What a Week With a Private Chef Actually Looks Like

Most people who call me have never hired a chef before, and the first question is almost always some version of the same thing: so how does this actually work?

Here is the whole thing, start to finish, with nothing dressed up.

Before I arrive

The week starts with a conversation, not a menu. I want to know what your household actually eats — the dishes that disappear, the ones nobody touches, how many nights you need covered, whether there are allergies or anything a doctor has asked you to watch.

Then I plan a menu for your household specifically. Not a rotating list I cook for everyone that week. If your family eats a lot of fish, you get fish. If your kids have decided this month that green things are suspicious, I work around it and quietly keep the vegetables coming anyway.

The morning I cook, I shop. Same day, not the day before — that's the difference between produce that lasts the week in your fridge and produce that's already tired when it arrives.

Cook day

I come to your kitchen with the groceries and take it over for the afternoon. Nothing is made in a commercial kitchen and driven to you; it's cooked in your home, in your pans, and it smells like it.

You don't need to be there. Most clients let me in or share access and go about their day. Some like to be around, make coffee, and chat while I work — that's genuinely nice too. Both are completely normal.

When I'm finished, the kitchen is cleaner than I found it. Counters wiped, dishes done, sink empty, everything back where it lives. That part isn't a bonus; it's part of the job.

What's in your fridge afterward

The baseline week is 3 meals that serve a family of 4 — entrées with sides, portioned into containers, labeled, and ready to warm. Larger households or more meals are just a bigger cook day, and the price scales with it.

What that changes is the 6pm decision. There isn't one anymore. Dinner is already made and it's the thing you actually want to eat, which is the only reason any of this works. Good intentions in the crisper drawer don't feed anybody.

Leftovers get eaten too, because the portions are sized for real meals rather than optimistic ones.

The honest parts

A few things worth knowing before you decide:

• It's one afternoon a week, not a personal kitchen staff. I'm not there nightly, and this isn't catering.
• Groceries are yours, at cost, with receipts. My weekly fee starts at $290 and covers the planning, shopping, cooking, and clean-up. The food itself is billed exactly what it cost.
• It works best when you're honest with me. Tell me what you didn't like. The menu should get better every few weeks, and it only does that if I hear the truth.
• I take a small number of households. That's deliberate — it's what keeps every menu specific to one family.

If you're considering it

I cook weekly in homes across Cary, Apex and Raleigh, one kitchen at a time. If you want to talk it through, the consultation is free and there's no commitment — it's a conversation about your household, what you're tired of, and whether this would genuinely help.