Personal chefs, once the province of the rich and famous, are seeing booming business in the kitchens of the middle class.
The demand for these mobile cooks is being fueled by the increasingly harried lifestyles of workers as well as the growing number of people who can afford the luxury of hiring someone to prepare meals that cost up to $20 per serving.
Some 100,000 Americans now use personal chefs regularly, up from about 1,000 a decade ago, says the U.S. Personal Chef Assn. in New Mexico. The trade is one of several cottage industries in personal services that have been boosted by the robust economy in recent years, including online takeout delivery and mobile dog-grooming services.
"We are witnessing an unprecedented demand by the U.S. population for ways to simplify their lives," said Jeffrey Shuman, a professor of entrepreneurship at Bentley College in Waltham, Mass. "It's going from the affluent to the upper-middle-class to the middle-class on down."
And as long as the economy stays strong, experts see that trickle-down trend continuing. But, said UCLA management professor Eric Flamholtz, "If the economy sours, all these personal chefs might find their businesses as solid as a collapsed souffle."
The chefs trade group, with 4,000 members, says most of its clients are two-earner households with a combined income of at least $80,000.
Typical are families such as Keith Henry and Denise McKenzie of Baldwin Hills. Between them, the late-30s couple put in 110 hours of work--she as a lawyer, he as a researcher at a think tank. That leaves them scant time to spend with their 2-year-old daughter, Zoe, or for hobbies such as reading and exercising.
Enter Cindy Krapek-Ishihara. Toting groceries and her own knives, pots and pans, Krapek-Ishihara visits the couple's home twice a month while they are working. When she's done cooking, she cleans up the mess, labels the entrees and puts them in the refrigerator and freezer with heating instructions.
"This has definitely taken a major burden off our shoulders," said Henry, who's partial to Krapek-Ishihara's Middle Eastern stew over couscous. "It means more time with Zoe."
Clients prefer personal chefs over takeouts or restaurant deliveries because of the convenience and quality. They know that whenever they're ready to eat, they can have gourmet meals that were prepared just the way they like them.
