday party for the wife of a local neurologist. The couple and 12 guests dined on Mongolian rib-eyes and chocolate espresso cake he whipped up in their kitchen.
"They loved everything," he says. "People will come in and ask what goes in this or that recipe. It's really fun."
Clayton and Martinez say personal chefs bring everything they need for each event — groceries, pots, pans, plates, utensils.
"And then we clean up for them," Clayton says. "We take care of everything so they can focus on their party and their guests."
Because these are clients who can afford such services, their kitchens are usually well-equipped for the professionals to work, although Martinez says he's had a couple of mishaps.
At a vacation rental in Whitwell, Tennessee, dinner was delayed for a group of golfers while he and an assistant tried to figure out how to make the smart oven work. Another vacation rental — this one in a treehouse — lacked a basic amenity.
"During the booking process, nobody told me it didn't have a stove," Martinez says. "But on the deck, overlooking the river, there was a charcoal barbecue grill. I ended up cooking a three-course, four-course dinner from the grill. You have to make do. You have to adapt."
Clayton, a Biloxi, Mississippi, native, says his cooking career includes casino kitchens, a decade in the U.S. Army and with MGM Resorts after attending culinary school. His signature dish is gumbo, but his culinary portfolio is varied, with Italian, Cajun, steakhouse and a holiday menu among his offerings on Food Fire + Knives.
He says he enjoys his outings as a personal chef, but not having a set schedule, or knowing when the next booking will come, has led him to seek regular employment cooking for a local hotel. He says he'll continue to accept personal chef bookings on the side.
"It's definitely not a consistent salary situation," Martinez agrees. "You do get scary peaks and valleys some months. Some months you do really, really well, and some months the phone doesn't ring and you don't get emails coming in."
He gets side work with a professional caterer, which keeps him as busy as he needs to be, he says.
Chattanooga chef Cornelius Lathan, owner of Rileigh & Co., says he suspended his work as a personal chef after buying a food truck.
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"If Chattanooga was a bigger city it would be more feasible to be a personal chef, but I feel the market is just not there yet, but I do see it being one in the near future," he says. "As the market continues to grow, I may find myself falling back in love with being a personal chef again, but as of right now I've caught the food truck bug and enjoying life in this lane."
Contact Lisa Denton at 423-757-6281 or ldenton@timesfreepress.com.