• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Youtube
  • Change Locations
Set Your Location
Chefs for Seniors
  • Home
  • Menu
    • Menu Examples
    • Current Clients: Submit Your Menu
  • Services
    • Senior Meals Program
    • FAQ
    • What is a Personal Chef?
  • Locations
  • Franchise
  • More
    • Careers
    • Testimonials
    • Refer a Client or Patient
    • MA & LTC Insurance Meals
    • Blog
  • Get Started
  • Menu Menu
Blog
Uncategorized

Private Chef vs. Personal Chef: What’s the Difference?

As more and more meal services begin to pop up all over the county, you may find yourself asking: What is the best option for me or my loved one? We find that many people we talk to love the idea of having a professional chef come into their home to prepare customized and healthy meals for them, but have a hard time differentiating a private chef vs. a personal chef. While a personal chef and a private chef have several things in common, there are several distinctions between them.

PROS OF A PRIVATE CHEF:

  • 3 freshly prepared meals each day
  • Meals are often gourmet quality
  • Often maintains organization of the kitchen, such as the pantry and where equipment is located

 3 FRESHLY PREPARED MEALS EACH DAY

A private chef will most often be in the home each day, which means they prepare each meal on demand including snacks. The chef will prepare the meal and plate the dish for you. Because they are highly-experienced, they can prepare a wide variety of different cuisines.

MEAL QUALITY

Most private chefs undergo formal training at a culinary school or have extensive experience working in 5-star hotels or fine dining restaurants. If you are a foodie or someone with a sophisticated palette, these chefs are trained to be able to cook just about anything.

MAINTAIN ORGANIZATION OF THE KITCHEN

Not only will a private chef be responsible for meal-preparation, but they also take care of responsibilities such as keeping your pantry stocked and organization of the kitchen.

CONS OF A PRIVATE CHEF:

  • Expensive
  • Often salaried employees
  • They are in the home all day

EXPENSIVE

Possibly the biggest downside of hiring a private chef is that for someone with an “average” budget, private chefs are very costly. Private chefs are often employed by one individual, due to the fact that they are in the home each day preparing each and every meal. Rate of pay for a private chef varies in accordance to the amount of training they have, their location and level of experience.

OFTEN SALARIED EMPLOYEES

Private chefs will most commonly be paid on a salary instead of per service. According to Payscale, as of June 2021, a private chef earned approximately $71,526/year salary. However, annual salaries can range anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000+.

IN THE HOME ALL DAY

While some may like having a chef in their house on a daily basis from morning until evening, a good majority of people may not enjoy having someone in their home all day long. Some may prefer only having a service performed within the span of an hour or two.

PROS OF A PERSONAL CHEF:

  • Less time in the home
  • Affordable
  • Will often use their own equipment

LESS TIME IN THE HOME

While a private chef is employed to be in the home on a daily basis from morning until night, a personal chef will prepare multiple meals for a week or even a month in advance in as little as 2 hours. The meals are then packaged with reheating instructions for you to heat up as you like.

AFFORDABLE

Because private chefs are most often salaried employees, the cost is significantly higher than a personal chef that comes into the home on a weekly or monthly basis. Most personal chefs will charge per service, and thankfully, you do not need to sacrifice food quality for the cost-chefs working for a personal chef service often have years of cooking experience. Charge per service is region specific, but most will be anywhere between $100-$300 per service plus the cost of groceries.

WILL OFTEN USE THEIR OWN EQUIPMENT

Some people may have reservations about someone else using their pots, pans and kitchen utensils, but fortunately many personal chefs have their own toolbox of cooking equipment that they bring to each service.

CONS OF A PERSONAL CHEF:

  • Availability
  • May only have a set menu that they work with
  • Eating the same dish for multiple meals

AVAILABILITY

Since personal chefs often service multiple clients, they can sometimes have a trickier schedule to work with and will require planning your service days in advance. Also, these services are not always offered in smaller communities so you may have a difficult time finding a chef in a smaller town.

MAY ONLY WORK WITH A SET MENU

Many personal chefs have a menu database that they work with or a set list of items that they can make. While most chefs can be flexible with your dietary preferences, they may charge more for more expensive ingredients or more labor-intensive meal preparation.

EATING THE SAME DISH FOR MULTIPLE MEALS

The nature of a personal chef is that they come into the home once or twice a week (maybe even once a month) and prepare a few meal options with multiple portions to be stored in the refrigerator or freezer for the client to reheat. A private chef can make you whatever you want when you want it, but with a personal chef you only have your pre-made meals to choose from until the chef comes back for the next visit.

July 14, 2021/by Maddie
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
https://chefsforseniors.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Stephshopping0.png 324 576 Maddie /wp-content/uploads/2023/01/logo-r-chefs-for-seniors-clients-personal-chef-near-me-250-1.png Maddie2021-07-14 18:25:442023-01-19 07:30:01Private Chef vs. Personal Chef: What’s the Difference?

Recent Posts

  • How to Find the Perfect Private Chef for Your Next Dinner Party
  • Making Healthy Eating Easier: Diabetic Meals Delivered to Your Door
  • 4 Easy Ways to Increase Your Protein Intake
  • Food Allergy vs. Food Sensitivity: What’s the Difference?
  • 5 Mental Health Tips for Older Adults

Want a break from cooking?

Across the US, our team of personal chefs are ready to prepare surprisingly affordable, delicious, and home-cooked meals right in your own kitchen! We are the #1 in-home meal service for seniors.

Get My Free Quote

View Locations

Chefs for Seniors has locations across the US!

Personal Chef Near You

Huntsville
Scottsdale
Tucson
Central Arkansas
Northwest Arkansas
Contra Costa
LA South Bay
North San Diego
North Orange County
East LA County
Palm Springs
San Diego Inland
South San Jose
West LA
North Denver
Fort Collins
Fairfield County
New Haven County
Boca Raton
Bradenton
Flagler-Volusia
Florida Keys
Fort Myers
Hollywood-Pembroke Pines
Lake County
Martin-St. Lucie
Miami
Melbourne
Naples
Parkland-Coral Springs
Osceola County
Pinellas County
Sarasota
The Villages
West Palm Beach
Atlanta
Northeast Atlanta Metro
Boise
South Bend
Des Moines
Overland Park
Montgomery County MD
Essex County MA
Boston
Northwest Metro Detroit
Minneapolis
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Bergen County
Central NJ
South Jersey
Upper Manhattan
Syracuse-Rochester
Charlotte
Durham
Gaston County
Greensboro
Raleigh
Tulsa
Portland
Lower Montgomery County PA
South County RI
Charleston
Fort Mill
Myrtle Beach
Nashville
Arlington TX
Fort Worth
Georgetown TX
North Houston
Flower Mound
McKinney TX
Southeast Houston
Salt Lake City
DC-Fairfax County
South Richmond
North Snohomish County
Tacoma
Madison
South Central WI
Southeastern WI

 

 

 

 

 

Learn More

  • Blog
  • Franchise
  • Privacy policy
  • Accessibility statement

Connect with Us

Locally Owned

All Chefs For Seniors locations across the US are independently owned and operated. When you choose Chefs For Seniors, you are supporting small business owners in your local community.

© 2023 All rights reserved. | WordPress Web Design by Bizzy Bizzy
4 Myths About Senior NutritionFoods That Are Harmful To Kidney Health
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more×

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Terms and Conditions
Accept settingsHide notification only