Private chefs are spilling the culinary secrets of the super-rich
The pizza was the appetiser for a posh dinner party in Los Angeles. Ms Baevsky—who says she cooks for royalty, sports stars and actors—made sure to record herself serving the pizza, lest anyone think it was satire. Known online as Chef Bae, she is part of a batch of private chefs offering their followers a chance to ogle opulence.
Private chefs serve up their recipes with a side of celebrity intrigue. They give fans tours of gargantuan fridges and record trips to fancy food shops such as Erewhon and Citarella. Ms Baevsky says a client spent $20,000 to send her across the world to fetch some favourite chocolate and nuts. Emily Ruybal serves four-course menus on yachts in the Bahamas. All this draws in viewers: the hashtag #privatechef has been viewed nearly 5bn times on TikTok.
In the summer many private chefs head to the Hamptons, an upscale coastal resort near New York. Private chefs such as Meredith Hayden (pictured), whose username is @wishbonekitchen, have gone viral for video diaries of 17-hour catering shifts. According to TikTok the 'Hamptons aesthetic', a style of decor inspired by the luxurious beach houses, is one of the trends of the moment.
Menus in the Hamptons typically involve salad leaves rather than gold ones, harvested by hand from immaculate vegetable gardens. As Jill Donenfeld, co-founder of the Culinistas, an American private-chef agency, puts it, clients not only seek 'caviar and lobster' but also simple 'farm-fresh ingredients'. The firm's most popular dish is its 'burrata bar', in which the creamy cheese is heaped with toppings such as prosciutto, peaches and pistachios. Some clients ask chefs to make the dishes served at their favourite restaurants.
The industry has benefited from its viral moment. The Culinistas, which pairs households with chefs, says business in the Hamptons this summer is up by 40% on the year before. (It costs around $50,000 to hire one of their chefs for the season.) The rich and famous are seeking out chefs they see on their Instagram feeds. In turn, private cheffing—a career long seen as inferior to chefs de cuisine—is being taken more seriously by culinarians.
Yet not much is private about TikTok's private chefs. In a business that often demands discretion, Ms Baevsky notes how 'fun' it is to make videos with Hollywood clients such as Emma Roberts and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Some chefs are now celebrities themselves. Ms Hayden's 'The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook' is a bestseller. She has quit the long shifts and bought her own house in the Hamptons. Perhaps, in time, she will hire a private chef.
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