When In started my business almost 4 years ago here in Austin, Texas I never knew what it would eventually become. Although Austin is in the midst of a boom, I never in a million years thought that I would become so busy that I would have more clients than I know what to do with. This lead me to start thinking that there was a market for many others who want to start a personal chef business here in Austin. There are major issues with being a restaurant chef and among many of the issues that are present, the hours that you must maintain is that biggest! That is why I want to teach people HOW TO BECOME A PRIVATE CHEF.

Over the next couple of months, I am going to start putting together a course that is an in depth overview of exactly how to start when you want to become a private chef. There is ample space for cooks and chefs to make a name for themselves, have creative ability with their menus and make more money than they ever could working for a restaurant. That said, there are some downsides to the business, especially if you are coming from a restaurant. You see, when you are coming from working in a restaurant, you are coming from a place where teamwork and back breaking labor is the main focus of your evening. When you start your private chef business, it will seem odd to you that the work becomes a little less intrusive and a little more dependent. There is no second or third line of fire when you are all alone. It is all on you and if you mess up, that too is on you.

I think that there are tons of reasons to become a private chef. Two of those reasons for me were work life balance and making money. When you are working for a restaurant, you typically have zero say when it comes to just about anything. That was a big eye opener when I started Gather and Forge here in Austin, Texas. I was only making $410.00/wk and here… that simply was not enough to love at all. There was a time in my earlier restaurant years that I was making $1000.00/night and going from that in New York to making one eighth of that was just about as difficult as it sounds. I was living in my friends kitchen, out of a suitcase and desperately trying to work my way up the chef ranks. I did and I was still sleeping on the couch. I knew that if I could just find ONE client in this city, I could generate more in one day than I was able to in one week. When I had the epiphany, I started immediately. That would solve all the problems I had, meaning I would not longer be working 70 hour weeks AND I could make 3-4 times the amount of money.

Gather started in a very old school way. I went door to door until I landed a client. This took 3 weeks, 6 hours a day and I was able to land my first client. It changed my life but there were also things that I simply didn’t account for. One of those things was that I would have to figure out how to work alone. I tell you what, this was and is still my biggest struggle but I am working on it. Finding yourself in a situation such as this is something that needs to be addressed before you take the plunge into becoming a personal chef. Sure, the days are shorter but that also means that you must find something other than cooking to do when you are off. Being a personal chef teaches you a ton about yourself and how you delegate your time to your tasks and it is definitely an uphill battle but on the contrary, it is beatable and it is worth it.

In the coming months, I plan on starting a Youtube channel where I not only teach how to do this but also teach how to manage and deal with clients. How to close deals and get what you deserve. There is no worse feeling in the world than working all day to simply find out that you didn’t charge enough. A lot of work goes into cooking as we all and a lot of people simply do not know what it takes to cook a meal for a group of people and make it phenomenal. I am writing this today because it is time to push my career in another direction, I want more people to be able to do this and I want more people to be able to express themselves in a creative and energetic way. I look forward to creating the course on how to become a personal chef so that one day you can start making more money, enjoy your life more, and cook delicious food!

Coming at you from Austin, Texas. Shit is about to get real!

— Ryan