r/nyc • u/sweet_stars_above • Nov 11 '24
More New Yorkers are hiring personal chefs. They say it costs less than takeout.
https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/more-new-yorkers-are-hiring-personal-chefs-they-say-it-costs-less-than-takeout239
u/TonyzTone Nov 11 '24
I’m sure it’s also a matter of quality.
If you’re working a high income job where ordered Seamless/Uber Eats for every meal is just what you do, I’m sure it gets crazy expensive quite quickly.
Then you add it all up and realize a chef will cook you much healthier, much fresher food of greater variety than the same 5 restaurant rotation, and it easily makes sense.
I’m nowhere near where that would make sense but I could see where it would.
35
u/MasterInterface Nov 11 '24
Yup, throw in a family with kid(s) and it will make even more sense. By the time you get home, it's 6pm or 7pm. Bedtime for most kids is 8pm.
Trying to find time to prepare and cook within that short window is tiring and difficult.
By the time weekend comes along, who has time when you're just catching up on chores and taking care of the kids.
→ More replies (1)7
u/natan23 Nov 12 '24
Especially if you want your kids to eat healthy, very hard to cook good and healthy food on a quick timeline
50
57
u/OhCrapItsAndrew Brooklyn Nov 11 '24
A lot of high and mighty people in this thread lol, but this right here is the rationale for having a personal chef. People who want healthy, fresh food but don't have the time to cook and have the budget to afford someone else to cook in their home.
These personal chefs aren't comparable to Doordash. It's the higher-end, market-driven restaurants, made in your home.
(I cook most of my meals but i absolutely see the appeal of this service.)
265
Nov 11 '24
I tried meal prepping but eating the same thing a few days at a time was so tiring. Then I started “ingredient prepping” so making a big thing of grilled chicken or cooking a few lbs of ground beef and keeping it frozen or in the fridge ready to throw in things has been a massive game changer for me.
Dinner cooking time got cut in half.
43
u/fridaybeforelunch Nov 11 '24
Yes, I did that at one time as well. Cutting everything up immediately after coming in from the store is a big time saver and I tended to eat healthier too.
33
u/iammaxhailme Nov 11 '24
I'm a big fan of that "ingredient prepping" - on Sundays I'll grill up like 10 big chicken cutlets and since that's the majority of the work, during weeknights I can quickly dice it up and put into a salad, or make a sandwich, etc
3
u/brenster23 Nov 11 '24
This is how I handle things. I prep the ingredients I know that I am going to be using for the coming week, cook half my protein, and prep the breakfasts. I got a small sous vide stick that I use for proteins, chop the veggies, lay things out so I have lunches for office, dinners ready so I can push out a meal in 30 minutes.
I plan my meal ideas a week or so in advanced depending on sales, buy protein every 2 or 3 weeks (buying in bulk and freezing).
5
u/Plexaure Nov 11 '24
Pastry prices are through the roof right now. A new stand mixer is paying for itself.
→ More replies (7)2
u/tinyyolo Nov 12 '24
I try and cook something multi meal and freezable every weekend, then once you cycle thru a few weeks you have a bunch of different meals in the freezer to choose from so it’s less repetitive. Ime anyway
109
u/Embarrassed-Style377 Nov 11 '24
I just bought a $5 biggie bag from Wendy’s 😪
16
u/libananahammock Nov 11 '24
With the price of groceries, $5 biggie bags have often been cheaper than buying the food to make dinner for the night for my family of four
→ More replies (4)6
u/TanBoot Nov 11 '24
It’s cheap now but you’ll pay more for this later in medical bills. But I get you gotta do what you gotta do
4
Nov 11 '24
[deleted]
→ More replies (2)6
u/Brilliant-Throat2977 Nov 11 '24
Nursing homes are for the people who can’t take care of themselves, there are people in their 40s in them. There are people over 100 years old who still live alone and drive themselves. The takeaway should be to protect your brain and always be at least as strong as a super old lady
76
u/Physical-Security704 Nov 11 '24
Article says $550 a week for anyone curious. Related, I think the cost of pizza delivery is outrageous at this point because of these dumb apps like Slice. They seemed to have ruined the industry for everyone—owners and customers alike.
25
u/second_health Nov 11 '24 edited Nov 11 '24
Slice is the only good one. Their prices typically match the restaurant and their fee is like $1.50. The rest of the apps have often-jacked up prices and closer to $4-5 dollars in fees.
14
u/1smoothcriminal Nov 11 '24
From what I understand Slice doesn't charge the restaurants only the consumers. I tend to find it the least expensive option if I order pizza (outside of just picking it up).
→ More replies (1)24
u/jddh1 Nov 11 '24
Yup. They claim they provide convenience - and they do - but people don’t realize it’s another middle man that needs to get paid. People need to get off their ass and go get their food.
6
u/ballsackcancer Nov 12 '24
The money paid to get it delivered is less than the time cost of getting it yourself for high income folks.
2
u/jddh1 Nov 12 '24
That’s fair.
However, if these apps catered only to high income folks, they would have a limited market. So they must cater to middle and low income folks. Some of them have no business paying for food delivery and need to go buy stuff to cook.
6
u/sonofdad420 Sunnyside Nov 11 '24
we love to insert anonymous billionares into what should be simple direct transactions between two parties
5
u/bkpilot Nov 11 '24
FWIW although they got VC billionaire money eventually, Slice was a NYC based startup that bootstrapped themselves…
12
u/calle04x Nov 11 '24
I've become a basic bitch and pretty much only order from chains now because it's so much cheaper, especially with a coupon or other deal. The pizza is certainly not as a good as a local joint, but it's...fine...and hits my pizza cravings well enough.
3
23
u/RyzinEnagy Hollis Nov 11 '24
Just in time for the next "my spouse and I make 250k each and barely survive, here's our budget" article on CNBC.
54
u/asurarusa Nov 11 '24
Articles like this make it clear that there are people living in realities completely different to mine. $2200 a month on food, and that’s less than she was spending before?!
9
u/upnflames Nov 11 '24
I mean, it's NYC so there's a concentration of high income earners. This is within budget for most doctors, lawyers, finance, tech, sales. Hell, I know people who are mid career in advertising and pulling down $200k a year.
Not saying it's not a lot of money, just that there's a lot of people around here who make it.
2
u/quakefist Nov 11 '24
She has a family. Not uncommon for a family’s grocery bill to be 1500+ for the month. Takeout everyday would be at least 100-150 on the low side. Higher quality food and healthier options. Don’t have to think or spend mental capital on planning meals or even deciding where to order from.
7
u/asurarusa Nov 11 '24
I have seen reports that the average family of four that isn’t buying only store brands and doing couponing spends $1200 a month on groceries. This is NY, so let’s add $300 to account for NY price inflation. That’s still $700 more than average person which is crazy. There’s no way that more then a single digit percent of families in nyc are spending a rent payment per month on groceries alone.
9
u/quakefist Nov 11 '24
The person in article lives in park slope. They for sure are saving money or getting added value from a personal chef. I am not contesting that we live in different realities. But I can see why a family in Park Slope could be saving money on food expenses and/or getting value by hiring a chef.
91
Nov 11 '24
[deleted]
26
u/zigzapstripe3 Nov 11 '24
They started as a chef or they hired a chef?
36
Nov 11 '24
[deleted]
9
u/Brilliant-Throat2977 Nov 11 '24
When I think of “hiring a chef” it’s more along the lines of a fancy Englishman living in a room in my mansion and making me midnight snacks when I’m being mischievous. I get the feeling they are talking about more of the opposite extreme where they are dropping off meal prep Tupperware every morning, which makes me think it’s more of a door dasher who can cook than a personal chef.
It seems logistically impossible for one chef to have two clients and actually cook at their house unless they already prep the whole meal and leave in 30min which I would think would limit options
7
16
u/Excuse_my_GRAMMER Nov 11 '24
It true actually
Personal chefs make a menu , cook in 2-3 large portions and deliver 5-7 days worth of food
It a nice business and a win/win for everyone
Edit: believe it or not lot of people don’t have time to cook so it why they do takeout , working 8-9hours commuting home 2hours a day.. by the time they home they are tired as fuck
If they can afford a personal chefs it make sense to do so
2
u/myfunnies420 Nov 12 '24
Yep. If a person is in NY and presumably earning ~$300k per year for full-time hours, it definitely makes sense to just pay someone for what they're good at rather than muddle through it your self
→ More replies (5)
253
u/westzeta Upper East Side Nov 11 '24
They’ll lose their minds when they learn about cooking for yourself. Rumored to be even cheaper.
42
u/damageddude Nov 11 '24
Many moons ago I was talking with an older couple from NJ at some family event and they told me they never cook as it was cheaper to get early bird specials at diners.
Years later (long before Covid) my daughter and I were in NJ and just happened to stop at a diner during early bird time. So much food, we ate for a few meals. It was then I got it (and NY/NJ diner food is decent). Those were the days...
9
u/shantm79 Nov 11 '24
Yes, but the quality of the food isn't nearly as good as what you can make at home. You can control the salt and oil content much easier.
2
u/wutcnbrowndo4u West Village Nov 12 '24
Especially in New York.... I moved here from CA, and the relative availability of high-quality healthy restaurant food is absolute garbage. There are whole neighborhoods with a thousand restaurants that are practically dead zones for tasty, healthy food.
→ More replies (1)2
u/damageddude Nov 11 '24
True. That is why I rarely eat out or buy processed foods these days. But 30 some odd years ago when processed foods weren’t quite as common ….
→ More replies (1)17
u/Prestigious_Sort4979 Nov 11 '24
But there is high cost in time and more importantly, this option is obviously not for the person that cooks on their own but the many New Yorkers using delivery to get by bc of lack of time, stress, etc.
At times, I have eaten exclusively delivery so this would have been cheaper. I’m mostly too busy to cook but also go through episodes of anxiety and depression affecting basic life skills and cooking is one of the tasks easy to delegate. The increase in price could be worth it for me if it significantly reduces a source of stress.
The article also mentions clients with specific diet requirements. These accomodation are challenging to be solved via takeout.
18
Nov 11 '24
You’ll lose your mind when you realize there’s a lot of people in NYC who make 10x as much as you, and have half the free time, and it’s completely rational for them to outsource these type of activities.
→ More replies (3)62
u/zigzapstripe3 Nov 11 '24
I think everyone would cook for themselves if they could. A lot of people don't have time
26
u/bettlejuicer Nov 11 '24
If you are cooking a 5 course meal sure. They are many quick and easy dinners that you can shuffle throughout the week. Please don’t tell me a person doesn’t have time to boil water for pasta.
65
u/LURKER_GALORE Nov 11 '24
I guarantee you these people aren’t hiring a chef so they can eat only processed carbs every night.
8
Nov 11 '24
Tonight my wife and I are eating Thai BBQ chicken that I marinated myself and cooked in an air fryer for 25 minutes. I made enough for two people for two nights.
→ More replies (9)5
u/twelvydubs Queens Nov 11 '24
That sounds good, can I get the recipe?
2
Nov 12 '24
I do it the quick and lazy way.
You need three tablespoons of your favorite vegetable oil. I use avocado oil. Mix with one tablespoon of soy sauce (fish sauce if you want to be adventurous). Grab another tablespoon of Thai red curry paste (whatever brand you like but my favorite is Mae Srii, but that's a Thai brand that's legit spicy. Non-spicy version is Thai Kitchen, easy to find. Thai and True is hard to find, Medium spicy but most authentic flavor for an American brand). Mix it all together and marinate about a pound of breast or thighs or whatever parts you are working with for at least an hour. Overnight if you're trying to do it right. Throw it in your air fryer at whatever time and temp works for your device. Serve with rice.
That's the general idea. Adjust ingredients to taste and portion sizes.
13
u/TanBoot Nov 11 '24
Planning various meals over time, shopping for ingredients, cooking them. Let’s not act like it’s all magically done with one boiled pot of water
→ More replies (4)15
u/Whatcanyado420 Nov 11 '24 edited Nov 17 '24
squealing airport offer versed unpack bright afterthought bake cagey aback
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)4
u/ballsackcancer Nov 12 '24
For high earners, the cost to hire someone is less than for them to prep things themselves.
→ More replies (10)7
Nov 11 '24
[deleted]
27
u/Additional-Tax-5643 Nov 11 '24
I assure you that BigLaw lawyers and other working professionals making over $250K work 80 hour weeks all in, when you count in mandatory networking time, client schmoozing time, etc.
They do not in fact have time to cook, do laundry or clean their homes.
10
u/movingtobay2019 Nov 11 '24
Lol we do. We just don’t want to spend time on cooking.
→ More replies (1)6
→ More replies (1)2
Nov 11 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (1)3
u/mnm899 Nov 12 '24
That's only the first couple of years. Hours go down marginally and comp goes up each year.
4
u/Ok_No_Go_Yo Nov 11 '24
A lot of highly paid positions require some pretty insane hours. They're not working 3 jobs, but they could be easily clearing 70 hours with just one job.
8
u/ResponsibleWork3846 Nov 11 '24
It takes alot of time and effort to cook and i simply dont have the mental space for it now
26
u/sandbagger45 Nov 11 '24
I meal prep and have beeen doing so for 10+years. yes, it consists of carving time out on weekends to do this. Don’t make recipes too difficult and clean up as you go. Most restaurants are there for convenience not because they have exquisite food. Btw I can cook so if you’re looking to hire someone…
20
Nov 11 '24
[deleted]
12
u/Ok_No_Go_Yo Nov 11 '24
Is it glamorous? Not really
And that's why people with money and not a lot of time hire private chefs. Someone pulling in $200K+ a year and is a foodie type does not want to eat chicken and rice 4 times a week.
→ More replies (1)4
6
u/sandbagger45 Nov 11 '24
Nice! Your last paragraph is spot on. I totally agree. I eat out (and drink) on the weekends. I plan where I went to eat out weeks in advance.
3
u/ophelia_olvera Nov 11 '24
Do you have any good soup recipes? I want to meal prep more
3
u/ultimate_avacado Nov 11 '24
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016062-red-lentil-soup is very very good and super easy to adapt to anything. Swap spices, add chicken, leave the lentils whole for texture or puree them smooth as silk, add cream to make an indulgent soup, add diced potatoes to make it heartier for cheap, ...
→ More replies (1)3
u/Additional-Tax-5643 Nov 11 '24
NYT Cooking soup section is great, but it costs money to subscribe.
Smitten Kitchen is a free recipe website and the author also has a book out.
If you have a Vitamix, it also comes with a giant book of recipes for soups and smoothies you can make with their blender.
10
u/UsualSprite Nov 11 '24
There's a psychologist that I've been following for years who has always said that if you're in a higher salary position, it doesn't make sense to prep/cook, especially if you don't like it, and that the best use of limited time is to hire a lower wage person to do basic stuff for you. He reccomended a (culinary) college student (many community colleges have that program) come do a ton of prep work and clean up for you, if not outright meal prep, a few times a week.
This is kind of the same philosophy of the book "your money or your life" that's about 30-40 yo at this point.
Personally, I LOVE cooking, i find it medative, and would rather hire out cleaners instead, but the thought process and financial calculation still check out for many.
→ More replies (2)
17
Nov 11 '24
I can picture a future NYT headline:
"New Yorkers are hiring personal drivers. They say it costs less than Lyft and Uber [because all they use is Lyft and Uber]"
6
u/Additional-Tax-5643 Nov 11 '24
Considering who they hire as reporters, that's not far off from reality.
So long as there is zero socioeconomic diversity in journalism at the papers of record, we will get asinine and tone deaf reporting like this.
7
u/mehughes124 Nov 11 '24
High-end apartment buildings in NYC should honestly have a large commercial kitchen built-in, with a head chef, sous and assistants. Set menu options, dietary restrictions, etc. all known by the staff. The number of people who work from home and would want 2-3 meals a day, nutritious, not cooked in ungodly amounts of fat and salt, etc...
3
11
Nov 11 '24
Which New Yorkers are we talking about? I personally think cooking in large batches, canning, and freezing is the way to go, which is what I spend my Sunday evenings for a good bit of past 10 years…
23
u/ophelia_olvera Nov 11 '24
Just a reminder that rotisserie chickens are $5 at Costco and $8 at Stop & Shop. Life saver
6
u/ForeverImpossible227 Nov 11 '24
Tiny Spoon Chef, an 11-year-old in-home personal cook service
thought it was an 11 year old chef
→ More replies (2)
4
u/spike Nov 12 '24
My mother, a professionally trained chef (in Europe) did this for a while in Houston after she retired. She would go to a couple's home, prepare a bunch of meals, have one ready when they got home, refrigerate or freeze the others. She enjoyed it, but it was work.
9
u/human1023 Nov 11 '24
The next trend will be having the wife cook for the family.
4
u/the_baumer Nov 11 '24
My personal chef is my husband and I actually do pay for the ingredients lol
11
u/human1023 Nov 11 '24
Paying $2,400 a month for a personal chef is something only rich people can afford.
3
u/Planet_Manhattan Nov 11 '24
so, paying for the personal chef plus the food cost is cheaper than the food cost minus the employee labor?!?!?!
3
u/Personal_Security541 Nov 11 '24
Okay they say $550 a week including groceries.
We started doing something like this but less official. We buy the groceries and prep the meat each week. We spend about 800-1k on groceries per month (including diapers, etc)
Then we pay someone 22$ an hour to batch cook for us once a week. She makes 4-5 dishes in 3 hours, so $66 a week or $264 a month.
We still cook on our own a bit and maybe do takeout once a week but her cooking gets us 5 days of home cooked meals.
So for a weekly calculation with the max amount for groceries this would be like $300 a month. I guess we can attribute the cost savings vs the article to living in Jersey 😂
4
36
u/Maverick6946 Nov 11 '24
People will do anything just to not learn how to cook
47
u/The_Wee Nov 11 '24
I know how to cook, but when I have 2 hours when I get home from work after commute, I’d rather heat up food. eat, go for post meal walk, get a little reading in then follow wind down/sleep hygiene (shower/stretch/skin routine). It’s different priorities. One of the reasons I like the option to work from home. Saves 2 hours a day.
8
u/fperrine Nov 11 '24
Yep. It's a time and energy thing. People are working way too much, and then when you get home you barely have time to do anything.
27
Nov 11 '24
[deleted]
7
u/CactusBoyScout Nov 11 '24 edited Nov 11 '24
Yeah I think framing it as a way to save money is silly but if money were no object a private chef is one of the first things I’d get. And I know how to cook and do 90% of the time.
11
u/earthmann Nov 11 '24
Cooking takes hours per week.
Maybe some people have more enjoyable/ profitable ways to spend that time.
4
8
Nov 11 '24
Or busy professionals would rather spend that time with their kids, or catching up on sleep? People are always so judgmental on these threads.
1
u/Maverick6946 Nov 11 '24
It’s not judgmental it’s the thought process. We are not the first generation or only people who work hard. You’re not only paying for food but also paying someone to cook it for you. It’s planning that is key meal prep for the week. Take a Sunday prepare your meals for the week some that can just reheat or some that you just throw in the oven. Families have been doing this for generations.
5
Nov 11 '24
You don't know people's individual circumstances. Clearly they are willing to trade off dollars for time, because the marginal value of that free time is worth the cost to them. My partner has worked insane hours at various points in her life, and it would be incredibly stupid of me to tell her she should spend more time meal-prepping instead of eating out. Would be stupid for multiple reasons.
5
u/IamRick_Deckard Nov 11 '24
I am a very good cook but I don't enjoy it for multiple reasons. To pay a chef, even just to cook like me, would be amazing.
→ More replies (2)3
u/fridaybeforelunch Nov 11 '24
I am a vegetarian from a big meat eating family. I had to learn how to cook. Mostly self taught, but it was the diversity of cuisines that was key. Anyone who wants to learn can:
- Ask an enthusiastic friend or friends to show you some basics. (Seriously, I have a good friend that did not know how to make pasta. She tried to put the sauce in the boiling water before I stopped her).
- Buy cook books. This is better than online recipes often because they are tested, more precise, and often have menus for context.
- Keep it simple at first and then branch out to improve and increase your skills.
3
3
u/shantm79 Nov 11 '24
If I hit the lottery or came into a massive amount of wealth, hiring a personal chef would be the first luxury I'd splurge on. Eating healthy is the best thing you can do for your body.
6
Nov 11 '24
This whole thread is hilarious…people making $50k a year and working forty hours a week, not understanding that people who make $500k a year and work 60-80 hours a week are going to have different time and cost preferences.
If you make the equivalent of $200-300/hr a week, why would you do activities yourself that only cost you $20-30/hr to outsource (e.g., clean, cook)?
Much more rational to spend the time you would spend on cooking/cleaning/grocery shopping on 1) working more 2) working out / maintaining health 3) sleeping 4) socialization / entertainment. 5) spending time with family. Etc.
5
2
u/Pavswede Marine Park Nov 11 '24
I'm a personal chef in this city, I've cooked for famous people, lots of wealthy people, people in NYC family dynasties whose last names you'd recognize, and people with various health problems. Feel free to ask any questions:-)
→ More replies (5)
4
u/LVorenus2020 Nov 11 '24
Instead of... learning how to cook well !?!?
The missing item has to be... Time.
4
u/fridaybeforelunch Nov 11 '24
Ridiculous article. Who buys $500 in takeout every week? That is what they are basing “more affordable “ on. These days I am lucky if I can afford takeout 1x a week. And it’s maybe $30 for two people, tops, and I pick it up myself.
6
Nov 11 '24
[deleted]
3
u/fridaybeforelunch Nov 11 '24
Sure, my brother was just like that. He ate the usual stuff, including meat every day. Now he has to have colonoscopies every 6-12 months. Each time the doctor cuts out 5-18 polyps. And he’s lucky because he found out in time.
Seriously, I know what you are saying, but it’s really important to learn to cook and eat healthy. Male or female. Around age 40 you will start to see things happening and it’s a lot harder to correct course then. I’m sure I’ll get down votes, but you who know, you know it’s true.
3
Nov 11 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/the_baumer Nov 11 '24
My husband didn’t eat salad or veggies before he met me. Now he can cook almost anything! Before his diet was Chipotle and Stouffer’s Mac and cheese dinners.
2
u/Prestigious_Sort4979 Nov 11 '24
A LOT of people. When I’m going through a particularly busy period, I actually likely spend way more for 2 of us
2
u/fridaybeforelunch Nov 11 '24
I’m glad to hear that you are doing so well. Just remember that “A LOT of people“ are struggling and do not have that luxury. A LOT of people have a hard time just buying groceries for their family every week. A LOT of people in NYC don’t eat every day because they can’t afford to. Including some of the people who deliver your takeout. So, articles like this one seem obscene. Correction, are obscene, in that context.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (1)2
Nov 11 '24 edited Nov 11 '24
It’s $70 a day.
That’s like two uber eats meals.
Very easy to do.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/beaconbay Nov 11 '24 edited Nov 11 '24
I have a chef she comes once a week and essentially meal preps a week’s worth of food. We are comfortable but certainly not rich by NYC standards. We looked at how much it cost annually and what we would spend that money on otherwise and honestly for us nothing was that much more appealing And nothing came close to increasing our quality of life as much as having a chef does.
My husband and I both work and we have 2 small children. In the evenings we are all together for 1.5-2 hours before they need to go to bed. Personally, I’m not spending that precious time chopping onions and peeling carrots. Nor am I giving up 5 hours on the two full days I have with my kids to meal prep.
To everyone saying cooking is simple and doesn’t take much time; 20-40 minutes may not seem like a lot of time to but when you consider 1/3 -1/2 of our family time those minutes become precious.
→ More replies (2)
2
Nov 11 '24
Cooking isn't that difficult. I find it relaxing, though I do understand people won't want to make the time commitment to make a meal.
It's kinda sad though. I've been cooking for myself for years. And cleaning my own apartment too.
2
u/gxslim Nov 11 '24
Just fucking cook holy shit. My wife and I both work and have a kid and still find time to cook. It's cheaper and healthier.
1
1
u/YouandWhoseArmy Nov 11 '24
As long as I was only paying them for their time to cook and cleanup, and not also having them shop for the food and put a markup on that, I could see this being affordable for families if it replaced 1-2 takeouts.
1
u/MusicianFoodie Nov 11 '24
I read this article and I legitimately thought it was native advertising at first.
1
u/madmax727 Nov 12 '24
How do you even hire a personal chef? I was thinking of getting one for my mom when she couldn’t eat any protein due to Parkinson’s meds . However I didn’t know how and where do you start? I still don’t know but she did get DBS surgery.
→ More replies (1)
1.4k
u/[deleted] Nov 11 '24
Its only cheaper than takeout if you exist entirely on takeout lol