Would you hire a private chef?

[Carrot Top]

Set aside all considerations of cost, or size of your kitchen, or the state of your pots and pans.

If you could hire someone to cook for you on a daily basis, would you?

Why or why not?

[Megan Blocker]

Certainly not every night - I would miss it, surely.

But having someone available to whip something up those couple of nights a week when I get home at 8:30 or 9:00? Heck yeah.

And I'd love having someone to send to the grocery store for me...oh, joy! Greenmarket is one thing, but the grocery store on a Monday night? Eek!

[srhcb]

Set aside all considerations of cost, or size of your kitchen, or the state of your pots and pans.

If you could hire someone to cook for you on a daily basis, would you?

Why or why not?

←

No.

I like cooking better than eating.

SB (might hire a pro to cook if I had guests though)

[hummingbirdkiss]

Not a chance no one is quite as capable of cooking as well as I do in my kitchen

[ruthcooks]

Absolutely.

Well, maybe more of a cook than a chef, making menus I plan, using my recipes, cooked the way I cook them.

Private Chef Clone

[SJ Shappee]

I am a private chef - I cook almost three meals a day seven days a week for an elderly gent - do this in exchange for room and groceries...

I do wish I had someone else to cook once in a while - I get too much enjoyment from it to give up the fun on a daily basis!

[Anna N]

What fun would that be?

OK, maybe once a year if I could hire the exec chef from the long-gone Copenhagen Room.

[Magictofu]

I love to cook but contrary to what many people said here, I would certainly hire a private chef if I had the means, particularly for those occasions when I would rather do something else than cooking. I have to admit that in order to work properly, he/she would have to kick my ass out of the kitchen.

[GordonCooks]

I would if I was loaded and the chef was Suzanne Goin or Padma

[petite tête de chou]

I would as long as the chef was able to skillfully prepare Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean food. If not, then *heck* no.

[Live It Up]

No way. Beside the obvious reason that I would miss cooking, I'm just far too picky and fickle about what I want to eat. Sometimes I'll have dinner all planned out, only to get to the store and realize that I'm no longer in the mood for whatever I had planned and I have to change everything. Yes, this means I pretty much have to shop every day or else I waste food. One of the many things I love about cooking is having things done my way.

[Marigene]

I would love to have someone cook for me for about a week. Just for a short time, anything longer would grate on my nerves as I don't like anyone fooling around in my kitchen!

[Kouign Aman]

In a red-hot minute, for 3 dinners a week.

[mizducky]

I'd love to have a private chef--but only if s/he would let me play apprentice sous-chef from time to time so that I could up my skills to pro level. That might mean s/he'd eventually work his/her way out of a job, though ...

[Lilija]

I would rather delegate every other household chore, to free me up and let me focus on cooking all day. That would be great. Can I hire a private driver for the kid, general housekeeper, gardener, and personal assistant, instead?

[Allura]

I certainly would. I have some energy limitation (health) and to be able to have real meals consistently and matching the diet I'm supposed to follow would be wonderful. I cook as I can, but too often I revert to frozen foods.

I'd also copy mizducky and make them teach me. I like to cook, I just am not always up to it.

[purplewiz]

Maybe sometimes. There are times when I'm completely overwhelmed and cooking is a chore, and it would be SO nice if someone else could just pick up the reins and drive it for me. They'd have to cook to my specs and dietary needs, though (which is why I don't just go out to restaurants during those times - they're so STUCK to their own menu! ).

But not all the time. I enjoy cooking most of the time and wouldn't want to give it up. I miss it when i don't cook after awhile.

Marcia.

[Marlene]

I wouldn't. The thing I miss the most when we travel, is my kitchen. I'd miss cooking too much to hire a personal chef. Now a caterer for a large event? That's a whole nother story.

[docsconz]

I would if I could do it the way Jeffrey Steingarten recently did - with Paul Liebrandt or a select few others as the chef. I like to cook, but I love to eat.

[C. sapidus]

In a red-hot minute, for 3 dinners a week.

←

Same here. Cook three meals, kick back for three meals, and take our Lear jet to a restaurant once a week (hey, you said that money was no object ). The hard part would be finding a personal chef that makes the kind of food that we like. Um, and learning to drive the Lear jet.

[scubadoo97]

I would rather delegate every other household chore, to free me up and let me focus on cooking all day.  That would be great.  Can I hire a private driver for the kid, general housekeeper, gardener, and personal assistant, instead?

←

Ditto. Cooking is fun and expression of creativity. The other chores well I would pan those off any day.

[Milagai]

Depends on what you mean by "personal chef".

If "chef" means : highly trained and skilled (and commensurately paid) person, and

money was really no object, then I'd love to hire one for special occasions,

time to time, depending on mood, etc.

If OTOH, you mean someone with less skills and pay, to help

tackle the humdrum aspects of daily home cooking - then yes, yes and yes.

I'd love to have the kind of home help my mother had when we

were young. Someone who comes in every day, does

housework, does the bulk of the blah cooking (rolling chapatis,

cutting vegetables, etc.).

I wish I could afford such a person (pay them a decent wage to do this).

Milagai

[madziast]

absolutely. not every meal (i wouldn't want to eat every meal out either) but certainly have someone cook things i don't because of time or skill involved. i don't often cook things that require more than 45min to prepare - simply no time.

[Timh]

As a former private chef(8 yrs), I most definitely would. But only lunch and dinners. One of the things about having a private chef is that they are always there, so some amount of privacy is lost. Might take some getting used to having a person other than family always in the kitchen, comming and going.

Edited April 12, 2007 by Timh (log)

[Carrot Top]

Yeah, that would be my hesitation too, Tim. I've had friends that were private chefs and the situations were never quite as comfortable as one might wish, whether they lived in or not (depending on the season and the house, NY or Palm Beach).

And I know several people who could well afford to have a private chef who simply wouldn't have one of any sort (part-time, full-time, as cook or as chef) not because they like to cook so much but because they don't like the idea of having "servants", at all. Though somehow housecleaners or nannies go around or under this radar for some reason . . .

Miligai's post was interesting to think of, as the "someone to help cook" in the way she describes her mother having is (or was) a much more common thing in other cultures than the North American one.