Welcome to the Private Chef Show. I’m Helen Cho with Private Chefs Inc., where we take you behind the scenes into the secret world of the private chef.

Whether you’re a trained chef looking to make the move into private service or an experienced professional looking to strengthen your presentation, the resume is where it all begins. For over 30 years, one thing has remained constant. The resume is the first and most important step in the placement process. It’s the difference between landing an interview and being passed over entirely.

It is vital to address an oversight that we regularly encounter which can stall your application before it even begins. You must include your current address and contact information. I know it sounds simple, but this is essential so our headquarters can identify exactly which state you are in and route your file to the correct office.

At Private Chefs Inc., we operate through six regional offices across the country. By providing your current location, we ensure you are connected with the specific team that will be working with you directly on local placements. They are the ones who will sign you up and work with you every step of the way. Put your current base and phone number clearly at the top of the page.

A household manager or a principal is not looking for a corporate employee. They’re evaluating whether your professional background is a fit for a family’s lifestyle. Most chefs make the mistake of sending out a restaurant resume. It does not work. Leave out food cost percentages, revenue figures, and the size of the brigade you managed. None of that translates into a private household context.

At Private Chefs Inc., we set the bar at the highest level. We represent career professionals with a minimum of 8 years of high-level culinary experience. We recommend at least 5 years of gourmet restaurant experience across three different kitchens. When vetting a resume, we look for an educational bedrock, a formal culinary degree or a multi-year apprenticeship. Mastery should be applied in a home, not learned there.

What to include? Profiles and attributes. Start with a brief profile at the top, two or four lines naming the cuisine styles you cook confidently and the dietary protocols you know well. If you have Michelin experience, mention it here in your profile. Highlighting that pedigree at the very top of the page ensures it’s the first thing a client sees.

List positions starting with your most recent. For private chef roles, you must include the family or principal’s name. Without it, the position has no credibility and cannot be verified. For restaurant positions, you must provide the specific cuisine style that was cooked there, whether it was French, Thai, Italian, Indian, or fusion. This allows us to match your technical strengths to a family’s specific palate.

Anytime you list a Michelin-rated restaurant, you must make that distinction clear by putting the rating, for example, two Michelin stars or three Michelin stars, in bold. If you are listing experience at a hotel, you must include the star rating of that property. We want the client to see that elite status immediately.

We also encourage you to list any stagiaires at world-class or Michelin-starred restaurants. These demonstrate commitment to the highest standards of culinary execution and should always be included.

Regarding references, friends and colleagues do not matter. Everyone has friends who will vouch for them, but these carry no weight in the ultra-high-net-worth industry. We only accept professional references from those who occupied a position above you in the hierarchy of your workplace. This can include principals, estate managers, executive chefs, sous chefs, chef de cuisines, or restaurant owners and managers. We need to speak with the individuals who directly supervised your performance and can verify your technical mastery and professional conduct.

A food portfolio must accompany your resume. Clients expect to see the visual quality of your work before they ever invite you to an interview. To support our talent, we provide a free tool on our website at privatechefsinc.com that you can use to create your own high-quality food portfolio.

A resume that speaks the visual language of private service is the one that gets the call. Do not try to compress your experience into one page. Three to five pages is appropriate for an experienced chef. Clients want your full history going back to your first position. Every job tells them something about your trajectory.

If you meet these standards, we invite you to register with Private Chefs Inc. Visit our website to access our portfolio tools and begin your journey toward a gold standard placement.

I’m Helen Cho. Thank you for joining us on the Private Chef Show. We’ll see you in the next episode. If you enjoyed this video, subscribe to our YouTube channel for more behind-the-scenes insights into the exclusive world of private chefs.