Art & Culture

Wealthy Families Are Employing Top NYC Chefs

Laura Lee
Apr 27, 2020

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, many people are out of a job. One sector that has been hit particularly hard is the restaurant scene. On March 17, all restaurants in NYC were informed that they could no longer continue to offer dine-in services, and would have to switch to a take out or delivery model instead. Unfortunately, many restaurants have had to close their doors – some temporarily, some indefinitely, and some permanently. Now, many of the city’s top chefs are being employed by wealthy families as personal chefs.

New York City’s restaurant industry makes nearly $50 billion in sales each year and employs 167,000 workers. This booming industry has been seriously impacted by the health crisis. Therefore, many chefs have been heading out of the city, and into the homes of some of the country’s wealthiest families, who are hiring them as private chefs. While it’s certainly a different mode of working than the one they’re accustomed to, working as a personal chef has its upsides. Apparently, many chefs make twice as much as they normally do as private employees.

chef chopping vegetables

Getty Images/RUNSTUDIO/Moment

Working as a family’s private chef enables many restaurant employees who are currently out of a job to remain employed while maintaining a steady income. Interestingly, many of these top chefs are making more money working as a wealthy family’s private chef than they did when they were working in prestigious restaurants. The pandemic has had a serious impact on the restaurant industry as a whole and on the individual lives of its workers. The social distancing and stay-at-home measures put in place forced many restaurants to cease their services. Fortunately, these chefs are finding other ways to make a living during the crisis, and they are certainly paying off.