Private Chefs for Family Offices

Most private chef searches at this level are not run by the principal. They are run by a family office, an estate manager, or a chief of staff — someone accountable for the outcome, working to a brief they may not have written, for a person whose time is the scarcest thing in the equation.

That changes what a placement agency has to provide. The cooking standard is the same. Everything around it is different.

What an intermediary needs that a principal does not

A search you can report on. Defined stages, a known timeline, and a clear answer to “where are we” at any point. In major markets a shortlist arrives within one to two weeks and a completed placement within three to five.

Compensation you can defend. A number you can take to whoever approves it, with the reasoning attached. We put the range in writing rather than leaving you to justify a figure you were handed.

A shortlist, not a pile. Three to five chefs, each of whom you could put in front of the principal without reservation. Screening twenty résumés is our job, not yours.

Confidentiality that survives the process. The principal’s name does not enter the market because a search is running.

How confidentiality actually works

We can run an entire search against an anonymized brief. Candidates are approached with the shape of the role — household size, location, schedule, cuisine, travel expectations, residence count — and nothing that identifies the family.

Confidentiality agreements are signed before any identifying detail is shared, and the principal is disclosed only at the point you choose, which is usually immediately before a trial. Chefs at this level expect this and are not put off by it; discretion is the profession.

Where a household has security or privacy arrangements that shape the role, tell us early. It changes who is appropriate to approach, not just what they are told.

Compensation, benchmarked

For the caliber of chef ultra-high-net-worth households expect, a full-time private chef’s salary typically runs $160,000 to $190,000 a year before bonuses. The full cost also includes benefits, employer payroll taxes, and housing where the role is live-in.

That range moves with market, seniority, residence count, and travel load. A senior estate chef directing staff across several properties sits at the top of it or above. We will give you the specific range for the role as specified, in writing, before the search opens — so the budget conversation happens once, at the start, rather than after a chef has declined.

Our full cost guide sets out the complete picture, including the components that are easy to miss in a first approval.

Employment structure

A full-time private chef is generally a W-2 household employee rather than a contractor, and providing accommodation does not change that. Family offices are usually well ahead of us on this, but two things are worth confirming early: which entity employs the chef, and who administers payroll.

Our guide to what belongs in a private chef employment agreement covers the terms that matter — schedule, travel, provisioning authority, confidentiality, and how the arrangement ends. Have counsel familiar with household employment in the relevant jurisdiction review it.

Risk, and the guarantee

Every placement carries a 90-day replacement guarantee. If the fit does not hold within that window, we run the search again and place another chef at no additional fee.

Since we were founded, four placements have not held within that window. We would rather quote that number than a slogan, because it is the number that matters to someone who has to stand behind the hire.

The bigger protection is the trial. We recommend a full one to two weeks in the residence before any offer — not a tasting, not a dinner. Most fit problems that would surface in month three surface in week one instead, which is the point.

Working with existing household staff

Where an estate or house manager is already in post, they usually own the day-to-day brief and the trial logistics, and we work to them. Where a family office is running the search directly with no household manager, we handle more of the coordination ourselves.

Either way, one thing is worth settling before we start: who the chef reports to once placed, and who resolves it when something needs deciding. Placements that fail on structure rather than cooking almost always fail here.

Placing more than once

Family offices that place well once tend to place again — a second residence, a principal’s adult children, a change in circumstances. Where that is the pattern, we keep a record of the standard set by earlier placements so later searches start from an established brief rather than a blank page.

To open a search, or to get a written compensation range before you take one to approval, start a conversation. We are also happy to talk through a role you are still scoping and are not yet ready to fill.