Having dinner in Hong Kong and traveling by private jet to eat in Cuba the next day feels like a scene from the series Successionbut it was the reality of Pablo Albuerne, better known as @gipsychef, for several years. Albuerne traveled side by side with a prominent Chinese businessman for almost five years around the world and ended up becoming his gastronomic guru: she prepared his meals, yes, but she also handled restaurant reservations, advised him what to order or bought him the best acorn ham on the market if he felt like it.
It is one of many examples of how the private chef’s job goes well beyond the kitchen: among his tasks there is also managing expectations, acting as an impromptu nutritionist and even as a shadow confidant.
Who hires a private chef and why
Having a personal chef is not within the reach of many. However, there are different types of customers and, within the sector, also hierarchies. There are professionals who work seasonally in villas or boats – especially in destinations such as the Balearic Islands or the Costa Azul – whose role is to ensure a complete gastronomic experience during the holidays. At an intermediate level there are those who cook for families with multiple residences: they know their tastes, plan menus and manage suppliers throughout the year, even if only in some cases do they accompany them on trips. And at the upper end appear the private chefs to UHNWIs, —Ultra high net worth individualsthat is, people with assets exceeding $30 million, who travel with their employers around the world and are responsible for everything related to their food: from cooking and shopping to booking tables or supervising local teams wherever they are located.
About 25 years ago, Sarah Stothart headed the private kitchen of one of the great media moguls, in an era when his media empire dictated much of what the world read, watched or thought. “Many were afraid of him, but I had nothing to lose, I was young and I applied for the job out of curiosity. He made me cook something and I made him an entrecôte with french fries. “He loved it.”
For six months, Stothart was his private chef in the Sydney office, an imposing 40-storey-plus building with spectacular views of Hyde Park. There were no budget limits, I could buy whatever I wanted, anywhere in the world: the first salmon to come up the river from a Scottish farm or the most exquisite caviar from a Russian supplier. “But honestly, as a child he had tastes: he loved sandwiches, burgers, pasta. And during company meetings he prepared simple dishes of Mediterranean inspiration but with the best ingredients. Nothing too crazy.”
When luxury is fresh fish seasoned with salt
Contrary to what we might imagine, The simplicity of the food is a constant in customer requests. Raúl Moreno, 23, finished his studies at the Hofmann school in Barcelona and began working in summers in villas and palaces in Ibiza, cooking for families during the holidays. “What they’re mainly looking for is convenience: that you can take care of everything and not have to think,” he explains. “I usually prepare fresh, Mediterranean cuisine for them, including grilled meats and sharing plates; they don’t want cutting-edge things. They’re on vacation, in a relaxed atmosphere and want delicious but casual things.”
Of course, the demand always requires that the products be fresh and of the highest quality, which is why private chefs take great care of the relationship with suppliers such as fishmongers or trusted butchers or local farms and farms. “I worked for a week with a Russian couple who ordered grilled chicken with salad and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Yet, I still stopped by more than seven thousand euros of purchases that week“explains Miguel Orts, alias “the mermaid chef”, a private chef on luxury catamarans for four years. “They wanted really exquisite things: Tuscan water in glass, bottles of Chablis wine at 400 euros a bottle, lobster, filet mignon and caviar, lots of caviar.
Pablo Albuerne confirms that there is an important cultural difference between his Spanish clients – he was a private chef for two national families for years – and his Chinese client: “Chinese culture places a lot of value on things based on how much they cost and with my client there was a lot of wacky improvisation: I went to Alba, Piedmont, for a white truffle that weighed more than half a kilo because I wanted the spectacle of having a large truffle in my hands. There were no such eccentricities in Spanish families.”
Organization, key to improvisation
Private chefs don’t just cook: they are responsible for purchasing ingredients, managing menus, searching for the best suppliers and adapting to different culinary scenarios: preparing a last-minute business dinner, planning a banquet for 50 people or tackling a demanding request “like ensuring that in less than three days a huge almadraba bluefin tuna, caught in Cadiz, arrives very fresh in Bordeaux”, says Albuerne, recalling this episode with his Chinese client. “Impossible? No. Hard? Quite a bit. But hey, I was known for my ability to satisfy his whims. After all, what is impossible, in many cases, money makes possible”.
These chefs usually work with unlimited budgets and creative freedom within the scope agreed upon with their clients. “Sometimes I miss cooking more avant-garde dishes,” admits Orts, “but then I remember the conditions of the restaurants I was in and he goes. “I prefer the quality of life that this job gives me to the technical creativity that perhaps I lack.”
But that freedom also redefines work. The work of a private chef is far from that of a restaurant, not only because it shuns the repetition of millimetric dishes, but because the difference in stress level. “In a restaurant kitchen we can see ourselves overwhelmed, in a bad mood… In a home you can’t allow that. You have to see yourself smiling and confident,” says Moreno. This also makes up for it: “The hours are long and you have to be very disciplined and organised, but in a restaurant I spent up to sixteen hours non-stop and with very high stress. At least here I only depend on myself and I organize myself in my own way.” Miguel Orts agrees: “It’s not as stressful a job as in a restaurant, but it’s difficult to live in a small space with the crew and different customers every week.”
Even the rich shout
The first thing Sarah had to do when she started working for the tycoon was sign a confidentiality clause. In those offices millionaire deals were closed and everything had to be protected. Private chefs work for very wealthy people and often with a lot of media visibility, therefore Discretion is essential. Pablo Albuerne believes that this quality must be innate: “Discretion is a matter of personal character. Being a gossip is unfavorable in any job, it must go hand in hand with human qualities.”
Living together 24/7 exposes you to uncomfortable situations. “On the boat where I work they don’t force me to sign anything, but there are complicated moments, like the discussions in front of you,” says Orts. “But that rarely happens; most of the time everything goes normally.”
Albuerne, who worked for three different families, emphasizes the human relationship: “For me it was important to be treated like one of them and to establish a relationship of mutual respect with my client, as with any person I respect. I didn’t want to feel part of the service, and with all my clients I have established a real bond and we still maintain friendly relations.”
In shorter works, however, the relationship changes: “Sometimes they treat you haughtily, especially women,” says Orts. “Many of my colleagues are treated worse than me.”
So is it worth being a private chef?
Despite everything, there is one obvious advantage to the job of a private chef: the salary. “Conditions in restaurants are terrible and this job allows me to travel, meet people, work at sea and earn four times more,” confesses Orts. Raúl Moreno confirms it. After a challenging stage At the three-star Noma restaurant in Copenhagen he prefers to continue as a private chef: “It’s a grateful and better paid world. There is no possible comparison.”
To give us an idea, a traveling private chef (those who work for a boat or villa company and cook during the holiday stay or week on the boat charge those figures weekly) can charge between five thousand and six thousand euros per month without counting tips, which in a good month can round the figure up to eight thousand euros.
Of course everyone agrees: it can’t be done just for money. “They pay you a lot not only because they are rich, but because they demand excellence,” explains Moreno. Along the same lines, Albuerne warns: “The economic difference is huge, but I don’t recommend doing it just for the money. In reality you also gain in experience, and this must be valorised.”
The salary may be high, but it’s not a life for everyone, adds Pablo Albuerne. “It’s a job that requires sacrifice. In the end, You are in a golden prison and living someone else’s life. I’ve traveled all over the world on private jets, I’ve been to incredible places, but I go where my client wants to go and cook what they want to eat. There is an element of emotional rapture, including Stockholm syndrome.”
All these conditions make this job a temporary option rather than a viable one. “Working on a boat is interesting, but you become detached from your personal life and end up living another reality,” says Orts. “Being a private chef is lonely: you’ll earn money, but it’s not very compatible with your private life.”
For Albuerne, however, the most difficult thing was not the loneliness: “The loneliness didn’t weigh on me because I felt close to my clients. What he missed most was freedom: being able to decide what I want to do at any moment.”
Perhaps this is why, for many, being a private chef ends up being just that: a gilded cage.
