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| Photo: mccun934, flickr |
The program, billed as the first-ever for private and personal chefs, was developed in collaboration with the American Personal & Private Chef Association. While other culinary schools have tacked on similar training courses to their standard curriculums, no other program has so aggressively targeted prospective personal chefs. APPCA founder and executive director Candy Wallace believes the Sullivan University initiative represents a watershed moment for the personal chef industry, which she predicts will flourish over the next five years.
"This for me is the future," Wallace says. "It's going to be huge."
A mix of economic factors and lifestyle trends have contributed to the field's growth, which Wallace says will stem the homogenization of professional American kitchens. According to Wallace, personal chefing -- which typically involves preparing a week's worth of customized meals for a client in the client's home -- attracts aging chefs, women with children, downsized workers seeking second careers and other gifted cooks who don't have the stamina or inclination to work long nights on the line.
"There's a lot of burnout in restaurants," Wallace says. "I feel like we're saving talented people."
Wallace says the personal chef biz is increasingly appealing to young chefs with a smattering of accounting sense.
"Young chefs have broken the code quite early," she says. "They realize they can own a business without having to scrimp and save for a restaurant that will go belly-up in six months."
Still, while it may be simpler for recession-stricken chefs to locate a single wealthy client than try to nightly fill a restaurant with well-to-do eaters, a personal chef's services aren't exactly budget-friendly. While Wallace hesitates to estimate a personal chef's fees, pointing out the cost of living varies tremendously from Dallas to Dubuque, she says clients in her hometown of San Diego typically pay their cooks $300 plus the cost of food to feed a family of four about 20 meals each week.
Wallace maintains the cost of a personal chef shouldn't pose a hardship for anyone accustomed to dining out three times a week.
"This is realistic for the 21st century," she says.
8-18-2009 @7:15PM Thomas said... Do you mean $3000 a week? $300 a week would only be a little over $15000 a year, which is not exactly a livable salary, in fact it's barely above the poverty threshold. If a young chef had a "smattering of accounting sense", they wouldn't go into a $300 a week job, especially in San Diego.
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9-11-2009 @10:08PM mike said... you really feel the need to have to tell people what bolonga is?? flat seasoned meat...a flat hot dog? how out of tounch are you that you dont think everyone knows what bolonga is??????
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9-12-2009 @11:11AM Brent said... It's not $300 per week; it's $300 per client, which is usually a day's work. Personal chefs cook for multiple clients in a week. Many personal chefs make very good livings cooking regularly for their portfolio of clients.
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10-11-2009 @3:25PM Heather said... Yes, $300 per week, but that is also per family/client. If you have 5 to 10 clients a week, you add each client up and that is where you can earn well over $1500 a week. Even if you had just 5 clients a week you'd pull in a good $6000 a month. I am a personal chef who has gone thru the training the APPCA provides.
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