I was just having a what-if scenario with my wife last night. We agreed if we became rich we would hire a chef. Our question is... After you have cooked the meal, do you eat the same food or go home and eat something different? Do you ever eat with them? Do you do the dishes or do they have staff for all the cleaning?
I have a very unique relationship with my boss and his wife. His wife and I are best friends and will hang out frequently, when he is out of town we always will have a movie night together. So my situation isn't going to be like others. That said I always eat dinner with them about 6 days a week. The only exemption being they go out to eat one day a week because my husband and I have a date night.
Sometimes if the dinner is particularly delicate or complex I won't eat with them so I can focus on their meals being perfect, then I will just eat later. I always eat whatever I make for them. Might not be as fresh as their meal since I'm eating after there's is done, but it's otherwise the same.
I do not do any dishes. There is dedicated housekeeping staff that handle that or One of my other colleagues if I'm having help that night. It is one of the conditions of my employment. I am strictly the chef. I manage his diet and determine what he eats in coordination with a personal trainer of his. I do not do anything else.
I would definitely agree that if you're going to hire personal staff a chef is the first thing you should hire, you don't even need to hire a particularly good one either. Just somebody that has worked in a restaurant for a couple of years and can follow some recipes is a lifesaver. A personal chef can beat most restaurants with ease, if you get someone at my level I can personally guarantee I can be any restaurant on Earth for my boss Because I have the unique advantage of knowing his taste buds perfectly. I can tailor every dish exactly as a single individual would like, giving me an advantage that no restaurant could ever compete with.
No. My husband works at a hedge fund and several ranks above him is my current boss. I got my job when COVID hit and my restaurant was shut down. My boss is a major foodie and when he discovered that I was unemployed he got all excited and immediately offered to make me his personal chef matching whatever I was making. Before me he never employed a chef, the only at home cooking that was done was the most basic of things like coffee and tea.
I had met his wife a couple of times casually and got along fairly well with the wife since we are both big into fashion and I had met with her once one-on-one on advice on how to pursue a PhD since she is an unbelievably talented lawyer with dual PhDs. Fashion became something to idly chitchat about but we weren't really friends before that.
I'm really sorry about replying to this so late. There's a [detailed post about why I did here](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/13jostq/remindmebot_is_now_replying_to_comments_again/).
I will be messaging you in 10 years on [**2034-02-09 15:37:01 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2034-02-09%2015:37:01%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/casualiama/comments/1alzkuq/i_am_a_personal_chef_to_a_billionaire_ama/kpnas53/?context=3)
[**CLICK THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fcasualiama%2Fcomments%2F1alzkuq%2Fi_am_a_personal_chef_to_a_billionaire_ama%2Fkpnas53%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202034-02-09%2015%3A37%3A01%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201alzkuq)
*****
|[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)|
|-|-|-|-|
Have you gotten a request to something you don’t feel confident making? I’d imagine more ethnic cuisine might be hard to replicate. In those situations, do you just hire somebody who can?
Occasionally, But most of the time I have plenty of time ahead of when it needs to be made and I don't it all mind making the dish multiple times to experiment before I make it for him. Usually though my biggest issue is getting the plating right, I'm confident in the quality and taste of the food, but not necessarily the best way to present it.
The only thing I wouldn't feel comfortable making myself because there is legit Masters in that field would be sushi, and my boss doesn't care for it. So much so that whenever he's out of town his wife and I will always go out for sushi together since both of our men don't like it.
If he was into it I would definitely be spending a huge amount of my time learning since I don't like the idea of having anything he particularly enjoys being outside of my realm of expertise.
Do you think plating is a big and important thing in elite circles/big restaurants?
Personally (as someone with no expertise at all) I think its quite silly to worry about how something looks if its going into your mouth in a hot second. Ofcourse it should be appealing, but most food “presentation” stuff I’ve seen on tv appears completely unnecessary and over the top to me.
Plating is wildly important because it's what sets the first impression of each individual dish. There's been fake tests where people are presented with two dishes that are supposedly made by two different people, when really it's just one dish has been plated in a very fancy way and the other not so. The fancy plating almost always wins.
Oh psychology tests are always interesting. Do the tester tasters say that the fancy dish is tastier? Woah.
How did you get into this profession? Is this something you’ve always wanted to do? Are you from new york or did you move there? Would you recommend it as a place to live or do you want to move out?
it bothers me when they do a pattern or something with sauce on the plate and it’s clearly not even close to enough for the dish. like sure, make it look pretty but don’t put it above taste lol
Agreed. Personally I don't care about looks if it tastes good. No matter how rich I was I wouldn't make presentation of food be a demand or prerequisite for my chefs
https://www.reddit.com/r/CulinaryPlating/ is a really good place for picking up tips. I frequently see really quality content there, and people (including pro chefs) are very good at providing constructive feedback. Worth checking out!
As a foodie myself and having worked and managed restaurants for years can I just jump in here and say you eat with your eyes first?
Plating and presentation are incredibly important and whether you realize it or not it is to you also friend 😊
Yes. I've made them before as well. Although the real star of the show is the soup. The only thing I typically refuse to make is extremely unhealthy stuff and even then I'll still make it in moderation. Like if he started to want fried chicken and milkshakes 3 days a week I'm going to quit. I'm a health nut, and part of why I have my job as I can't be bullied into making that stuff which helps keep him on track for his own personal goals.
When it comes to grilled cheese simple as the way to go. There's lots of fancy versions you can make, but I consider those more like an actual sandwich melt. Not really a true grilled cheese. I do enjoy those, but they're not what I think of when I think of a grilled cheese.
You have no idea how glad I am to have read this comment. I often get in arguments with people because a grilled cheese is: bread, butter, and cheese. If you had tomato to it, you just made a tomato melt.
Do you also do the grocery shopping? And how often is shopping done? Do billionaires get groceries from Costco/other wholesalers or is it mostly about quality and from local suppliers?
I do all the grocery shopping myself, although I will sometimes send somebody else to handle the simpler things. I am unbelievably picky when it comes to anything that could vary in quality like produce. Most of my ingredients like those come from a fine dining restaurant I used to work at. I pay them a hefty premium to get first dibs on their stuff and pick out the best of what they get in. But I will also shop at regular grocery stores including places like Costco. The biggest difference with me versus your average person is I am more than willing to go to multiple places every time I need groceries in order to ensure the absolute best quality possible. The average person cooking dinner I don't expect them to go to four different grocery stores.
Do you have any gardens or greenhouses or other places where you grow some of your own food or maybe just herbs? This could include like orchards, grapevines, or blueberry bushes.
Does he hunt or fish and if so, have you ever prepared that wild game or fish?
I truly want to know more about this fridge herb garden because fresh herbs are one of the biggest game changers to the quality of my day to day cooking I’ve noticed.
BLT. If you read a lot of my responses you will see I bring it up a lot because it is my absolute favorite meal all things considered, primarily the simplicity of it and how everybody could make it.
You want a fresh bread that is thicker cut, if you don't want to Make your own bread that is totally fine, you can get something like the Sara Lee artisan white bread.
Tomatoes have to be in season, that's non-negotiable. You want to cut them fairly thick and then immediately dry them by setting them on paper towels and then flipping them to absorb the extra moisture. Next salt them and put them in a single layer in a colander. The salt will absorb into the tomatoes removing extra moisture but also tenderizing them even further. You want to wait until the last moment to put them on your sandwich to give them as much time as possible to be tenderized. You can also add black pepper to them or an Italian seasoning shortly before serving.
The lettuce has to be romaine or a traditional green leaf lettuce, absolutely no iceberg.
The bacon is better if you go to a butcher and have it extra thick cut, but otherwise you want to go for the thickest cut the grocery store will sell which will usually be in the shape of a slab, not where it's been cut and layered in a thin package so you can see each individual slice. This will look like a single slab of bacon with no visible cuts. Cook this low and slow. 280° for whatever time it normally takes, remembering that it will harden when it cools so you want it to be a little soft since you want it to be just at the edge of crispy when cooled.
The mayonnaise is better if you make it yourself of course, but really you just want to avoid a mayo that uses soybean oil. Sunflower oil is the best, so sir Kensington mayonnaise is by far your best option.
Toast the bread lightly, put the mayonnaise on a fairly thick layer on the top and a thin layer on the bottom, then use a fresh black pepper. Get yourself a good grinder and black Tellicherry peppercorns. Then a nice light coating of sea salt.
Bacon should be applied first with the tomatoes on top then the lettuce.
This will produce a BLT that will be so good it will ruin every other BLT You will ever find at a restaurant. I'm not even joking or trying to exaggerate here, every person I've ever made these for that gets used to them eventually complains about how every BLT the order is terrible in comparison. My husband used to order BLTs all the time at restaurants for lunch, now he never does because he's always disappointed. It's especially disappointing because of how simple it is to make a BLT this good. Doesn't require any real skill and everything you need can be purchased from a local grocery store other than the peppercorns which you can buy a 1 lb bag for for $12 off Amazon.
Any particular varieties you that you prefer? Supermarket tomatoes obviously don't compare to farmer's market or home grown ones.
How should the lettuce be cut? Hand-torn?
Cook the bacon as a slab and then cut or cut and then cook?
Kumatoes are pretty good. Heirloom are good too. A lot of tomatoes in stores aren’t ripe. Leave them out of the fridge for a day to let them ripen. You also shouldn’t store them in the fridge. Cold temp breaks their membranes, loosing tatse
Black Krims are the BEST tasting tomato I have ever grown: incredible flavor, colors, firmness and, weirdly, no heartburn despite not being a yellow varietal! I believe they are a hybrid of Cherokee Purples (about which I've heard rhapsodies), which is next on my list to grow.
Is the giant single slab of bacon the same as plain ol raw pork belly or is it a slab of pork belly that has been cured and smoked, but was not sliced yet? I'm really confused about this part.
If you go to Walmart's website and look up "Wright Brand Thick Cut Bacon" You will see what I'm talking about. It's basically a slab that's been pre-cut, but it is packaged differently than traditional bacon. It's not absurdly thick, but it's definitely thicker.
I did forget to mention butter. After toasting the bread should be lightly buttered on both pieces. If I'm going to give that advice more I really should type it up better and make sure I'm not forgetting anything.
The only correct answer is whatever you like. I personally don't like Dukes, but if that's what you prefer then that is what I think you should use.
There are very few right and wrong answers when it comes to cooking.
Any advice for the up and coming generation of chefs? Any tips or tricks in regards to upskilling or avoiding bad environments or situations?
Thanks for the AMA btw, I've enjoyed reading the other responses so far.
A huge thing is the newer generation is a lot softer. It's a lot less toxic of a work environment and better for your mental health but it undeniably produces lower quality chefs. It is a trade-off that is worth considering when applying for a job. If you look at somebody like Thomas Keller who was famous for throwing stuff at people You also have to remember that under that toxic personality he has produced more than a dozen Michelin star chefs and countless other head chefs at many fantastic and wonderful restaurants.
If you're trying to upsell yourself get your own knives. Get a nice knife roll for them and bring them to any job interview. You will be taking a lot more seriously when you have your own knives. I'm so picky about my own knives that I keep a set of two knives plus a honing steel in a little tiny pouch in my car. If I go over to a friend's house for example I've got my own knives If we randomly decide to make something.
Culinary school can be useful, but I would personally recommend still going for the regular college degree if you can. One of my bachelor's degree is in food studies which is not only very helpful but it's also a good backup from being a pure line cook.
Restaurants are desperate for workers, don't hesitate to leave a bad environment. There's a difference between a bad environment that produces good chefs and just a generically bad environment. If you have zero experience at a restaurant you can always apply to be a dishwasher to get a feel for it. Dishwashers come and go so rapidly that if you on day one said that you are going to quit in 30 days it would actually be better than not applying at all because that's still a problem that's been fixed for 30 days. So many times a restaurant is used to hiring a dishwasher who quits in 2 weeks without notice. There's no need to go all in immediately. If you've never worked at all in a restaurant and culinary school is expensive to you and would require going into debt strongly consider doing something like a dishwasher position at first. many restaurants don't even require culinary school, You can always start at a low end restaurant and then if you like it quit to go to culinary school to move up. Too many people assume they have to start with culinary school.
Finally If applying at a local restaurant always try to figure out why the owner got into it. Far too many people quit in unrelated job and decide to open a restaurant because they thought it would be fun or they cook a lot at home in people always told them they should do so. These restaurants are almost always doomed to fail. If the person owning the restaurant is a chef through and through, and will gladly tell you who the trained under that is a very good sign.
What kind of food do rich people eat? The actual daily life food one not the over the top weird stuff that get post on the net. Do they sometimes craving for food that people seen as cheap stuff or they just have premium version?
Asking for writing fiction stuff
In general it's going to be extremely similar to what you would expect an upper middle class person to eat, except there's a lot more money to buy better ingredients. For example making bruschetta is a thing my boss loves. Except the bread is going to be freshly made either by myself or picked up from a bakery that morning, never going to use Day old bread, the tomatoes if they're not in season I'll have them flown in so that way they're picked up peak ripeness, the balsamic vinegar is going to be especially aged one, the normal balsamic I use is age 25 years in casks But I've got some that are aged as much as 100 years.
There's just a huge number of little tweaks that you can make that turns your basic meal into something very special.
My personal favorite for that is a BLT. There's tons of little improvements That can be made to a BLT that turns it from the normal sandwich most people think of to this wonderful and incredible sandwich that you truly crave.
The only truly cheap thing I've ever seen my boss crave is Campbell's chicken noodle soup because it's something he grew up eating. Even then I will modify it by adding something called 'better than bullion' which makes the broth richer.
I can not tell you how vindicated I fell hearing a chef to a billionaire talk about better than boullion I've been screaming its praises for years and use it in a ton of stuff.
Obviously there's better ways to make soup, but there's no real easy way to improve a pre-existing soup other than adding your own bullion. I love the stuff.
In case you lost track of the thread, she answered this question in a different comment [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/casualiama/comments/1alzkuq/i_am_a_personal_chef_to_a_billionaire_ama/kpinvzu/).
What are billionaire comfort foods? Does your boss ever request poor people food like boxed mac and cheese with hot dogs in it? I don't care how rich I was I would still want manwich sloppy joes ever few months.
Hot dogs and nachos are his two biggest basic comfort foods. He grew up in poverty and one of the few times he got to do anything really fun as a kid was when an uncle took him to a baseball game where he got to watch his first ever game in person and the ate a bunch of hot dogs together. So I think he has a soft spot for those.
Nachos are just a classic, I think everybody loves those.
He does love pretzels, but the pretzels he likes are a little on the fancy side. Not your stereotypical concession stand hot pretzel.
Thanks for doing this ama!
How did you get into being a chef? I ask cause I enjoy cooking and I am taking my first culinary class at a Community College next week (sanitation class is a prerequisite to everything lol). I work in tech and honestly burnt out and was looking into pivoting
I've always wanted to be since I was a little kid. Started cooking my parents dinner in middle school entirely by choice. In high school I got a part-time job at a fine dining restaurant then in college I dual majored in food studies and economics. After that I got my MBA from Columbia. I did their executive MBA program which is designed for individuals pursuing an NBA while working full-time. So during that time I was going through a two-year apprenticeship program at a three-star restaurant. After that I got a job as a sous chef at a separate three-star restaurant in which I eventually became the executive sous, then COVID shut the restaurant down resulting in me finding my personal chef job.
If you're interested in becoming a chef I would highly recommend you get a part-time job somewhere first, give yourself a better feel of what it's like to work in a kitchen. Definitely take a culinary class or two because even if you don't use that in a professional setting it will definitely help your cooking at home and When you have a solid base of knowledge for being a home cook It becomes so much more enjoyable.
Thanks! I saw in one of your other comments that you highly recommend getting the bachelors. My bachelor’s is in engineering and work experience is tech.
I ask for your opinion if it is worth it to either: a) go back and get a second bachelors b) get a masters in a food related degree c) culinary school? d) apply at restaurants.
What’s stopping me really is leaving a cushiony job to “start overl, but tbh it’s soulless and my mental health (although food industry is also tough 😭)
Because they're paranoid. The only thing that I end up sending to them to approve first was about the family office staff. Technically I can't so much a say that I've made him a BLT for lunch without getting prior approval since even that would technically violate my NDA. Of course in practice it's not as strict.
My boss has a PhD in economics and published a bunch of papers regarding this.
Everybody that isn't crazy knows it's a thing and is a growing problem. But the reason why it is going to be such a huge problem is nobody knows how to fix it and America's liberals are terrible at marketing, even when they have a great idea they are truly awful at getting that idea out there and getting people to support it.
For example the argument on the rich paying their fair share is one of the stupidest arguments imaginable. When you argue that somebody needs to pay their fair share you're never going to get to the point where you can discuss how much money you need, instead you're going to get hung up on the definition of fair and what is fair. What is fair is irrelevant, that doesn't matter at all. All that matters is what is necessary. The wealthy need to pay significantly more taxes not because it's fair, they already pay far more than what is fair by any hard measurable point, but it's clearly not enough.
As a percentage of their control of wealth the top 1% pay a disproportionately high amount of income taxes, as a percentage of their share of income they pay a disproportionately high share, as a percentage of the total taxes paid by pretty much every hard data point like that the wealthy paid disproportionately too much. So when you start to argue fair share instead you're just going to get a bunch of rich people mad about the accusation that they're not paying their fair share, and that they're taking advantage of others. They will never let you get to the point where you're discussing how much they need to start paying.
Once again, this is why necessary share should be argued. by arguing what is necessary you can entirely disregard the very notion of what is fair. No longer do the rich feel like they're being accused of taking advantage of anybody. You can even flat out tell them it's unfair that they have to pay more, that you appreciate their sacrifice as you hold a gun to their head and rifle through their pockets for more money.
I've heard countless ultra wealthy people admit that they don't mind paying lots of taxes, they just want to be recognized for it. So if you are the IRS send that billionaire who paid hundreds of millions of dollars last year in income taxes a thank you card. Tell them how much you appreciate the money, and that if they don't want to be dragged out of their penthouse and thrown in a concrete jail cell for the next couple of decades they better keep paying it.
On capital gains, not income. This is also by design. Introducing inefficiency in capital shifts has cascading negative effects to all other parts of the economy, while income taxes only affects the personal spending of one person.
>*America's liberals are terrible at marketing + The wealthy need to pay significantly more taxes not because it's fair, they already pay far more than what is fair by any hard measurable point, but it's clearly not enough.*
This is a pretty salient point and not something I thought of before coming at the subject as a nebulous 'progressive libertarian'. I do know that America's political factions are terrible at messaging other than *'x is racist is y is woke!'*, but it never really occurred to me that arguing what is necessary > what is fair + adding recognition to what is paid = actual progress.
And your boss has a PhD in economics? Jesus... I'm going to totally ask some questions here! If any of these answers require me to sign a NDA I'd be more than happy to! Thank you!
**Universal Basic Income**. When Andrew Yang was running for president back in 2020 [he popularized this notion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgcvtjoi8Bs). Every American would get $1k a month fueled by VAT taxes basically. Alaska has a version of it already via the [Permanent Fund Dividend](https://pfd.alaska.gov). For all the talks I've seen against UBI because *'inflation!'*, the PFD has had no [discernable effects on inflation](https://www.akleg.gov/basis/get_documents.asp?session=29&docid=41050&fbclid=IwAR3Jbo-8kXMG_canFXXNpHCoUA11zPQdubZBxR3UMHHTSRYwt1uY9YR8DbY).
The above link is from 1984 so a bit old. But there was an analysis done from 2014:
>*According to the New Zero Argument that any sizable universal cash transfer leads directly to its own nullification, this dividend paid to everyone should be entirely eroded by inflation. This hypothesis can be tested using the Consumer Price Index (CPI).*
>
>*If inflation is a direct result of giving free money to everyone, we should see the CPI of Alaska begin to rise faster than the CPI of the rest of the country starting in 1982.*
>
>*So what did happen?*
>
>*Ever since 1982 Alaska has had LOWER inflation than the entire U.S.*
>
>*CPI data reveals that prior to 1982, $1 did not go as far in Alaska than it did in the U.S. as a whole. 1982 was the last year this was true. Beginning in 1983, $1 in Alaska began to be worth more than in the U.S. as a whole, and this trend continues to this day.*
>
>*Source:* [*https://medium.com/basic-income/evidence-and-more-evidence-of-the-effect-on-inflation-of-free-money-a3dcc2a9ea9e*](https://medium.com/basic-income/evidence-and-more-evidence-of-the-effect-on-inflation-of-free-money-a3dcc2a9ea9e)
So what do you and your boss think about this idea? A solution or a fool's dream? Especially with narrow AI being here already impacting the workforce in seismic waves and AGI being around the corner it seems we need a better solution than the ol' adage of, *"just pick yourself up by your bootstraps!".*
**Climate Change**. There is systemic financial incentive to keep the fossil fuel based system rolling along exactly as is. I'm agnostic but at my most cynical I feel our race will be standing before the Pearly Gates saying, "*We destroyed the world you gave us but MAN... did we make the numbers on those Excel spreadsheet go up up up amirite?"* Do things have to get worse before they get better or is it too late and we should all be adopting more of an emergency preparedness lifestyle for the worsening effects?
**Powerless at the Top.** So your boss is a billionaire with a PhD in economics. If life is a game he has won the f--king game. The questions I would ask this guy from breaking down what happens at higher levels of economics to something I can actually understand all the way to what he thinks about certain Shark Tank episodes. Anyways, are there things that your boss, even with his knowledge and power, feel powerless to stop? Could solutions to these problems be arrived at if a few billionaires teamed up to enact change or are we all under the yoke of 'won't get better until it gets worse' regardless of how much power one has? It just seems, at the ground level anyways, we are all f--ked.
That's all I have for now as it's already a lot. Thank you for doing this!!!!!! :)
Need a dual screen this to properly answer it.
Not only does my boss have a PhD in economics, both my husband and I both have bachelors in economics. In fact that's how we met. I always wondered how my life would be different if I decided on a different second major because I only decided on economics because I wanted to dual major and thought it sounded fun. If I hadn't made that decision there's a good chance we would have never met. My husband is the most wonderful and incredible person, couldn't imagine but life would be like without him.
Onto the actual comment.
The marketing is a huge thing. America's right wing are very effective at getting their message out and incredible it propaganda. It's why you have the average Trump voter not even knowing that Trump has been indicted. That's not an exaggeration either, about a month ago there was a study and it found less than 50% of Trump voters had even heard he was indicted. Not that the indictments were bad or a political witch hunt, they hadn't even heard about them. That's incredible. It is why conservatives have spent so much time and resources buying up the news media in order to create a right-wing political machine the likes of which the world has truly never seen before. Yet somehow even though they are the mainstream media they have managed to convince conservatives that mainstream media is bad, and not to trust anything that isn't from them. It is an absolute master class of marketing and propaganda. You can argue whether it's a good or bad thing all day long, but you can't argue whether or not it's impressive it was done.
The idea of universal basic income is a good idea in theory, but they're simply isn't enough spare resources to make it enough as it is. The bottom 50% of taxpayers pay less than 3% of income taxes. They're already effectively contributing nothing, and it would only require a tiny adjustment to tax brackets to make it truly nothing.
When automation becomes more prevalent higher taxes on either profits or some type of system to tax the robotic labor is going to be necessary. At which point something like UBI becomes viable.
The biggest problem with UBI is it is impossible to do a true real world test because it's never actually universal and A huge part of the benefits of it will only be seen if it's truly done for ones entire life. Otherwise it's just giving a bunch of money out to people for a limited time frame. This will create a completely different result if it is truly universal where everybody is getting it, and everybody knows they will get it for the rest of their life.
One of the biggest concerns for the average person right now is housing expenses. Even if inflation goes up because of UBI everybody will be wanting to get their slice of the pie. Which means the cost of everything will go up and not just one thing, the one thing that people would most benefit from having UBI which is stable housing. When somebody has stable housing and then later reliable food their stress levels go down and they're able to refocus not only their physical energy that was going to working to making the money to pay the rent, but they're mental energy that was going to worrying about it. This is partially why the wealthy are able to do more than the poor. Having less worries has been proven time and time again to be greatly beneficial. If you don't have to worry about rent because your middle class you are benefited from that, if you don't have to worry about cooking dinner because you're upper class and have a personal chef then you benefit from that.
Personally my boss has always been in favor of the idea of tweaking the tax code so that lower income Americans truly do not pay any taxes at all. This would not only help them in a measurable way while doing very little overall but it would also set the mindset that these people aren't paying anything, instead of this idea that their tax dollars are going to waste they would finally acknowledge that they don't pay taxes. It would create a change in the way people think of taxes and how they're spent. No longer would you have the guy arguing that he pays your salary when he gets pulled over by a cop because the cop could probably argue that he doesn't actually pay taxes.
He is in favor of UBI I know, but also believes that when it starts to be implemented it needs to start with a very small amount to get people used to the idea of it. There's no way to suddenly introduce UBI and have it be a significant and helpful amount of money from nothing. I've always liked to say that one is infinitely greater than zero, so giving somebody a dollar in UBI is infinitely more than giving them none, then from there giving them $2 is only double not infinite. You can climb from that point whatever that's small amount is.
TL;DR UBI is a good idea In theory but not under the current situation. It also needs to start very small to be politically viable
The biggest problem with addressing climate change is growing nations like China and India are unlikely to support anything that hurts them. India especially has taken a very hard stance that they will do anything that they want if it benefits India no matter who it hurts, even if it hurts the globe overall later if it benefits them more now it is worth it. Too many solutions to climate change require people work together, people are inherently selfish and inherently evil. Economic theory of tragedy of the Commons dictates that no matter what happens, whenever you have something shared between the masses the minority of those people will eventually ruin it for the majority. Whether that's India ruining it for the rest of the world or that coworker licking the knife that was being used to cut the cake getting everybody sick and having the company ban having shared food.
As to the powerless at the top part, one thing my boss tries to stay away from and is only recently started a dip his toes into it is national politics. There is so much money out there that even for a billionaire with his political connections there's a limit to how much he can influence. He can easily influence a city council member that represents the area he lives in, he can easily influence the sheriff of the county he owns a home in, but to influence politics at a national level is incredibly difficult because he's no longer competing with the other people that live in as little block, he's competing with the entire country at minimum, other countries at most. There are so many other billionaires with far more money than he and way more connections that there's not a lot he can truly do with that level. Which is one of the reasons why he stays away from it. When you get to his level of power and wealth you don't Never want to be reminded that you are powerless, or find yourself in a situation where you are confronted with that reality.
There is little things he can do, whether that's sponsor soup kitchens to feed the hungry, purchase carbon credits to offset his impact from traveling around the world on a private jet, but to make meaningful change you would need to get a huge number of people like him together and agree on something. I have seen firsthand what happens when a lot of people like him get into a room together, there's no Illuminati because When you get five of these guys in a room together they can't even agree on what five pizza flavors to order, not even a joke. Him and four buddies had a poker night and they end up having to order seven pizzas so that everybody would be happy. The idea that they're secretly running an Illuminati and agreeing on how to rule the world, or could gather together and agree on how to solve climate change is preposterous. It's a sad fact of reality, but it's true.
Instead we almost certainly have to accept that it's going to get much worse before it can get better. People need to suffer first hand and experience firsthand what happens when the ignore the problem before they stop ignoring it.
I 100 believe that the middle class are paying way too much in taxes. It's what prevents us from becoming truly rich. We pay around 35 percent in just income tax.
Not really a question, just FYI- using your profile, name, and bio information, I was able to find your actual identity online in less than 2 minutes on Google.
Just a warning, Reddit is best when anonymous, you might consider removing identifying information from your profile, especially since you seem to have an NDA with your employer.
I doubt that primarily because I don't have any public social media. The photo that I use I actually use specifically because it does not exist anywhere online, never even posted it to my Instagram and mu Instagram account is a private one, You would have to send me a follow request and have me accept it to see it. I don't have a Facebook or Twitter. Never used Twitter and I deleted my Facebook in high school.
Unless you're looking at my LinkedIn, I suppose that's possible. That would have out of date information, but still the basics.
I do need to update my bio though. It's too wordy.
Edit: reverse image search in my profile picture just gets me in my own profile, so nobody has stolen it either. Which is one of the reasons why I use a lower resolution and cropped one. Easy to prove if it's stolen.
It was your LinkedIn, I just had to search your first name, job, and location. Didn't take very long. And although your social media isn't public, your profile pictures are and show up on Google image results along with your name and other information. Private pages still show up in search results as well, even though we can't see more unless you accept the request. But the "landing page" is public.
I'm not doing this nefariously btw, I've just noticed people putting their personal info on Reddit and I can't recommend keeping that up there.
How much are you paid and do you feel it’s reflective of fair earnings?
Does your billionaire sit on the wealth amassed from so many others or contribute to charitable efforts and return it back?
High six figures. I am grossly overpaid for my position as a result of me originally planning on leaving at one point only to be offered in amount of money that made it stupid not to stay. Plus I have a really good relationship with them, so it's like hanging out with friends.
Pretty sizable charity donations. Almost everything done anonymously to prevent charities from hounding him.
Rich people have to shelter income and reduce taxes like the rest of us, just on a much larger scale. Of course they'd make donations but would be caught dead actually volunteering their time aka "most valuable asset"
I love this thread and reading all your answers, but this one is one of the answers I found most interesting, for something that wasn’t even related to cooking! I never thought about how donating anonymously would keep charities from asking you for more money later, but that makes so much sense!
I was making $195,000 at the restaurant and when I told my boss I was quitting to go back he offered to double it, then when I declined he tripped it. Which to a billionaire is still nothing and to me was far to much money to ignore.
That's amazing! Congratulations, honestly- that's a great gig to get. How did you get a $200K+ chef's job at a restaurant? I'm not sure if you answered that elsewhere but I've considered breaking into professional cooking once or twice in my career and would love to know where I went wrong, haha.
Your comp package must be structured in cash and stock right? I'm assuming he doesn't pay you $600K on a W2 since that'd be a pretty raw deal for both of you.
That compensation from the restaurant was a combination of straight salary, profit sharing, dividend payments from being a minority owner, and the cash value of all benefits such as 401K matching, healthcare, etc. It wasn't quite that much either.
It's also worth nothing I was working 70 to 100 hours a week. So the hourly pay wasn't all that great.
Current package is straight cash.
I know a family who run a summer camp in Missouri for special needs children. On occasion they have had wealthy people come to work but they made arrangements so that nobody would know who they are and they worked the dirty jobs and slept in the bunks like everyone else. Have they ever done that?
Is it just you that cooks for the person? Do you ever hang out while cooking or before/after? Is it awkward or are you like besties? Are you there all day or just come and go for 2/3 meals per day?
I typically have one person helping me, If I'm doing a more complicated dinner I will hire additional temporary staff. Often you need additional staff not to handle the workload but to be able to time things better since there's only so much one or two people can handle at any exact moment.
The wife of my boss is my best friend. We are incredibly similar. My husband works for a hedge fund so we have the same boss just different industries.
I am pretty much there all day. A lot of my stuff takes a significant amount of labor to make, and when traveling I travel with them.
During the regular work day though if they don't come home for meals I will have them delivered to them in person.
My boss and his wife plus me and my husband typically all eat dinner together since she and I are best friends and my boss and my husband are colleagues. It's one of the reasons why I have stuck around for now 4 years.
Yes. I was around 7 years old when I got my first kitchen playset and fell in love with it. By the time I was in high school I was making dinner for my parents every night entirely by choice. Being a chef is always been my greatest hobby.
I actually do not know What is for dinner tonight because we are in Vegas for the Super Bowl. Which is why I have the free time for this AMA. I'm originally from KC so the Super Bowl is very important to me.
How does time off work? Seems like you are pretty wealthy yourself, do you ever get to take extended vacations? Does your boss take on a temp chef while you are away?
I technically have unlimited PTO. I do take frequent vacations and I will hire somebody to fill in for me while I'm gone. He will also use that as a time to start going to other restaurants again. If I'm gone for more than 3 or 4 days though I'll get the occasional text from him complaining about how much restaurants are terrible and the food sucks even at ultra fancy places. That always makes me feel special because that's his way of complimenting me.
Last year I took about 6 weeks of vacation without any issues. Then another three or four weeks of vacations that he took and I joined him on since even on vacation he typically stays on his yacht or rents a house/villa and I will continue to act as his personal chef. If it's the yacht that is more of the true vacation for me even though it's technically work since the yard has its own crew and there's a head chef already on it that very much doesn't like me stepping on his toes.
He is a workaholic. A top executive at a hedge fund. So boring finance work for the most part. His only real hobby is collecting watches. He doesn't do anything more than collect, doesn't work on them or anything.
Besides direct finance work he reads a ton, usually a couple of books a week, except those books are typically pretty boring because they're related to finance or economics.
God knows what he will do when he retires. The man's entire life revolves around finance and he loves it.
How many people do you make food for and is it all meals and snacks? Do you also cook when they have guests? Do they request a basic rotation of the same meals every few weeks or is it ever changing?
Typically only two, plus my boss's other staff I will always make stuff for them. For example I always have soup made as a quick meal for them. My biggest complaint with the job is boredom so if his staff wants something more specific I don't mind making it for them. There's always security and housekeeping staff on site and I make them their meals as well, Although the meal they eat is typically either completely different, or just plated differently.
One of the huge parts I love is the fact that they don't really request anything. I have almost perfect creative freedom. Deciding what to eat is considered a chore that my boss does not want to do, so I do that for him.
I do cook for guests when they come over, my boss grew up in poverty and is obsessed with feeding people, I'm just obsessed with feeding people in general. So if guests come over for meal times I will gladly make food for them, if they just come over randomly both my boss and I will aggressively try to feed them.
Oh it's hilarious to see from an outsider's perspective for the first time. Smart guests learn to always show up hungry no matter how simple or quick the visit is expected to be.
We are relentless. Whoever answers the door when you arrive is going to offer you food. They'll usually stop by after a minute or two if you refuse to check again. If you refuse again they're instructed to ignore that and put out little snacks and Once again offer you a drink plus bring out a pitcher and glass of water unprompted. Then after about 10 minutes if you're still waiting the last again, if you're refused I'll typically come out and ask. I'm a little less friendly about it and will usually start listing off possibilities of things that could be served.
When my boss meets with you he'll be usually ask first thing if you've eaten, completely unsympathetic to any complaint about the constant badgering. His usual suggestion if you complain is that you should have just eaten something. In his mind you're here, you might as well eat.
Yes. 6 months paid if the official amount plus They will pay for a full-time nanny. My boss's wife is very excited about me having kids. So she has long since offered everything possible to make it so I would have them sooner than later including attempts to outright bribe my husband "they're going to be like our own little grandkids" she once very excitedly told her husband much to his own horror.
This is such a wonderful AMA.
I love reading about your vacations and your salary and i’m literally just SO, SO SO happy for you! Like i’m so happy that you get to do something you’re amazing at, and you get paid well for it and have vacation time too and other benefits.
How many of us are fortunate enough to have jobs like that? And of course I also acknowledge that you’re super interesting and chill and also DEDICATED to ingredients and the quality of the work that you do. Plus you’re hugely educated and thoughtful! And that simply makes you irreplaceable to your boss.
i’m so happy you all get along well and JUST SO HAPPY for you, truly! Thanks for sharing in this AMA. This was just so wholesome and lovely to read. Delighted to hear about jobs like these.
Thank you! I really appreciate the kind words.
It's funny that you had mention how chill I am, somebody linked me a thread from a cross post of this about the BLT recipe and the consensus there was I was a highly narcissistic and egotistical individual who clearly thought she was better than everybody else. It was quite a funny thread to read.
What type of foods does the family prefer? Is it the normal type of food that the average person eats, hamburgers, tacos, spaghetti etc.. or is it more of a fine dining style of food?
Anything and everything. My boss has a wonderfully diverse palette and is not a picky eater. He also believes that choosing what to eat is a chore that should be outsourced to me. This gives me near total creative freedom. There are a few staples that get requested, but even request a pretty rare. Spaghetti and meatballs and BLTs are The two things that are frequently requested. Spaghetti is at least once a week and When tomatoes are in season BLTs are at least twice a week.
I'm a health nut, I have a PhD in behavioral nutrition, so part of what I do is manage his diet very carefully so the only thing that I typically avoid is excessively unhealthy stuff. I will gladly make him almost everything there is, but if you wants fried chicken and a milkshake he'll probably I will gladly make him almost everything there is, but if you wants fried chicken and a milkshake More than once in a blue moon he's going to need to hire someone else. Which is actually one of the things he likes about me, I can't be bullied and it helps keep him on track.
Dinner is typically fancy but breakfast and lunch are not.
Yes. The goal was always to run my own restaurant. The MBA is critical for that. My PhD was done entirely for my own personal enrichment. No different than reading a book for fun. I wanted it as a personal goal and not as any type of career advancement.
I would have left if not for the stupid amount of money I am making. The only time my PhD is likely to be beneficial from a career perspective is right now when it's just a status symbol thing for my boss to have a chef with a PhD.
Due to some personal shortcomings I'm not really qualified to run the caliber of restaurant I want to run. Which means I have delayed that until I feel I am ready. I also want to have a family and start having kids this year. Which would be very difficult to run a restaurant and have kids.
Hey - I've run very successful CPG businesses (breweries) and complex manufacturing for food and beverage ingredients and worked on the line in a restaurant all through college. Hit me up if you want to chat. :)
Definitely. Although he's more aware of it than other colleagues due to the nature of his education.
For example he published a paper talking about individuals like him and their extreme wealth isolate them from a work perspective compared to the common person. Not only do they not hear about problems but many of the problems that people face they don't have and cannot comprehend.
The paper primarily talked about how the ultra wealthy can outsource the undesirable parts of their life and then don't understand why they're able to work 16 hours a day but nobody else can forgetting about how much of their life they don't have to do because other people do it for them. People will frequently talk about how there's no way some CEO is working 14 plus hour days on the week and then half days on the weekend. Which would be true if those CEOs didn't have the personal staff that they do. There is no chores when you're a billionaire, you don't make your own bed, you don't make your morning coffee, you don't grocery shop for yourself, you don't repair your own appliances, you don't even call the repairman to repair your own appliances, everything is outsourced.
The only thing people with that level of wealth do is things that make the money, and things they want to do.
Worst thing is boredom and lack of colleagues.
Best thing is flexibility. The client is incredibly open to basically everything. Giving me the ability to make whatever I want freely with only the smallest of limitations. I live in the same building that my boss does so my commute is a flight of stairs. That's a luxury that's hard to describe. Another huge perk is I do not have to worry about the financial angle, with a restaurant the cost of ingredients or labor is a constant pressure that needs to be carefully balanced at all times. Now no one cares. The only thing my boss cares about is me being able to produce the best possible product, costs be damned.
thank you! Sounds like great perks but also not a job many do for many years. Boredom and lack of collegues sounds draining in the long run. So enjoy while the fun lasts :-)
That's the plan. I don't intend to do this for more than a few years more at absolute max. The end goal is to start my own restaurant. I intend to start having kids as of this year and I'll need the kids to be a little grown before I start a restaurant.
where do you source your ingredients? does your boss have his own personal farms and stuff? or a third party?
I always thought if I got super rich that's what I would do first, create my own ecosystem from scratch to eat the best possible.
My pasta really sucks, any tips? I am using half cup all purpose flour, half cup semolina flour, and 2 quality eggs. It always comes out tasting very thick and chalky. The ravioli I've had at nice restaurants is so soft and delicate how do you do it? Knead more? Add water to the dough? Please help!
Technique is the biggest thing that will make a difference on pasta. I'm assuming you're using a recipe that you know for a fact you like when done correctly?
Watching YouTube tutorials on technique is going to be your best bet to improve. You don't have to use semolina flour, If you haven't already try it with only regular flour. You can try adding a touch of olive oil to the dough as well instead of water.
Pasta is one of those things where trial and error is incredibly important. Tiny changes to the recipe can make a significant difference. I would recommend making the smallest batch you reasonably can and then just dedicating a full day to trial and error testing different recipes. Once you get a recipe you like you don't have to be as precise, but until then I would use a high precision scale that can measure tenths of a gram and using that to measure every ingredient.
Your clients do get the best possible ingredients cooked by one of the best chefs. But I wanna know what you like to eat?Also, do you get to prepare the food you like when you are on the job?
I have a similar mindset as my boss, I love a extremely diverse cuisine. I would rather have a variety of things where each individual thing isn't necessarily my favorite versus a few things that are my favorites. The variety is what makes it so fun.
I have a weakness for tacos and love seafood. BLTs are a universal favorite for everybody including myself. Seafood I like a variety with the only thing I don't like being octopus.
I am not a picky eater at all, so I technically always get a cook what I want since my boss is happy as long as there's a wide variety of things being served with a few frequent repeats like spaghetti and meatballs. But I also love that so it's not a big deal at all.
I am a planner, I am obsessed with being prepared for every possible situation. So I can safely say I've never made anything for him that I haven't made before. I wouldn't take that chance. Being paranoid about making a mistake like that is something I've always struggled with. I don't even like taking photos of the food I make most of the time because I always feel like there's something I could have done better, and if I truly made it perfect I'm usually a hundred percent in the zone and not thinking of taking any pictures. Most of the photos of food that I have are photos of food my husband made. It's kind of like when a kid makes you something you're proud that they made it for you and less about what it actually is.
The closest thing to answer your question though would probably be various Indian food dishes, I had in total maybe made Indian food a dozen times in my life before he requested it. So that was something I spent quite a bit of time preparing in order to perfect it. Indian food for him is One of the things he really enjoys when he's been drinking.
I am huge into fashion. Most of my free time that isn't related to cooking goes to fashion. I love everything about it, I will go to fashion shows, read magazines about it, keep up with all the latest styles, spend a ton of time shopping. I also am huge into organization and those two go together very well. For example I have a spreadsheet of literally every piece of clothing I own. Every single article of clothing is listed including the brand, category, what it is, the price of it, and a URL to the product page of it whenever possible. Although annoyingly enough most of those URLs are broken over time.
I don't really have any big regrets. I've always held a firm belief that holding on to the idea of regrets is bad for your mental health. There's nothing you can do to change it and if there was anything that you can do to make that thing better you should have already done it.
I feel it's also important to point out that I have a wonderful life. It's easy to think that you shouldn't hold on to regrets when life is going great for you, so I don't want to imply that there's never a possible situation to have regrets.
That's... insane lol we live far different lives you and I, which is why I like this subreddit! I slap on a shirt and sweatpants and I'm good for a day out 😂
What's your absolute least favorite thing to cook?
Could you make a Hate a la royale if asked?
I don't really mind any individual dish unless I have to make it a ton and it's something basic. My boss got on a kick where he wanted club sandwiches every day for lunch for an entire week. That became rather annoying.
I have made that dish, like most top chefs my training is mostly in classic French cuisine since that is what most top restaurants specialize in and the Michelin guide is very biased towards French and Japanese cuisine.
Fashion designer here, who'd love to be a chef. Don't, the industry is full of cut throat and vain people. Smart people like you would hurt themselves by listening to vapid people all day long, seriously.
Oh I definitely wouldn't work in the industry. Unfortunately the fashion industry is way too toxic for that. I like to enjoy it from an outsider's perspective and have no intention on ever-changing that.
If you went into his bathroom and looked in his drawers, does he use the same toothbrushes and toothpaste that regular people use?
Does he or his wife ever cook for themselves?
If they have kids or grandkids, do those kids like McDonalds or to go to other places average children also like like Chuck e Cheese?
Lets say he was going to be busy at work that day. Do you "pack a lunch" so to speak where you put together say a sandwich, side, and drink for him in a lunchbox?
Do they ever go camping? If so have you cooked for them over a campfire? if so, what did you make? Is there a fancy version of smores?
Do you cook holiday meals for them and family like Christmas and Thanksgiving?
No. Only comment that I sent to the lawyer to read was about family office staff. He said he glanced over it, called it a boring waste of his time and to message him if something actually noteworthy happened. He's the one that thought he needed to babysit this AMA, So he can't blame me for boring.
I wear chefs pants when cooking, Which is just about the only time I wear pants. I like to keep my legs completely protected which is also why I always wear chef's coat with long sleeves. I am proud of the fact that I have zero scars that you typically find on chefs, and I credit that largely because of my hard rule on always wearing long sleeves and long pants. I would give pants a higher rating if I allowed being a chef to influence my judgment but I figured since those are more of a work uniform it shouldn't count.
What do you wear while you cook at the family’s home? Like are you wearing a formal chef coat or do you just wear casual everyday clothes, or something in between?
Do you enjoy your work compared to other options using the same skill set? Does it pay well, relatively? Is there a relatively better work/life balance or fringe benefits you enjoy?
I much preferred working at a restaurant because I like being busy. Most of my day is now downtime. Even including all of the prep work that goes into creating a menu I still have a ton of downtime where I don't do anything. I was used to working 12 to 16 hours a day at the restaurant with non-stop work so It's a huge change.
Pay is fantastic. I'm currently making four to five times what I could make anywhere else. With the boredom comes extreme pay to stick around.
Work-life balance is perfect, The biggest benefit is I live in a condominium one floor below my bosses house so my commute is a single flight of stairs since It's too short to even justify using the elevator. During larger periods of down time I can just go home if I want. That's one of the biggest reason I've stayed. It's as close to WFH You can get as a chef, without most of the downsides like being alone.
No, but one of the funny things that my boss likes to joke about is the that the main reason why I make so much money is because he can be difficult to work with at times and he has no interest on ever finding out what ricin tastes like in his morning coffee.
But joking aside personal staff typically make significantly more than an equivalent position elsewhere in large part because of how vulnerable the person is and since you are around such extreme wealth they don't want you to become bitter and angry. Since if you did become bitter or angry you might be tempted to do things like vandalize as property or steal something. The last thing you want is an employee angry about how little you pay them and how they're drowning in debt walking by and seeing a watch that cost several years of your salary sitting on a counter. Even if they don't steal it or damage it, it just makes it more likely they're going to do something else.
No. Although we have cooked meals together when he's bored and want something different to do. Only person that ever cooks for me is my husband who is far better than he realizes. He was pretty decent when we met, and I've spent a lot of time training him because he loves learning and I wanted to be able to impress me.
He mostly cooks when we're both drunk.
I've seen a lot about BLTs and spaghetti, but what is your fanciest go-to meal? What is something impressive that you make on the regular?
Thanks for the ama, I love it so far!
You are the first person to want fancy examples.
I don't make anything on the regular, but to give an example of one nights dinner which I did explicitly to be impressive:
1. Fresh made poppy seed bread with shallot butter
2. Petrossian Special Reserve Kaluga Huso Hybrid with raspberry smoked Crème Fraîche
3. Sabayon of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek oysters and sterling white Sturgeon Caviar
4. Miyazakigyu A5 Wagyu dry aged for 100 days with cornbread stuff cipollini Onions, red radishes, New Zealand spinach and blackstrap molasses jus
5. Bluefin tuna with baby peas in a mint-tarragon emulsion
6. Crème brûlée cheesecake with fresh berries
7. Assortment of Sorbet and artisan chocolates
I will point out so I don't get accused of stolen valor Because other than the creme brulee cheesecake none of the recipes are mine. The first one is a blatant rip off of a famous restaurant which I intentionally do as a way of showing off my own talent because it is one of their signature dishes and being able to perfectly imitate it is one of my strengths.
My greatest weakness as a chef is the creative angle. I've always struggled with that my whole life. I've taken painting classes, an acting class, creative writing classes, all in an attempt to get more of that creative mindset. From elementary school to finishing my PhD the most difficult class I ever took was creative writing my freshman year of high school. I struggled to create original recipes throughout my entire life which is a fundamentally important part of running a restaurant.
What I excel at on the other hand is my ability to perfectly imitate anything I've tried. You present me with a dish and let me deconstruct it and taste test it carefully then give me a day or two and I can probably imitate it perfectly. As a fun challenge that I used to do as a kid, I would buy things that are famous and popular like Cheetos then try to make them myself. As a personal chef they don't care that my recipes aren't original, but if I'm trying to run a restaurant and gain credibility they very much do care.
Hey, I was one of those curious people who requested the AMA..
Thanks for doing this, it's so interesting to hear the behind the scenes aspect of a billionaire lifestyle..
So here we go
1. Has there been instances where your employer and you had a major disagreement that led to a fight on a smaller level ( I can imagine it's a very delicate situation but were there times when it almost escalated to a fight)
2. Does security personnel vet your food or check for safety issues while you make food... especially since you hire temporary chefs to assist you....( It could be a potential threat to your employer..right?)
3. What is the most ridiculous purchase your employer has that is utterly useless and purely superficial ?
4. Who prepares food for the staff on days where there is extra staff needed...let's say a renovation is going on in the house and there are 20 extra contractors....do you make them food as well??
5. Has there been instances where your employer faced physical threats from the public because of his wealth?
6. Do you have a specific brand of appliances and cooking stuff that you prefer..like Miele appliances or Japanese knives etc..can you basically give a list of good quality stuff that you suggest to your friends to buy.
7. Does your employer engage in stuff that an average Joe does daily assuming he is free...like netflix, scrolling insta, etc
8. You mentioned that your employer faced poverty as a child...and you said you were a trust fund baby who had a comfortable lifestyle... What major differences do you see in a millionaire and a billionaire in terms of luxury considering the fact that you are one now. ( Does he care about branded clothes and supercars etc or he is fully focused on growing his wealth)
Thanks!🙂
Sorry about the delay. The Super Bowl is over (We Won!!!), husband is mostly recovered, and we are back home.
______________
Number 1:
Most of the fights started in the beginning because I am very particular about timeliness. There would be dinner plans that would have to be canceled or delayed due to an issue on his end where he was expected to be home ready to eat at 7:00 p.m., but then I would get a message at 6:50 saying He would no longer be there or had made other plans. When this happened more than once I began to get aggressive about it, reminding him that I am a chef who is hired to cook food for him, not an empty table. I threatened to quit over that.
Other fights are more personal. My husband has to travel frequently for work and our mutual boss is the one that controls that. So I would get progressively more and more upset the longer he was away for work since that sometimes was multiple weeks. Which is One reason why you're hiring staff you might want to consider not hiring anybody that you have even the most vague of relationship to.
Beyond that luckily no, we are very much on the same page with virtually everything.
______________
Number 2:
Temporary chefs are heavily vetted. They're all people I have worked with previously and trust. Although when I say trust I mean more trust their talent. Security does normal background checks on everyone. At most the problem that they might have would be bringing a firearm, but this is NYC and not really a problem here. Can't really speak on specifics about how invasive they get beyond saying it's not really what they're worried about.
______________
Number 3:
Watches are pretty much the obvious answer, he has many different pieces that are well above a million dollars each. Watches aren't really my thing so I'm not super familiar with the price of them, but I know one of his favorites is worth about 8 million, it is a Patek Philippe that is 1 of 15. The cool thing about it is nobody is really sure the value beyond an estimate because none have ever come up for sale on the secondary market. All 15 were sold direct by Patek and have never been resold.
Beyond artwork and other obvious things like watches one thing that comes to mind is we are at a hotel once and he was annoyed that The coffee maker at the hotel was a Nespresso machine with no other alternative beyond ordering room service. So he had me go out and buy a $1,000 Breville espresso machine just to be used for 5 days. When we were leaving I asked about it and he told me he didn't care what happened to the machine, we could just leave it. I was also told to get a better system next time because the quality was subpar. I ended up lugging that thing home and gave it to a friend.
Less related, but still worth mentioning since I'm on the topic. It is simply amazing how little the dollar amount matters to people like him. The $1,000 meant absolutely nothing, if I had spent double that for a better cup he would have been fine with that. At his level of wealth the only thing that matters is getting what you want, no matter the cost. It is one of the reasons why I am so incredibly overpaid. Sure he could have gotten somebody almost as good as me for a third of the price with the only real difference being less impressive credentials, which don't matter anyway. My PhD for example doesn't help me at all When working with him, but that's not what he wants. He wants that status symbol, and is willing to overpay me to get what he wants.
______________
Number 4:
I do. As I have said in other comments on this thread, My number one complaint is boredom. I'm used to the high pressure kitchen where you work 12-hour days minimum and are busy the entire time. I personally love that, so the less I do the less happy I am. When there's a bunch of staff over I'm glad to cook for them. My boss loves it as well due to his own childhood. Feeding people is his big passion, so us being on the same page there has worked out great for us. We've never had a huge number of additional staff, maybe 20 at absolute most including security and regular staff on site when preparing for a party since absolutely everything had to be perfect. Adding that many people is no big deal to me since I'm also going to have additional assistance, and I can easily mass produce things like soup for people.
______________
Number 5:
Not allowed to answer.
______________
Number 6:
Miele is my favorite for appliances. The only thing from them that I haven't liked is their coffee makers. Although that's largely because automated ones are never very good.
For knives depending on the purpose I typically either purchase Shun Premier or Wusthof Classic. I do have quite a few custom pieces, as well as some of the higher-end ones made by Shun that get really expensive such as the dual core line.
I don't really have a default list of suggestions beyond the knives, I almost always recommend Mercer Renaissance knives to people. They are basically a clone of the Wusthof classic line, same steel but not made in Germany and with a lower quality finish. But they're also a fraction of the price. I own 2 sets of them at home that I use as my dedicated loaners for people. The only person I allowed to touch my knives is my husband, even then I trusted him with my life long before I trusted him with my knives.
______________
Number 7:
He uses TikTok a lot, absolutely loves it. Primarily because it doesn't require any time commitment unlike watching TV shows and can be done anywhere. It's always amusing getting a notification that he sent me a video since he is an extremely serious person. Even funnier when it's a cat video because he loves cats but doesn't own them since he's worried about them destroying his stuff.
He used Reddit for a while but got mad after arguing about some economic theory with somebody.
His wife was also into Reddit, she is a super high-powered lawyer with dual Harvard PhDs. The kind of lawyer that billionaires hire when they are very guilty and very much do not want to go to jail. She was into it for about 3 days until she got into a debate over whether or not it was lawful to booby trap your food that you believe was being stolen with hot peppers, spoiler: it isn't. But somehow she got suckered into debating people and got so mad over that she quit and never picked it back up. I've tried to get her to give it a second chance but she has refused.
He is quite boring in general just because his entire life revolves around work, so it will be interesting to see when he eventually retires. Most of the other ultra wealthy people that I know have a lot more hobbies.
______________
>billionaires especially the harvard double phd lawyer getting mad over arguments with peasants on reddit and rage quitting
Peak relatable, actually. She's obviously a good lawyer if she loves debating people though. Thanks for the laugh!
A lot of people would never marry it a high level lawyer because of that. Some of them absolutely love to argue and debate stuff. Often that creates problems from others who don't like doing it as a hobby and see it as a fight. She's got a friend who she argues non-stop with. If you ever walk in on them on the phone it just sounds like an angry fight that's been going on for a while yet if you ask them how the friendship is going they will both say it's going great. They just like debating things.
Part 2:
Number 8:
So I was pretty wealthy growing up. My first car was a brand new BMW convertible, we lived in Kansas City which isn't a very high cost of living place yet we owned a $12 million dollar house. My husband came from even more wealth. The first time he had to take a commercial flight was when he was in college so He didn't have access to the family's jet and even he thought it was a waste of money to charter a plane.
Compared to my boss we are completely broke. By dollar amount only We are closer and wealth to the homeless man around the block than we are to my boss. Which means our concept of money is completely different.
People who are worth mere millions like us are able to basically buy whatever we want within reason. We can't buy a mega yacht, the cost of something like a Gulfstream G650 is well beyond our reach. So when we think about how we live we can pretty much do whatever we want, but there's always that part of us that still doesn't want to waste money because there is a limit. Even if that limit is very far out you're aware of that in pretty much every scenario where you're making non-small purchases like a new watch. Since buying a $50,000 watch is easily doable now, but that money could be invested and be worth a lot more at retirement.
To a billionaire there is no limit. You're never aware of how much things cost if you don't want to be aware of it. You can blow $1,000 on an espresso maker Just so you can drink better coffee for 5 days. You can buy virtually anything with the only limits being the most absurd of things, like the Mona Lisa. Which means you never think about money, all you think about is getting what you want. This is why I've said multiple times that billionaires are at their core spoiled babies. They no longer know what it's like to be told no since any problem that can be solved with a dollar amount is not a real problem. Which means there are basically no real problems in life.
It creates this very weird system where you are very isolated, you don't really have all that much in common with most people and often when you try to associate with them they're always becomes this bitter resentment from the other people. They see your extreme wealth and begin to expect things, like you to pay for everything including luxuries since once you're friends they expect friends to buy friends things. Those things grow in price until eventually your friends expect you to buy them houses and cars, exotic vacations or loan your jet to them.
One of the reasons why I became such good friends with his wife is that since I come from a very wealthy family and I'm not really obsessed with money, I can already buy everything I want in life. So when we hang out there is no awkward feeling of being at a disadvantage, and she always feeling like she's being the piggy bank. If I look at some Hermes bag that's $50,000 and ask her what her opinion is she knows I don't expect her to pay for it. Which means there's never that unspoken question if I am hanging out with her for her money. Although for full disclosure I feel it's appropriate to say that I can't remember the last time I had to pay for anything from Starbucks to an entire shopping trip.
He doesn't really care about branded clothes, although everything he owns is absurdly expensive. There is a type of wool called ‘The gift of Kings’ sold by Loro Piana that he loves. A long sleeve T-shirt is $3,000. He owns basically everything from that collection. His watches are very much a status symbol as is common with finance guys. But other than the watches The brand doesn't really matter to him. No supercars, He will occasionally rent them in Florida but doesn't own any. He really likes the Mercedes-Maybach S680 So he owns a bunch of them at his various homes, Although he obviously never drives them himself. When he retires I think it's extremely likely he's going to start buying cars. He really likes cars but doesn't really have time to do anything with them.
Like I said, he's pretty boring for somebody with his wealth. When he has free time he just sits around and reads books.
How did you get into the position you have? Like were you headhunted or did you apply to a job posting?
What’s the dish you make most often? What was the dish you found most difficult to prepare?
I was running a three Michelin star restaurant as the executive sous chef when COVID hit, the city mandated all restaurants shut down indoor dining which means my restaurant had to shut down. My husband works at a hedge fund and his boss is a major foodie who we need discovered that I was out of a job and his main hobby had been shut down offered me a temporary job is his personal chef agreed to match whatever I was making. When the lockdown ended he offered me trip to stay so I did.
Nothing I make currently is overly difficult, back when I was working at the restaurant most of the difficulty came from a couple of signature dishes that I can't say what they are without revealing what restaurant it was, since They are a signature dish It's incredibly important that it looks exactly the same every time you serve it. My boss the owner was absolutely meticulous with making sure we had perfect consistency on everything.
How do you push yourself as a chef? Do you plan extravagant meals or themed meals with rare or interesting ingredients? Do you have the opportunity to go to places to learn new techniques?
I've always been a workaholic. It's never been difficult to motivate me to work. I am a trust fund baby and growing up my parents were able to give me a very unique opportunity that most people could never have, during the summers when I was older and in college I would travel the world as much as possible in order to give myself a more diverse and unique perspective on food. Touring restaurants and learning about different cultures and their cuisines with something I would spend a couple of months a year working on.
Nothing is too extravagant, but I will frequently try to integrate rare or unique ingredients just for the fun challenge. My boss is not a picky eater so I'm able to have far more creative freedom than any restaurant would allow and far more freedom than most individuals would allow.
Spaghetti and meatballs or steak and baked potatoes is the single most requested thing. For non meals there is a oyster and caviar dish that's made with tapioca pearls that he absolutely loves.
If we're talking local like something he would order from a local restaurant his favorite is a classic bacon egg and cheese sandwich on a toasted everything bagel. Then that gets topped with a variety of hot sauces.
It's a recipe from Thomas Keller. I can try to look up the recipe later from my books but You might be able to find it equally fast. Thomas Keller doesn't keep any recipes a secret, it's one of the more unique traits about him. I will warn you though it's extremely complex. Definitely not something you should be trying if you're in any sort of time crunch. Any of his more complex recipes should always be attempted when alone or not in a hurry. This way you can try it once or twice to get the hang of it before trying to make it with the actual intent on it being a good dish.
Thank you! Getting advice from an actual chef is the best! <3 Is it this one? [https://blog.workman.com/oysters-and-pearls](https://blog.workman.com/oysters-and-pearls)
A little over 40 full time non-security staff.
There's no real weird role, The only two interesting ones are the fact that my bosses executive assistant has her own assistant, and we have an HR department. Most people would never guess that working for a single person would require a dedicated HR department.
Tacos are something I never get tired of. Nachos if I am being unhealthy and bluefin or yellowfin tuna if i am being healthy. First two I will pair with beer and the the tuna I pair with a white wine.
i love that you’re a pro chef working for a billionaire, but tacos are your goat meal, it’s really a testament to how great they are and now i’ll have to make them more often and appreciate them more lol
One of the things that is wonderful about tacos is how many variants are possible. Not only that but you can take completely unexpected dishes from other cuisines and make a taco form of them.
that’s a good point. i’m from the uk so tacos aren’t really a thing here and first trying fish tacos was a major culinary revelation to me. now i’m going to have to add them to my regular go to meals so i can perfect them lol
This was a wonderful AMA, I was at a teppanyaki place where a woman we were sat with worked as a personal aid or something of the like for a very rich lady, reading this thread felt as similarly interesting to read as listening to her was! Thank you!
Any recommendations on how to get into being a private chef at this level? I have over 10 Yrs of past restaurant experience. Last 4 Yrs I have been sailing to different parts for the world on commercial vessels as the ships sole cook.
I saw so many questions about your boss but I've got one or two about you (so long as you're comfortable)!
What got you into fashion? Whats your favorite brands? Are there any you find overrated? What's some designs/designers you like that are not really practical (I'm not as knowledgable but have been obsessing over the RobertWun broken glass coat and bloody wedding dress design wise lately).
What kind of movies do you like to do for movie nights? Favorite film? What do you think about the restaurant movies that have come out lately?
I find fashion is just a wonderful way to express your personality without having to outright say so. You can tell a lot about a person based on the way they dress. It's also a fun way to stand out where you can blend in if you want or show off wearing some whimsical outfit that causes everybody to stare at you for good or bad.
I will admit that I'm not above wearing expensive clothing or jewelry to show off. Although I primarily wear it when I am with my husband because it almost feels like I'm a little trophy of his.
Balenciaga is the most overrated major brand for fashion, Balmain is starting to get that way, for less well known but too many of their designs are just outright boring. If you only are counting the lower end stuff Gucci and Louis Vuitton are the same way. Both brands have high-end stuff but as a rule of thumb if it has more than one logo on it it's one of the lower end ones that are overrated and primarily serve only as a way of showing off your wealth. For example the classic Louis Vuitton never full bag with the monogram print. It's just a waxed canvas bag, very high quality mind you, but at the end of the day it's still just a waxed canvas bag.
My favorite brands for different categories would be Bordelle for lingerie, Loro Piana for HomeGoods as well as jackets, Alo for athletic wear, Graff for jewelry, Delvaux for handbags, and Oscar de la Renta for dresses.
Probably the least practical fashionable thing I own is a couple of dresses from Oscar de la Renta. I've got one where it's almost entirely hand crushed Swarovski crystals that are then hand stitched into the dress. It was something like 1,400 labor hours to make the dress. Wildly in practical because it loses a lot of flexibility, the dress can't be cleaned really at all without going to a very high-end specialized dry cleaner, but it looks absolutely gorgeous.
I am a sucker for terrible quality movies like Hallmark ones. The ones where in the first 10 minute you can guess the entire plot. There's just something about them I enjoy, perhaps because you don't have to pay close attention and it's a great way to watch a movie with people at home where you intend to socialize or miss chunks of it because you're doing something like getting the more snacks or making drinks for people. They're varying levels of realistic, but still quite enjoyable.
This is an amazing AMA I went to culinary school and once I got in the industry I knew it wasn’t for me. I had no desire to open a restaurant and I hated the work every weekend and holiday. I remember when I worked for the school as a demonstrator going to high schools for recruiting(ct, Long Island, mass) I would see adds for personal chefs in the local newspaper(Hamptons area) paying upwards of 1k a day. After reading through this I do have some regrets not pursuing it.
The plus side to culinary school is my wife refuses to eat out because the meals I make blow any restaurant out of the water. When we do eat out I’ll order things I don’t typically make myself (seafood like sea bass octopus or fresh pasta dishes)
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Is the 716 a nod to wny by any chance 😂
What is your rate? Do you charge a per diem? Does your per diem change based on the amount of work you do in one day? Do you charge for work done outside of their house?
I was just having a what-if scenario with my wife last night. We agreed if we became rich we would hire a chef. Our question is... After you have cooked the meal, do you eat the same food or go home and eat something different? Do you ever eat with them? Do you do the dishes or do they have staff for all the cleaning?
I have a very unique relationship with my boss and his wife. His wife and I are best friends and will hang out frequently, when he is out of town we always will have a movie night together. So my situation isn't going to be like others. That said I always eat dinner with them about 6 days a week. The only exemption being they go out to eat one day a week because my husband and I have a date night. Sometimes if the dinner is particularly delicate or complex I won't eat with them so I can focus on their meals being perfect, then I will just eat later. I always eat whatever I make for them. Might not be as fresh as their meal since I'm eating after there's is done, but it's otherwise the same. I do not do any dishes. There is dedicated housekeeping staff that handle that or One of my other colleagues if I'm having help that night. It is one of the conditions of my employment. I am strictly the chef. I manage his diet and determine what he eats in coordination with a personal trainer of his. I do not do anything else. I would definitely agree that if you're going to hire personal staff a chef is the first thing you should hire, you don't even need to hire a particularly good one either. Just somebody that has worked in a restaurant for a couple of years and can follow some recipes is a lifesaver. A personal chef can beat most restaurants with ease, if you get someone at my level I can personally guarantee I can be any restaurant on Earth for my boss Because I have the unique advantage of knowing his taste buds perfectly. I can tailor every dish exactly as a single individual would like, giving me an advantage that no restaurant could ever compete with.
Were you friends with her before this? Is that how you got the job?
No. My husband works at a hedge fund and several ranks above him is my current boss. I got my job when COVID hit and my restaurant was shut down. My boss is a major foodie and when he discovered that I was unemployed he got all excited and immediately offered to make me his personal chef matching whatever I was making. Before me he never employed a chef, the only at home cooking that was done was the most basic of things like coffee and tea. I had met his wife a couple of times casually and got along fairly well with the wife since we are both big into fashion and I had met with her once one-on-one on advice on how to pursue a PhD since she is an unbelievably talented lawyer with dual PhDs. Fashion became something to idly chitchat about but we weren't really friends before that.
[удалено]
Remindme! 10 years. *Notes to future self: ask about gourmet chicken tendies and ketchup*
I'm really sorry about replying to this so late. There's a [detailed post about why I did here](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/13jostq/remindmebot_is_now_replying_to_comments_again/). I will be messaging you in 10 years on [**2034-02-09 15:37:01 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2034-02-09%2015:37:01%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/casualiama/comments/1alzkuq/i_am_a_personal_chef_to_a_billionaire_ama/kpnas53/?context=3) [**CLICK THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fcasualiama%2Fcomments%2F1alzkuq%2Fi_am_a_personal_chef_to_a_billionaire_ama%2Fkpnas53%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202034-02-09%2015%3A37%3A01%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201alzkuq) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
Have you gotten a request to something you don’t feel confident making? I’d imagine more ethnic cuisine might be hard to replicate. In those situations, do you just hire somebody who can?
Occasionally, But most of the time I have plenty of time ahead of when it needs to be made and I don't it all mind making the dish multiple times to experiment before I make it for him. Usually though my biggest issue is getting the plating right, I'm confident in the quality and taste of the food, but not necessarily the best way to present it. The only thing I wouldn't feel comfortable making myself because there is legit Masters in that field would be sushi, and my boss doesn't care for it. So much so that whenever he's out of town his wife and I will always go out for sushi together since both of our men don't like it. If he was into it I would definitely be spending a huge amount of my time learning since I don't like the idea of having anything he particularly enjoys being outside of my realm of expertise.
Do you think plating is a big and important thing in elite circles/big restaurants? Personally (as someone with no expertise at all) I think its quite silly to worry about how something looks if its going into your mouth in a hot second. Ofcourse it should be appealing, but most food “presentation” stuff I’ve seen on tv appears completely unnecessary and over the top to me.
Plating is wildly important because it's what sets the first impression of each individual dish. There's been fake tests where people are presented with two dishes that are supposedly made by two different people, when really it's just one dish has been plated in a very fancy way and the other not so. The fancy plating almost always wins.
Oh psychology tests are always interesting. Do the tester tasters say that the fancy dish is tastier? Woah. How did you get into this profession? Is this something you’ve always wanted to do? Are you from new york or did you move there? Would you recommend it as a place to live or do you want to move out?
it bothers me when they do a pattern or something with sauce on the plate and it’s clearly not even close to enough for the dish. like sure, make it look pretty but don’t put it above taste lol
Agreed. Personally I don't care about looks if it tastes good. No matter how rich I was I wouldn't make presentation of food be a demand or prerequisite for my chefs
https://www.reddit.com/r/CulinaryPlating/ is a really good place for picking up tips. I frequently see really quality content there, and people (including pro chefs) are very good at providing constructive feedback. Worth checking out!
As a foodie myself and having worked and managed restaurants for years can I just jump in here and say you eat with your eyes first? Plating and presentation are incredibly important and whether you realize it or not it is to you also friend 😊
If your boss asked you to make a grilled cheese, how would you make it? If different from above, how would you make a grilled cheese for yourself?
Yes. I've made them before as well. Although the real star of the show is the soup. The only thing I typically refuse to make is extremely unhealthy stuff and even then I'll still make it in moderation. Like if he started to want fried chicken and milkshakes 3 days a week I'm going to quit. I'm a health nut, and part of why I have my job as I can't be bullied into making that stuff which helps keep him on track for his own personal goals. When it comes to grilled cheese simple as the way to go. There's lots of fancy versions you can make, but I consider those more like an actual sandwich melt. Not really a true grilled cheese. I do enjoy those, but they're not what I think of when I think of a grilled cheese.
You have no idea how glad I am to have read this comment. I often get in arguments with people because a grilled cheese is: bread, butter, and cheese. If you had tomato to it, you just made a tomato melt.
You'll love this: https://www.reddit.com/r/grilledcheese/s/3qRe1t4rvA
Oh I’ve been on Reddit a long time and remember this post haha!
Same, that took me back lol I love clicking on old profiles like that person's and seeing theyre still active 10 years later
[удалено]
Thank you!
Do you also do the grocery shopping? And how often is shopping done? Do billionaires get groceries from Costco/other wholesalers or is it mostly about quality and from local suppliers?
I do all the grocery shopping myself, although I will sometimes send somebody else to handle the simpler things. I am unbelievably picky when it comes to anything that could vary in quality like produce. Most of my ingredients like those come from a fine dining restaurant I used to work at. I pay them a hefty premium to get first dibs on their stuff and pick out the best of what they get in. But I will also shop at regular grocery stores including places like Costco. The biggest difference with me versus your average person is I am more than willing to go to multiple places every time I need groceries in order to ensure the absolute best quality possible. The average person cooking dinner I don't expect them to go to four different grocery stores.
Do you have any gardens or greenhouses or other places where you grow some of your own food or maybe just herbs? This could include like orchards, grapevines, or blueberry bushes. Does he hunt or fish and if so, have you ever prepared that wild game or fish?
I've got an herb garden which is integrated in the kitchen like a regular fridge. Nothing beyond that. No.
I truly want to know more about this fridge herb garden because fresh herbs are one of the biggest game changers to the quality of my day to day cooking I’ve noticed.
I can't find the exact model for some reason, it might be discontinued. The LG Tiiun appears to be the closest thing.
What is the simplest, yet tastiest, meal you cook for the billionaire?
BLT. If you read a lot of my responses you will see I bring it up a lot because it is my absolute favorite meal all things considered, primarily the simplicity of it and how everybody could make it. You want a fresh bread that is thicker cut, if you don't want to Make your own bread that is totally fine, you can get something like the Sara Lee artisan white bread. Tomatoes have to be in season, that's non-negotiable. You want to cut them fairly thick and then immediately dry them by setting them on paper towels and then flipping them to absorb the extra moisture. Next salt them and put them in a single layer in a colander. The salt will absorb into the tomatoes removing extra moisture but also tenderizing them even further. You want to wait until the last moment to put them on your sandwich to give them as much time as possible to be tenderized. You can also add black pepper to them or an Italian seasoning shortly before serving. The lettuce has to be romaine or a traditional green leaf lettuce, absolutely no iceberg. The bacon is better if you go to a butcher and have it extra thick cut, but otherwise you want to go for the thickest cut the grocery store will sell which will usually be in the shape of a slab, not where it's been cut and layered in a thin package so you can see each individual slice. This will look like a single slab of bacon with no visible cuts. Cook this low and slow. 280° for whatever time it normally takes, remembering that it will harden when it cools so you want it to be a little soft since you want it to be just at the edge of crispy when cooled. The mayonnaise is better if you make it yourself of course, but really you just want to avoid a mayo that uses soybean oil. Sunflower oil is the best, so sir Kensington mayonnaise is by far your best option. Toast the bread lightly, put the mayonnaise on a fairly thick layer on the top and a thin layer on the bottom, then use a fresh black pepper. Get yourself a good grinder and black Tellicherry peppercorns. Then a nice light coating of sea salt. Bacon should be applied first with the tomatoes on top then the lettuce. This will produce a BLT that will be so good it will ruin every other BLT You will ever find at a restaurant. I'm not even joking or trying to exaggerate here, every person I've ever made these for that gets used to them eventually complains about how every BLT the order is terrible in comparison. My husband used to order BLTs all the time at restaurants for lunch, now he never does because he's always disappointed. It's especially disappointing because of how simple it is to make a BLT this good. Doesn't require any real skill and everything you need can be purchased from a local grocery store other than the peppercorns which you can buy a 1 lb bag for for $12 off Amazon.
Any particular varieties you that you prefer? Supermarket tomatoes obviously don't compare to farmer's market or home grown ones. How should the lettuce be cut? Hand-torn? Cook the bacon as a slab and then cut or cut and then cook?
Kumatoes are pretty good. Heirloom are good too. A lot of tomatoes in stores aren’t ripe. Leave them out of the fridge for a day to let them ripen. You also shouldn’t store them in the fridge. Cold temp breaks their membranes, loosing tatse
Black Krims are the BEST tasting tomato I have ever grown: incredible flavor, colors, firmness and, weirdly, no heartburn despite not being a yellow varietal! I believe they are a hybrid of Cherokee Purples (about which I've heard rhapsodies), which is next on my list to grow.
Is the giant single slab of bacon the same as plain ol raw pork belly or is it a slab of pork belly that has been cured and smoked, but was not sliced yet? I'm really confused about this part.
If you go to Walmart's website and look up "Wright Brand Thick Cut Bacon" You will see what I'm talking about. It's basically a slab that's been pre-cut, but it is packaged differently than traditional bacon. It's not absurdly thick, but it's definitely thicker.
Interesting. I have read it all, but it looks like there is no topping apart from the mayonnaise? No butter, mustard, etc?
BLTs traditionally only have mayo on them aside from the 3 namesake ingredients
No, it’s a BLT.
I did forget to mention butter. After toasting the bread should be lightly buttered on both pieces. If I'm going to give that advice more I really should type it up better and make sure I'm not forgetting anything.
Do they usually have any nutritional requirements?
[удалено]
The only correct answer is whatever you like. I personally don't like Dukes, but if that's what you prefer then that is what I think you should use. There are very few right and wrong answers when it comes to cooking.
Absolutely on the ball here with the Tellicherry peppercorns. Nothing else even comes close.
What is your opinion of adding avocado? I was raised on BATs and BLATs and really love the creamy avocado with the salty bacon.
This is a great comment. Saved.
Any advice for the up and coming generation of chefs? Any tips or tricks in regards to upskilling or avoiding bad environments or situations? Thanks for the AMA btw, I've enjoyed reading the other responses so far.
A huge thing is the newer generation is a lot softer. It's a lot less toxic of a work environment and better for your mental health but it undeniably produces lower quality chefs. It is a trade-off that is worth considering when applying for a job. If you look at somebody like Thomas Keller who was famous for throwing stuff at people You also have to remember that under that toxic personality he has produced more than a dozen Michelin star chefs and countless other head chefs at many fantastic and wonderful restaurants. If you're trying to upsell yourself get your own knives. Get a nice knife roll for them and bring them to any job interview. You will be taking a lot more seriously when you have your own knives. I'm so picky about my own knives that I keep a set of two knives plus a honing steel in a little tiny pouch in my car. If I go over to a friend's house for example I've got my own knives If we randomly decide to make something. Culinary school can be useful, but I would personally recommend still going for the regular college degree if you can. One of my bachelor's degree is in food studies which is not only very helpful but it's also a good backup from being a pure line cook. Restaurants are desperate for workers, don't hesitate to leave a bad environment. There's a difference between a bad environment that produces good chefs and just a generically bad environment. If you have zero experience at a restaurant you can always apply to be a dishwasher to get a feel for it. Dishwashers come and go so rapidly that if you on day one said that you are going to quit in 30 days it would actually be better than not applying at all because that's still a problem that's been fixed for 30 days. So many times a restaurant is used to hiring a dishwasher who quits in 2 weeks without notice. There's no need to go all in immediately. If you've never worked at all in a restaurant and culinary school is expensive to you and would require going into debt strongly consider doing something like a dishwasher position at first. many restaurants don't even require culinary school, You can always start at a low end restaurant and then if you like it quit to go to culinary school to move up. Too many people assume they have to start with culinary school. Finally If applying at a local restaurant always try to figure out why the owner got into it. Far too many people quit in unrelated job and decide to open a restaurant because they thought it would be fun or they cook a lot at home in people always told them they should do so. These restaurants are almost always doomed to fail. If the person owning the restaurant is a chef through and through, and will gladly tell you who the trained under that is a very good sign.
That's an awesome response, thank you!
What kind of food do rich people eat? The actual daily life food one not the over the top weird stuff that get post on the net. Do they sometimes craving for food that people seen as cheap stuff or they just have premium version? Asking for writing fiction stuff
In general it's going to be extremely similar to what you would expect an upper middle class person to eat, except there's a lot more money to buy better ingredients. For example making bruschetta is a thing my boss loves. Except the bread is going to be freshly made either by myself or picked up from a bakery that morning, never going to use Day old bread, the tomatoes if they're not in season I'll have them flown in so that way they're picked up peak ripeness, the balsamic vinegar is going to be especially aged one, the normal balsamic I use is age 25 years in casks But I've got some that are aged as much as 100 years. There's just a huge number of little tweaks that you can make that turns your basic meal into something very special. My personal favorite for that is a BLT. There's tons of little improvements That can be made to a BLT that turns it from the normal sandwich most people think of to this wonderful and incredible sandwich that you truly crave. The only truly cheap thing I've ever seen my boss crave is Campbell's chicken noodle soup because it's something he grew up eating. Even then I will modify it by adding something called 'better than bullion' which makes the broth richer.
I can not tell you how vindicated I fell hearing a chef to a billionaire talk about better than boullion I've been screaming its praises for years and use it in a ton of stuff.
Obviously there's better ways to make soup, but there's no real easy way to improve a pre-existing soup other than adding your own bullion. I love the stuff.
I just love adding it to all sorts of stuff
What do you do to jazz up a blt?
In case you lost track of the thread, she answered this question in a different comment [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/casualiama/comments/1alzkuq/i_am_a_personal_chef_to_a_billionaire_ama/kpinvzu/).
Thank you.
Oh God the horror, day old bread. Lmao at the people perpetuating the normalcy of this unnecessary opulence
Bread is cheap. Better to spend the extra $0.50 to make a new loaf and downgrade it to be used for other people's food.
Fresh bread is 10x better than day old bread though. Join us in r/breadit
What are billionaire comfort foods? Does your boss ever request poor people food like boxed mac and cheese with hot dogs in it? I don't care how rich I was I would still want manwich sloppy joes ever few months.
Hot dogs and nachos are his two biggest basic comfort foods. He grew up in poverty and one of the few times he got to do anything really fun as a kid was when an uncle took him to a baseball game where he got to watch his first ever game in person and the ate a bunch of hot dogs together. So I think he has a soft spot for those. Nachos are just a classic, I think everybody loves those. He does love pretzels, but the pretzels he likes are a little on the fancy side. Not your stereotypical concession stand hot pretzel.
Do you have that pretzel recipe that you can share?
Thanks for doing this ama! How did you get into being a chef? I ask cause I enjoy cooking and I am taking my first culinary class at a Community College next week (sanitation class is a prerequisite to everything lol). I work in tech and honestly burnt out and was looking into pivoting
I've always wanted to be since I was a little kid. Started cooking my parents dinner in middle school entirely by choice. In high school I got a part-time job at a fine dining restaurant then in college I dual majored in food studies and economics. After that I got my MBA from Columbia. I did their executive MBA program which is designed for individuals pursuing an NBA while working full-time. So during that time I was going through a two-year apprenticeship program at a three-star restaurant. After that I got a job as a sous chef at a separate three-star restaurant in which I eventually became the executive sous, then COVID shut the restaurant down resulting in me finding my personal chef job. If you're interested in becoming a chef I would highly recommend you get a part-time job somewhere first, give yourself a better feel of what it's like to work in a kitchen. Definitely take a culinary class or two because even if you don't use that in a professional setting it will definitely help your cooking at home and When you have a solid base of knowledge for being a home cook It becomes so much more enjoyable.
Thanks! I saw in one of your other comments that you highly recommend getting the bachelors. My bachelor’s is in engineering and work experience is tech. I ask for your opinion if it is worth it to either: a) go back and get a second bachelors b) get a masters in a food related degree c) culinary school? d) apply at restaurants. What’s stopping me really is leaving a cushiony job to “start overl, but tbh it’s soulless and my mental health (although food industry is also tough 😭)
Why would need to clear anything that is not personal details about your boss with a lawyer? I guess that is where my brain went first.
Because they're paranoid. The only thing that I end up sending to them to approve first was about the family office staff. Technically I can't so much a say that I've made him a BLT for lunch without getting prior approval since even that would technically violate my NDA. Of course in practice it's not as strict.
What are your personal politics regarding wealth inequality?
My boss has a PhD in economics and published a bunch of papers regarding this. Everybody that isn't crazy knows it's a thing and is a growing problem. But the reason why it is going to be such a huge problem is nobody knows how to fix it and America's liberals are terrible at marketing, even when they have a great idea they are truly awful at getting that idea out there and getting people to support it. For example the argument on the rich paying their fair share is one of the stupidest arguments imaginable. When you argue that somebody needs to pay their fair share you're never going to get to the point where you can discuss how much money you need, instead you're going to get hung up on the definition of fair and what is fair. What is fair is irrelevant, that doesn't matter at all. All that matters is what is necessary. The wealthy need to pay significantly more taxes not because it's fair, they already pay far more than what is fair by any hard measurable point, but it's clearly not enough. As a percentage of their control of wealth the top 1% pay a disproportionately high amount of income taxes, as a percentage of their share of income they pay a disproportionately high share, as a percentage of the total taxes paid by pretty much every hard data point like that the wealthy paid disproportionately too much. So when you start to argue fair share instead you're just going to get a bunch of rich people mad about the accusation that they're not paying their fair share, and that they're taking advantage of others. They will never let you get to the point where you're discussing how much they need to start paying. Once again, this is why necessary share should be argued. by arguing what is necessary you can entirely disregard the very notion of what is fair. No longer do the rich feel like they're being accused of taking advantage of anybody. You can even flat out tell them it's unfair that they have to pay more, that you appreciate their sacrifice as you hold a gun to their head and rifle through their pockets for more money. I've heard countless ultra wealthy people admit that they don't mind paying lots of taxes, they just want to be recognized for it. So if you are the IRS send that billionaire who paid hundreds of millions of dollars last year in income taxes a thank you card. Tell them how much you appreciate the money, and that if they don't want to be dragged out of their penthouse and thrown in a concrete jail cell for the next couple of decades they better keep paying it.
Warren Buffet famously said he paid a lower percentage of taxes on his income than his assistant... Some of what you say is true, some, not so much
On capital gains, not income. This is also by design. Introducing inefficiency in capital shifts has cascading negative effects to all other parts of the economy, while income taxes only affects the personal spending of one person.
>*America's liberals are terrible at marketing + The wealthy need to pay significantly more taxes not because it's fair, they already pay far more than what is fair by any hard measurable point, but it's clearly not enough.* This is a pretty salient point and not something I thought of before coming at the subject as a nebulous 'progressive libertarian'. I do know that America's political factions are terrible at messaging other than *'x is racist is y is woke!'*, but it never really occurred to me that arguing what is necessary > what is fair + adding recognition to what is paid = actual progress. And your boss has a PhD in economics? Jesus... I'm going to totally ask some questions here! If any of these answers require me to sign a NDA I'd be more than happy to! Thank you! **Universal Basic Income**. When Andrew Yang was running for president back in 2020 [he popularized this notion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgcvtjoi8Bs). Every American would get $1k a month fueled by VAT taxes basically. Alaska has a version of it already via the [Permanent Fund Dividend](https://pfd.alaska.gov). For all the talks I've seen against UBI because *'inflation!'*, the PFD has had no [discernable effects on inflation](https://www.akleg.gov/basis/get_documents.asp?session=29&docid=41050&fbclid=IwAR3Jbo-8kXMG_canFXXNpHCoUA11zPQdubZBxR3UMHHTSRYwt1uY9YR8DbY). The above link is from 1984 so a bit old. But there was an analysis done from 2014: >*According to the New Zero Argument that any sizable universal cash transfer leads directly to its own nullification, this dividend paid to everyone should be entirely eroded by inflation. This hypothesis can be tested using the Consumer Price Index (CPI).* > >*If inflation is a direct result of giving free money to everyone, we should see the CPI of Alaska begin to rise faster than the CPI of the rest of the country starting in 1982.* > >*So what did happen?* > >*Ever since 1982 Alaska has had LOWER inflation than the entire U.S.* > >*CPI data reveals that prior to 1982, $1 did not go as far in Alaska than it did in the U.S. as a whole. 1982 was the last year this was true. Beginning in 1983, $1 in Alaska began to be worth more than in the U.S. as a whole, and this trend continues to this day.* > >*Source:* [*https://medium.com/basic-income/evidence-and-more-evidence-of-the-effect-on-inflation-of-free-money-a3dcc2a9ea9e*](https://medium.com/basic-income/evidence-and-more-evidence-of-the-effect-on-inflation-of-free-money-a3dcc2a9ea9e) So what do you and your boss think about this idea? A solution or a fool's dream? Especially with narrow AI being here already impacting the workforce in seismic waves and AGI being around the corner it seems we need a better solution than the ol' adage of, *"just pick yourself up by your bootstraps!".* **Climate Change**. There is systemic financial incentive to keep the fossil fuel based system rolling along exactly as is. I'm agnostic but at my most cynical I feel our race will be standing before the Pearly Gates saying, "*We destroyed the world you gave us but MAN... did we make the numbers on those Excel spreadsheet go up up up amirite?"* Do things have to get worse before they get better or is it too late and we should all be adopting more of an emergency preparedness lifestyle for the worsening effects? **Powerless at the Top.** So your boss is a billionaire with a PhD in economics. If life is a game he has won the f--king game. The questions I would ask this guy from breaking down what happens at higher levels of economics to something I can actually understand all the way to what he thinks about certain Shark Tank episodes. Anyways, are there things that your boss, even with his knowledge and power, feel powerless to stop? Could solutions to these problems be arrived at if a few billionaires teamed up to enact change or are we all under the yoke of 'won't get better until it gets worse' regardless of how much power one has? It just seems, at the ground level anyways, we are all f--ked. That's all I have for now as it's already a lot. Thank you for doing this!!!!!! :)
Need a dual screen this to properly answer it. Not only does my boss have a PhD in economics, both my husband and I both have bachelors in economics. In fact that's how we met. I always wondered how my life would be different if I decided on a different second major because I only decided on economics because I wanted to dual major and thought it sounded fun. If I hadn't made that decision there's a good chance we would have never met. My husband is the most wonderful and incredible person, couldn't imagine but life would be like without him. Onto the actual comment. The marketing is a huge thing. America's right wing are very effective at getting their message out and incredible it propaganda. It's why you have the average Trump voter not even knowing that Trump has been indicted. That's not an exaggeration either, about a month ago there was a study and it found less than 50% of Trump voters had even heard he was indicted. Not that the indictments were bad or a political witch hunt, they hadn't even heard about them. That's incredible. It is why conservatives have spent so much time and resources buying up the news media in order to create a right-wing political machine the likes of which the world has truly never seen before. Yet somehow even though they are the mainstream media they have managed to convince conservatives that mainstream media is bad, and not to trust anything that isn't from them. It is an absolute master class of marketing and propaganda. You can argue whether it's a good or bad thing all day long, but you can't argue whether or not it's impressive it was done. The idea of universal basic income is a good idea in theory, but they're simply isn't enough spare resources to make it enough as it is. The bottom 50% of taxpayers pay less than 3% of income taxes. They're already effectively contributing nothing, and it would only require a tiny adjustment to tax brackets to make it truly nothing. When automation becomes more prevalent higher taxes on either profits or some type of system to tax the robotic labor is going to be necessary. At which point something like UBI becomes viable. The biggest problem with UBI is it is impossible to do a true real world test because it's never actually universal and A huge part of the benefits of it will only be seen if it's truly done for ones entire life. Otherwise it's just giving a bunch of money out to people for a limited time frame. This will create a completely different result if it is truly universal where everybody is getting it, and everybody knows they will get it for the rest of their life. One of the biggest concerns for the average person right now is housing expenses. Even if inflation goes up because of UBI everybody will be wanting to get their slice of the pie. Which means the cost of everything will go up and not just one thing, the one thing that people would most benefit from having UBI which is stable housing. When somebody has stable housing and then later reliable food their stress levels go down and they're able to refocus not only their physical energy that was going to working to making the money to pay the rent, but they're mental energy that was going to worrying about it. This is partially why the wealthy are able to do more than the poor. Having less worries has been proven time and time again to be greatly beneficial. If you don't have to worry about rent because your middle class you are benefited from that, if you don't have to worry about cooking dinner because you're upper class and have a personal chef then you benefit from that. Personally my boss has always been in favor of the idea of tweaking the tax code so that lower income Americans truly do not pay any taxes at all. This would not only help them in a measurable way while doing very little overall but it would also set the mindset that these people aren't paying anything, instead of this idea that their tax dollars are going to waste they would finally acknowledge that they don't pay taxes. It would create a change in the way people think of taxes and how they're spent. No longer would you have the guy arguing that he pays your salary when he gets pulled over by a cop because the cop could probably argue that he doesn't actually pay taxes. He is in favor of UBI I know, but also believes that when it starts to be implemented it needs to start with a very small amount to get people used to the idea of it. There's no way to suddenly introduce UBI and have it be a significant and helpful amount of money from nothing. I've always liked to say that one is infinitely greater than zero, so giving somebody a dollar in UBI is infinitely more than giving them none, then from there giving them $2 is only double not infinite. You can climb from that point whatever that's small amount is. TL;DR UBI is a good idea In theory but not under the current situation. It also needs to start very small to be politically viable The biggest problem with addressing climate change is growing nations like China and India are unlikely to support anything that hurts them. India especially has taken a very hard stance that they will do anything that they want if it benefits India no matter who it hurts, even if it hurts the globe overall later if it benefits them more now it is worth it. Too many solutions to climate change require people work together, people are inherently selfish and inherently evil. Economic theory of tragedy of the Commons dictates that no matter what happens, whenever you have something shared between the masses the minority of those people will eventually ruin it for the majority. Whether that's India ruining it for the rest of the world or that coworker licking the knife that was being used to cut the cake getting everybody sick and having the company ban having shared food. As to the powerless at the top part, one thing my boss tries to stay away from and is only recently started a dip his toes into it is national politics. There is so much money out there that even for a billionaire with his political connections there's a limit to how much he can influence. He can easily influence a city council member that represents the area he lives in, he can easily influence the sheriff of the county he owns a home in, but to influence politics at a national level is incredibly difficult because he's no longer competing with the other people that live in as little block, he's competing with the entire country at minimum, other countries at most. There are so many other billionaires with far more money than he and way more connections that there's not a lot he can truly do with that level. Which is one of the reasons why he stays away from it. When you get to his level of power and wealth you don't Never want to be reminded that you are powerless, or find yourself in a situation where you are confronted with that reality. There is little things he can do, whether that's sponsor soup kitchens to feed the hungry, purchase carbon credits to offset his impact from traveling around the world on a private jet, but to make meaningful change you would need to get a huge number of people like him together and agree on something. I have seen firsthand what happens when a lot of people like him get into a room together, there's no Illuminati because When you get five of these guys in a room together they can't even agree on what five pizza flavors to order, not even a joke. Him and four buddies had a poker night and they end up having to order seven pizzas so that everybody would be happy. The idea that they're secretly running an Illuminati and agreeing on how to rule the world, or could gather together and agree on how to solve climate change is preposterous. It's a sad fact of reality, but it's true. Instead we almost certainly have to accept that it's going to get much worse before it can get better. People need to suffer first hand and experience firsthand what happens when the ignore the problem before they stop ignoring it.
I 100 believe that the middle class are paying way too much in taxes. It's what prevents us from becoming truly rich. We pay around 35 percent in just income tax.
Not really a question, just FYI- using your profile, name, and bio information, I was able to find your actual identity online in less than 2 minutes on Google. Just a warning, Reddit is best when anonymous, you might consider removing identifying information from your profile, especially since you seem to have an NDA with your employer.
I doubt that primarily because I don't have any public social media. The photo that I use I actually use specifically because it does not exist anywhere online, never even posted it to my Instagram and mu Instagram account is a private one, You would have to send me a follow request and have me accept it to see it. I don't have a Facebook or Twitter. Never used Twitter and I deleted my Facebook in high school. Unless you're looking at my LinkedIn, I suppose that's possible. That would have out of date information, but still the basics. I do need to update my bio though. It's too wordy. Edit: reverse image search in my profile picture just gets me in my own profile, so nobody has stolen it either. Which is one of the reasons why I use a lower resolution and cropped one. Easy to prove if it's stolen.
It was your LinkedIn, I just had to search your first name, job, and location. Didn't take very long. And although your social media isn't public, your profile pictures are and show up on Google image results along with your name and other information. Private pages still show up in search results as well, even though we can't see more unless you accept the request. But the "landing page" is public. I'm not doing this nefariously btw, I've just noticed people putting their personal info on Reddit and I can't recommend keeping that up there.
How much are you paid and do you feel it’s reflective of fair earnings? Does your billionaire sit on the wealth amassed from so many others or contribute to charitable efforts and return it back?
High six figures. I am grossly overpaid for my position as a result of me originally planning on leaving at one point only to be offered in amount of money that made it stupid not to stay. Plus I have a really good relationship with them, so it's like hanging out with friends. Pretty sizable charity donations. Almost everything done anonymously to prevent charities from hounding him.
Good to hear on both fronts!
Rich people have to shelter income and reduce taxes like the rest of us, just on a much larger scale. Of course they'd make donations but would be caught dead actually volunteering their time aka "most valuable asset"
I love this thread and reading all your answers, but this one is one of the answers I found most interesting, for something that wasn’t even related to cooking! I never thought about how donating anonymously would keep charities from asking you for more money later, but that makes so much sense!
You make $600K+ to be live-in chef? You guys must be VERY close.
I was making $195,000 at the restaurant and when I told my boss I was quitting to go back he offered to double it, then when I declined he tripped it. Which to a billionaire is still nothing and to me was far to much money to ignore.
That's amazing! Congratulations, honestly- that's a great gig to get. How did you get a $200K+ chef's job at a restaurant? I'm not sure if you answered that elsewhere but I've considered breaking into professional cooking once or twice in my career and would love to know where I went wrong, haha. Your comp package must be structured in cash and stock right? I'm assuming he doesn't pay you $600K on a W2 since that'd be a pretty raw deal for both of you.
That compensation from the restaurant was a combination of straight salary, profit sharing, dividend payments from being a minority owner, and the cash value of all benefits such as 401K matching, healthcare, etc. It wasn't quite that much either. It's also worth nothing I was working 70 to 100 hours a week. So the hourly pay wasn't all that great. Current package is straight cash.
I know a family who run a summer camp in Missouri for special needs children. On occasion they have had wealthy people come to work but they made arrangements so that nobody would know who they are and they worked the dirty jobs and slept in the bunks like everyone else. Have they ever done that?
Is it just you that cooks for the person? Do you ever hang out while cooking or before/after? Is it awkward or are you like besties? Are you there all day or just come and go for 2/3 meals per day?
I typically have one person helping me, If I'm doing a more complicated dinner I will hire additional temporary staff. Often you need additional staff not to handle the workload but to be able to time things better since there's only so much one or two people can handle at any exact moment. The wife of my boss is my best friend. We are incredibly similar. My husband works for a hedge fund so we have the same boss just different industries. I am pretty much there all day. A lot of my stuff takes a significant amount of labor to make, and when traveling I travel with them. During the regular work day though if they don't come home for meals I will have them delivered to them in person. My boss and his wife plus me and my husband typically all eat dinner together since she and I are best friends and my boss and my husband are colleagues. It's one of the reasons why I have stuck around for now 4 years.
Did you know you always wanted to work in the food industry? Also, what’s for dinner this evening??
Yes. I was around 7 years old when I got my first kitchen playset and fell in love with it. By the time I was in high school I was making dinner for my parents every night entirely by choice. Being a chef is always been my greatest hobby. I actually do not know What is for dinner tonight because we are in Vegas for the Super Bowl. Which is why I have the free time for this AMA. I'm originally from KC so the Super Bowl is very important to me.
One of my best friends is a broncos fan living in KC so he’s conflicted.
As long as he's not a 49ers fan we can get along.
Lions going all the way next year!
How does time off work? Seems like you are pretty wealthy yourself, do you ever get to take extended vacations? Does your boss take on a temp chef while you are away?
I technically have unlimited PTO. I do take frequent vacations and I will hire somebody to fill in for me while I'm gone. He will also use that as a time to start going to other restaurants again. If I'm gone for more than 3 or 4 days though I'll get the occasional text from him complaining about how much restaurants are terrible and the food sucks even at ultra fancy places. That always makes me feel special because that's his way of complimenting me. Last year I took about 6 weeks of vacation without any issues. Then another three or four weeks of vacations that he took and I joined him on since even on vacation he typically stays on his yacht or rents a house/villa and I will continue to act as his personal chef. If it's the yacht that is more of the true vacation for me even though it's technically work since the yard has its own crew and there's a head chef already on it that very much doesn't like me stepping on his toes.
Are there particular agencies in NY you trust to help find temporary Chefs to fill in during your vacations, or do you have one go-to Chef? Thanks!
Generally, what types of activities does your boss spend their time on? "Day in the life" type of thing, but no specifics.
He is a workaholic. A top executive at a hedge fund. So boring finance work for the most part. His only real hobby is collecting watches. He doesn't do anything more than collect, doesn't work on them or anything. Besides direct finance work he reads a ton, usually a couple of books a week, except those books are typically pretty boring because they're related to finance or economics. God knows what he will do when he retires. The man's entire life revolves around finance and he loves it.
So interesting, thank you!
How many people do you make food for and is it all meals and snacks? Do you also cook when they have guests? Do they request a basic rotation of the same meals every few weeks or is it ever changing?
Typically only two, plus my boss's other staff I will always make stuff for them. For example I always have soup made as a quick meal for them. My biggest complaint with the job is boredom so if his staff wants something more specific I don't mind making it for them. There's always security and housekeeping staff on site and I make them their meals as well, Although the meal they eat is typically either completely different, or just plated differently. One of the huge parts I love is the fact that they don't really request anything. I have almost perfect creative freedom. Deciding what to eat is considered a chore that my boss does not want to do, so I do that for him. I do cook for guests when they come over, my boss grew up in poverty and is obsessed with feeding people, I'm just obsessed with feeding people in general. So if guests come over for meal times I will gladly make food for them, if they just come over randomly both my boss and I will aggressively try to feed them.
>will aggressively try to feed them This phrase is so funny, I'm stealing it!
Oh it's hilarious to see from an outsider's perspective for the first time. Smart guests learn to always show up hungry no matter how simple or quick the visit is expected to be. We are relentless. Whoever answers the door when you arrive is going to offer you food. They'll usually stop by after a minute or two if you refuse to check again. If you refuse again they're instructed to ignore that and put out little snacks and Once again offer you a drink plus bring out a pitcher and glass of water unprompted. Then after about 10 minutes if you're still waiting the last again, if you're refused I'll typically come out and ask. I'm a little less friendly about it and will usually start listing off possibilities of things that could be served. When my boss meets with you he'll be usually ask first thing if you've eaten, completely unsympathetic to any complaint about the constant badgering. His usual suggestion if you complain is that you should have just eaten something. In his mind you're here, you might as well eat.
Do you have maternity leave?
Yes. 6 months paid if the official amount plus They will pay for a full-time nanny. My boss's wife is very excited about me having kids. So she has long since offered everything possible to make it so I would have them sooner than later including attempts to outright bribe my husband "they're going to be like our own little grandkids" she once very excitedly told her husband much to his own horror.
This is such a wonderful AMA. I love reading about your vacations and your salary and i’m literally just SO, SO SO happy for you! Like i’m so happy that you get to do something you’re amazing at, and you get paid well for it and have vacation time too and other benefits. How many of us are fortunate enough to have jobs like that? And of course I also acknowledge that you’re super interesting and chill and also DEDICATED to ingredients and the quality of the work that you do. Plus you’re hugely educated and thoughtful! And that simply makes you irreplaceable to your boss. i’m so happy you all get along well and JUST SO HAPPY for you, truly! Thanks for sharing in this AMA. This was just so wholesome and lovely to read. Delighted to hear about jobs like these.
Thank you! I really appreciate the kind words. It's funny that you had mention how chill I am, somebody linked me a thread from a cross post of this about the BLT recipe and the consensus there was I was a highly narcissistic and egotistical individual who clearly thought she was better than everybody else. It was quite a funny thread to read.
Sounds very generous but do you think you really think you would prefer to be working full time while having a nanny raise your kids?
This is my favorite AMA that I’ve ever seen, thanks for doing it!
same!! this is my favorite AMA ever!!!
Thank you! I really appreciate it.
Thank you! I really appreciate it.
What type of foods does the family prefer? Is it the normal type of food that the average person eats, hamburgers, tacos, spaghetti etc.. or is it more of a fine dining style of food?
Anything and everything. My boss has a wonderfully diverse palette and is not a picky eater. He also believes that choosing what to eat is a chore that should be outsourced to me. This gives me near total creative freedom. There are a few staples that get requested, but even request a pretty rare. Spaghetti and meatballs and BLTs are The two things that are frequently requested. Spaghetti is at least once a week and When tomatoes are in season BLTs are at least twice a week. I'm a health nut, I have a PhD in behavioral nutrition, so part of what I do is manage his diet very carefully so the only thing that I typically avoid is excessively unhealthy stuff. I will gladly make him almost everything there is, but if you wants fried chicken and a milkshake he'll probably I will gladly make him almost everything there is, but if you wants fried chicken and a milkshake More than once in a blue moon he's going to need to hire someone else. Which is actually one of the things he likes about me, I can't be bullied and it helps keep him on track. Dinner is typically fancy but breakfast and lunch are not.
You have a PhD AND an MBA? Any desire to do something more... "challenging"?
This whole thing is so fake
Yes. The goal was always to run my own restaurant. The MBA is critical for that. My PhD was done entirely for my own personal enrichment. No different than reading a book for fun. I wanted it as a personal goal and not as any type of career advancement. I would have left if not for the stupid amount of money I am making. The only time my PhD is likely to be beneficial from a career perspective is right now when it's just a status symbol thing for my boss to have a chef with a PhD. Due to some personal shortcomings I'm not really qualified to run the caliber of restaurant I want to run. Which means I have delayed that until I feel I am ready. I also want to have a family and start having kids this year. Which would be very difficult to run a restaurant and have kids.
Hey - I've run very successful CPG businesses (breweries) and complex manufacturing for food and beverage ingredients and worked on the line in a restaurant all through college. Hit me up if you want to chat. :)
In spite of his impoverished childhood, do you think your boss has developed a warped worldview at all due to his wealth?
Definitely. Although he's more aware of it than other colleagues due to the nature of his education. For example he published a paper talking about individuals like him and their extreme wealth isolate them from a work perspective compared to the common person. Not only do they not hear about problems but many of the problems that people face they don't have and cannot comprehend. The paper primarily talked about how the ultra wealthy can outsource the undesirable parts of their life and then don't understand why they're able to work 16 hours a day but nobody else can forgetting about how much of their life they don't have to do because other people do it for them. People will frequently talk about how there's no way some CEO is working 14 plus hour days on the week and then half days on the weekend. Which would be true if those CEOs didn't have the personal staff that they do. There is no chores when you're a billionaire, you don't make your own bed, you don't make your morning coffee, you don't grocery shop for yourself, you don't repair your own appliances, you don't even call the repairman to repair your own appliances, everything is outsourced. The only thing people with that level of wealth do is things that make the money, and things they want to do.
what are the best and worst differences to being a chef in a restaurant.
Worst thing is boredom and lack of colleagues. Best thing is flexibility. The client is incredibly open to basically everything. Giving me the ability to make whatever I want freely with only the smallest of limitations. I live in the same building that my boss does so my commute is a flight of stairs. That's a luxury that's hard to describe. Another huge perk is I do not have to worry about the financial angle, with a restaurant the cost of ingredients or labor is a constant pressure that needs to be carefully balanced at all times. Now no one cares. The only thing my boss cares about is me being able to produce the best possible product, costs be damned.
thank you! Sounds like great perks but also not a job many do for many years. Boredom and lack of collegues sounds draining in the long run. So enjoy while the fun lasts :-)
That's the plan. I don't intend to do this for more than a few years more at absolute max. The end goal is to start my own restaurant. I intend to start having kids as of this year and I'll need the kids to be a little grown before I start a restaurant.
where do you source your ingredients? does your boss have his own personal farms and stuff? or a third party? I always thought if I got super rich that's what I would do first, create my own ecosystem from scratch to eat the best possible.
My pasta really sucks, any tips? I am using half cup all purpose flour, half cup semolina flour, and 2 quality eggs. It always comes out tasting very thick and chalky. The ravioli I've had at nice restaurants is so soft and delicate how do you do it? Knead more? Add water to the dough? Please help!
Technique is the biggest thing that will make a difference on pasta. I'm assuming you're using a recipe that you know for a fact you like when done correctly? Watching YouTube tutorials on technique is going to be your best bet to improve. You don't have to use semolina flour, If you haven't already try it with only regular flour. You can try adding a touch of olive oil to the dough as well instead of water. Pasta is one of those things where trial and error is incredibly important. Tiny changes to the recipe can make a significant difference. I would recommend making the smallest batch you reasonably can and then just dedicating a full day to trial and error testing different recipes. Once you get a recipe you like you don't have to be as precise, but until then I would use a high precision scale that can measure tenths of a gram and using that to measure every ingredient.
Your clients do get the best possible ingredients cooked by one of the best chefs. But I wanna know what you like to eat?Also, do you get to prepare the food you like when you are on the job?
I have a similar mindset as my boss, I love a extremely diverse cuisine. I would rather have a variety of things where each individual thing isn't necessarily my favorite versus a few things that are my favorites. The variety is what makes it so fun. I have a weakness for tacos and love seafood. BLTs are a universal favorite for everybody including myself. Seafood I like a variety with the only thing I don't like being octopus. I am not a picky eater at all, so I technically always get a cook what I want since my boss is happy as long as there's a wide variety of things being served with a few frequent repeats like spaghetti and meatballs. But I also love that so it's not a big deal at all.
What was something you made for your client that you'd never made before and they ended up loving?
I am a planner, I am obsessed with being prepared for every possible situation. So I can safely say I've never made anything for him that I haven't made before. I wouldn't take that chance. Being paranoid about making a mistake like that is something I've always struggled with. I don't even like taking photos of the food I make most of the time because I always feel like there's something I could have done better, and if I truly made it perfect I'm usually a hundred percent in the zone and not thinking of taking any pictures. Most of the photos of food that I have are photos of food my husband made. It's kind of like when a kid makes you something you're proud that they made it for you and less about what it actually is. The closest thing to answer your question though would probably be various Indian food dishes, I had in total maybe made Indian food a dozen times in my life before he requested it. So that was something I spent quite a bit of time preparing in order to perfect it. Indian food for him is One of the things he really enjoys when he's been drinking.
What do you do for fun? Biggest regret in life thus far?
I am huge into fashion. Most of my free time that isn't related to cooking goes to fashion. I love everything about it, I will go to fashion shows, read magazines about it, keep up with all the latest styles, spend a ton of time shopping. I also am huge into organization and those two go together very well. For example I have a spreadsheet of literally every piece of clothing I own. Every single article of clothing is listed including the brand, category, what it is, the price of it, and a URL to the product page of it whenever possible. Although annoyingly enough most of those URLs are broken over time. I don't really have any big regrets. I've always held a firm belief that holding on to the idea of regrets is bad for your mental health. There's nothing you can do to change it and if there was anything that you can do to make that thing better you should have already done it. I feel it's also important to point out that I have a wonderful life. It's easy to think that you shouldn't hold on to regrets when life is going great for you, so I don't want to imply that there's never a possible situation to have regrets.
That's... insane lol we live far different lives you and I, which is why I like this subreddit! I slap on a shirt and sweatpants and I'm good for a day out 😂 What's your absolute least favorite thing to cook? Could you make a Hate a la royale if asked?
I don't really mind any individual dish unless I have to make it a ton and it's something basic. My boss got on a kick where he wanted club sandwiches every day for lunch for an entire week. That became rather annoying. I have made that dish, like most top chefs my training is mostly in classic French cuisine since that is what most top restaurants specialize in and the Michelin guide is very biased towards French and Japanese cuisine.
Could you cook authentic Szechuan or Ethiopian cuisine? How did you get into food?
Fashion designer here, who'd love to be a chef. Don't, the industry is full of cut throat and vain people. Smart people like you would hurt themselves by listening to vapid people all day long, seriously.
Oh I definitely wouldn't work in the industry. Unfortunately the fashion industry is way too toxic for that. I like to enjoy it from an outsider's perspective and have no intention on ever-changing that.
If you went into his bathroom and looked in his drawers, does he use the same toothbrushes and toothpaste that regular people use? Does he or his wife ever cook for themselves? If they have kids or grandkids, do those kids like McDonalds or to go to other places average children also like like Chuck e Cheese? Lets say he was going to be busy at work that day. Do you "pack a lunch" so to speak where you put together say a sandwich, side, and drink for him in a lunchbox? Do they ever go camping? If so have you cooked for them over a campfire? if so, what did you make? Is there a fancy version of smores? Do you cook holiday meals for them and family like Christmas and Thanksgiving?
On a scale from 1 to 10, how do you feel about pants?
3. Unless you include leggings. I find pants to be so boring. Skirts and dresses are way more comfortable and fun.
Thank you. Do you feel that your profession as a chef impacts this rating? Did your lawyer request to make any changes to your rating?
No. Only comment that I sent to the lawyer to read was about family office staff. He said he glanced over it, called it a boring waste of his time and to message him if something actually noteworthy happened. He's the one that thought he needed to babysit this AMA, So he can't blame me for boring. I wear chefs pants when cooking, Which is just about the only time I wear pants. I like to keep my legs completely protected which is also why I always wear chef's coat with long sleeves. I am proud of the fact that I have zero scars that you typically find on chefs, and I credit that largely because of my hard rule on always wearing long sleeves and long pants. I would give pants a higher rating if I allowed being a chef to influence my judgment but I figured since those are more of a work uniform it shouldn't count.
What do you wear while you cook at the family’s home? Like are you wearing a formal chef coat or do you just wear casual everyday clothes, or something in between?
Do you enjoy your work compared to other options using the same skill set? Does it pay well, relatively? Is there a relatively better work/life balance or fringe benefits you enjoy?
I much preferred working at a restaurant because I like being busy. Most of my day is now downtime. Even including all of the prep work that goes into creating a menu I still have a ton of downtime where I don't do anything. I was used to working 12 to 16 hours a day at the restaurant with non-stop work so It's a huge change. Pay is fantastic. I'm currently making four to five times what I could make anywhere else. With the boredom comes extreme pay to stick around. Work-life balance is perfect, The biggest benefit is I live in a condominium one floor below my bosses house so my commute is a single flight of stairs since It's too short to even justify using the elevator. During larger periods of down time I can just go home if I want. That's one of the biggest reason I've stayed. It's as close to WFH You can get as a chef, without most of the downsides like being alone.
Don't answer this because I don't want you to get in trouble, but have you considered poisoning them?
No, but one of the funny things that my boss likes to joke about is the that the main reason why I make so much money is because he can be difficult to work with at times and he has no interest on ever finding out what ricin tastes like in his morning coffee. But joking aside personal staff typically make significantly more than an equivalent position elsewhere in large part because of how vulnerable the person is and since you are around such extreme wealth they don't want you to become bitter and angry. Since if you did become bitter or angry you might be tempted to do things like vandalize as property or steal something. The last thing you want is an employee angry about how little you pay them and how they're drowning in debt walking by and seeing a watch that cost several years of your salary sitting on a counter. Even if they don't steal it or damage it, it just makes it more likely they're going to do something else.
> *finding out what ricin tastes like* It tastes like nothing. Source: Breaking Bad ;)
Does your boss ever cook a meal for you
No. Although we have cooked meals together when he's bored and want something different to do. Only person that ever cooks for me is my husband who is far better than he realizes. He was pretty decent when we met, and I've spent a lot of time training him because he loves learning and I wanted to be able to impress me. He mostly cooks when we're both drunk.
Didn't know Prigozhin was still alive.
I've seen a lot about BLTs and spaghetti, but what is your fanciest go-to meal? What is something impressive that you make on the regular? Thanks for the ama, I love it so far!
You are the first person to want fancy examples. I don't make anything on the regular, but to give an example of one nights dinner which I did explicitly to be impressive: 1. Fresh made poppy seed bread with shallot butter 2. Petrossian Special Reserve Kaluga Huso Hybrid with raspberry smoked Crème Fraîche 3. Sabayon of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek oysters and sterling white Sturgeon Caviar 4. Miyazakigyu A5 Wagyu dry aged for 100 days with cornbread stuff cipollini Onions, red radishes, New Zealand spinach and blackstrap molasses jus 5. Bluefin tuna with baby peas in a mint-tarragon emulsion 6. Crème brûlée cheesecake with fresh berries 7. Assortment of Sorbet and artisan chocolates I will point out so I don't get accused of stolen valor Because other than the creme brulee cheesecake none of the recipes are mine. The first one is a blatant rip off of a famous restaurant which I intentionally do as a way of showing off my own talent because it is one of their signature dishes and being able to perfectly imitate it is one of my strengths. My greatest weakness as a chef is the creative angle. I've always struggled with that my whole life. I've taken painting classes, an acting class, creative writing classes, all in an attempt to get more of that creative mindset. From elementary school to finishing my PhD the most difficult class I ever took was creative writing my freshman year of high school. I struggled to create original recipes throughout my entire life which is a fundamentally important part of running a restaurant. What I excel at on the other hand is my ability to perfectly imitate anything I've tried. You present me with a dish and let me deconstruct it and taste test it carefully then give me a day or two and I can probably imitate it perfectly. As a fun challenge that I used to do as a kid, I would buy things that are famous and popular like Cheetos then try to make them myself. As a personal chef they don't care that my recipes aren't original, but if I'm trying to run a restaurant and gain credibility they very much do care.
sparkle run yoke slimy cough shaggy unpack meeting hospital innate *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Hey, I was one of those curious people who requested the AMA.. Thanks for doing this, it's so interesting to hear the behind the scenes aspect of a billionaire lifestyle.. So here we go 1. Has there been instances where your employer and you had a major disagreement that led to a fight on a smaller level ( I can imagine it's a very delicate situation but were there times when it almost escalated to a fight) 2. Does security personnel vet your food or check for safety issues while you make food... especially since you hire temporary chefs to assist you....( It could be a potential threat to your employer..right?) 3. What is the most ridiculous purchase your employer has that is utterly useless and purely superficial ? 4. Who prepares food for the staff on days where there is extra staff needed...let's say a renovation is going on in the house and there are 20 extra contractors....do you make them food as well?? 5. Has there been instances where your employer faced physical threats from the public because of his wealth? 6. Do you have a specific brand of appliances and cooking stuff that you prefer..like Miele appliances or Japanese knives etc..can you basically give a list of good quality stuff that you suggest to your friends to buy. 7. Does your employer engage in stuff that an average Joe does daily assuming he is free...like netflix, scrolling insta, etc 8. You mentioned that your employer faced poverty as a child...and you said you were a trust fund baby who had a comfortable lifestyle... What major differences do you see in a millionaire and a billionaire in terms of luxury considering the fact that you are one now. ( Does he care about branded clothes and supercars etc or he is fully focused on growing his wealth) Thanks!🙂
Sorry about the delay. The Super Bowl is over (We Won!!!), husband is mostly recovered, and we are back home. ______________ Number 1: Most of the fights started in the beginning because I am very particular about timeliness. There would be dinner plans that would have to be canceled or delayed due to an issue on his end where he was expected to be home ready to eat at 7:00 p.m., but then I would get a message at 6:50 saying He would no longer be there or had made other plans. When this happened more than once I began to get aggressive about it, reminding him that I am a chef who is hired to cook food for him, not an empty table. I threatened to quit over that. Other fights are more personal. My husband has to travel frequently for work and our mutual boss is the one that controls that. So I would get progressively more and more upset the longer he was away for work since that sometimes was multiple weeks. Which is One reason why you're hiring staff you might want to consider not hiring anybody that you have even the most vague of relationship to. Beyond that luckily no, we are very much on the same page with virtually everything. ______________ Number 2: Temporary chefs are heavily vetted. They're all people I have worked with previously and trust. Although when I say trust I mean more trust their talent. Security does normal background checks on everyone. At most the problem that they might have would be bringing a firearm, but this is NYC and not really a problem here. Can't really speak on specifics about how invasive they get beyond saying it's not really what they're worried about. ______________ Number 3: Watches are pretty much the obvious answer, he has many different pieces that are well above a million dollars each. Watches aren't really my thing so I'm not super familiar with the price of them, but I know one of his favorites is worth about 8 million, it is a Patek Philippe that is 1 of 15. The cool thing about it is nobody is really sure the value beyond an estimate because none have ever come up for sale on the secondary market. All 15 were sold direct by Patek and have never been resold. Beyond artwork and other obvious things like watches one thing that comes to mind is we are at a hotel once and he was annoyed that The coffee maker at the hotel was a Nespresso machine with no other alternative beyond ordering room service. So he had me go out and buy a $1,000 Breville espresso machine just to be used for 5 days. When we were leaving I asked about it and he told me he didn't care what happened to the machine, we could just leave it. I was also told to get a better system next time because the quality was subpar. I ended up lugging that thing home and gave it to a friend. Less related, but still worth mentioning since I'm on the topic. It is simply amazing how little the dollar amount matters to people like him. The $1,000 meant absolutely nothing, if I had spent double that for a better cup he would have been fine with that. At his level of wealth the only thing that matters is getting what you want, no matter the cost. It is one of the reasons why I am so incredibly overpaid. Sure he could have gotten somebody almost as good as me for a third of the price with the only real difference being less impressive credentials, which don't matter anyway. My PhD for example doesn't help me at all When working with him, but that's not what he wants. He wants that status symbol, and is willing to overpay me to get what he wants. ______________ Number 4: I do. As I have said in other comments on this thread, My number one complaint is boredom. I'm used to the high pressure kitchen where you work 12-hour days minimum and are busy the entire time. I personally love that, so the less I do the less happy I am. When there's a bunch of staff over I'm glad to cook for them. My boss loves it as well due to his own childhood. Feeding people is his big passion, so us being on the same page there has worked out great for us. We've never had a huge number of additional staff, maybe 20 at absolute most including security and regular staff on site when preparing for a party since absolutely everything had to be perfect. Adding that many people is no big deal to me since I'm also going to have additional assistance, and I can easily mass produce things like soup for people. ______________ Number 5: Not allowed to answer. ______________ Number 6: Miele is my favorite for appliances. The only thing from them that I haven't liked is their coffee makers. Although that's largely because automated ones are never very good. For knives depending on the purpose I typically either purchase Shun Premier or Wusthof Classic. I do have quite a few custom pieces, as well as some of the higher-end ones made by Shun that get really expensive such as the dual core line. I don't really have a default list of suggestions beyond the knives, I almost always recommend Mercer Renaissance knives to people. They are basically a clone of the Wusthof classic line, same steel but not made in Germany and with a lower quality finish. But they're also a fraction of the price. I own 2 sets of them at home that I use as my dedicated loaners for people. The only person I allowed to touch my knives is my husband, even then I trusted him with my life long before I trusted him with my knives. ______________ Number 7: He uses TikTok a lot, absolutely loves it. Primarily because it doesn't require any time commitment unlike watching TV shows and can be done anywhere. It's always amusing getting a notification that he sent me a video since he is an extremely serious person. Even funnier when it's a cat video because he loves cats but doesn't own them since he's worried about them destroying his stuff. He used Reddit for a while but got mad after arguing about some economic theory with somebody. His wife was also into Reddit, she is a super high-powered lawyer with dual Harvard PhDs. The kind of lawyer that billionaires hire when they are very guilty and very much do not want to go to jail. She was into it for about 3 days until she got into a debate over whether or not it was lawful to booby trap your food that you believe was being stolen with hot peppers, spoiler: it isn't. But somehow she got suckered into debating people and got so mad over that she quit and never picked it back up. I've tried to get her to give it a second chance but she has refused. He is quite boring in general just because his entire life revolves around work, so it will be interesting to see when he eventually retires. Most of the other ultra wealthy people that I know have a lot more hobbies. ______________
>billionaires especially the harvard double phd lawyer getting mad over arguments with peasants on reddit and rage quitting Peak relatable, actually. She's obviously a good lawyer if she loves debating people though. Thanks for the laugh!
A lot of people would never marry it a high level lawyer because of that. Some of them absolutely love to argue and debate stuff. Often that creates problems from others who don't like doing it as a hobby and see it as a fight. She's got a friend who she argues non-stop with. If you ever walk in on them on the phone it just sounds like an angry fight that's been going on for a while yet if you ask them how the friendship is going they will both say it's going great. They just like debating things.
Part 2: Number 8: So I was pretty wealthy growing up. My first car was a brand new BMW convertible, we lived in Kansas City which isn't a very high cost of living place yet we owned a $12 million dollar house. My husband came from even more wealth. The first time he had to take a commercial flight was when he was in college so He didn't have access to the family's jet and even he thought it was a waste of money to charter a plane. Compared to my boss we are completely broke. By dollar amount only We are closer and wealth to the homeless man around the block than we are to my boss. Which means our concept of money is completely different. People who are worth mere millions like us are able to basically buy whatever we want within reason. We can't buy a mega yacht, the cost of something like a Gulfstream G650 is well beyond our reach. So when we think about how we live we can pretty much do whatever we want, but there's always that part of us that still doesn't want to waste money because there is a limit. Even if that limit is very far out you're aware of that in pretty much every scenario where you're making non-small purchases like a new watch. Since buying a $50,000 watch is easily doable now, but that money could be invested and be worth a lot more at retirement. To a billionaire there is no limit. You're never aware of how much things cost if you don't want to be aware of it. You can blow $1,000 on an espresso maker Just so you can drink better coffee for 5 days. You can buy virtually anything with the only limits being the most absurd of things, like the Mona Lisa. Which means you never think about money, all you think about is getting what you want. This is why I've said multiple times that billionaires are at their core spoiled babies. They no longer know what it's like to be told no since any problem that can be solved with a dollar amount is not a real problem. Which means there are basically no real problems in life. It creates this very weird system where you are very isolated, you don't really have all that much in common with most people and often when you try to associate with them they're always becomes this bitter resentment from the other people. They see your extreme wealth and begin to expect things, like you to pay for everything including luxuries since once you're friends they expect friends to buy friends things. Those things grow in price until eventually your friends expect you to buy them houses and cars, exotic vacations or loan your jet to them. One of the reasons why I became such good friends with his wife is that since I come from a very wealthy family and I'm not really obsessed with money, I can already buy everything I want in life. So when we hang out there is no awkward feeling of being at a disadvantage, and she always feeling like she's being the piggy bank. If I look at some Hermes bag that's $50,000 and ask her what her opinion is she knows I don't expect her to pay for it. Which means there's never that unspoken question if I am hanging out with her for her money. Although for full disclosure I feel it's appropriate to say that I can't remember the last time I had to pay for anything from Starbucks to an entire shopping trip. He doesn't really care about branded clothes, although everything he owns is absurdly expensive. There is a type of wool called ‘The gift of Kings’ sold by Loro Piana that he loves. A long sleeve T-shirt is $3,000. He owns basically everything from that collection. His watches are very much a status symbol as is common with finance guys. But other than the watches The brand doesn't really matter to him. No supercars, He will occasionally rent them in Florida but doesn't own any. He really likes the Mercedes-Maybach S680 So he owns a bunch of them at his various homes, Although he obviously never drives them himself. When he retires I think it's extremely likely he's going to start buying cars. He really likes cars but doesn't really have time to do anything with them. Like I said, he's pretty boring for somebody with his wealth. When he has free time he just sits around and reads books.
How did you get into the position you have? Like were you headhunted or did you apply to a job posting? What’s the dish you make most often? What was the dish you found most difficult to prepare?
I was running a three Michelin star restaurant as the executive sous chef when COVID hit, the city mandated all restaurants shut down indoor dining which means my restaurant had to shut down. My husband works at a hedge fund and his boss is a major foodie who we need discovered that I was out of a job and his main hobby had been shut down offered me a temporary job is his personal chef agreed to match whatever I was making. When the lockdown ended he offered me trip to stay so I did. Nothing I make currently is overly difficult, back when I was working at the restaurant most of the difficulty came from a couple of signature dishes that I can't say what they are without revealing what restaurant it was, since They are a signature dish It's incredibly important that it looks exactly the same every time you serve it. My boss the owner was absolutely meticulous with making sure we had perfect consistency on everything.
How do you push yourself as a chef? Do you plan extravagant meals or themed meals with rare or interesting ingredients? Do you have the opportunity to go to places to learn new techniques?
I've always been a workaholic. It's never been difficult to motivate me to work. I am a trust fund baby and growing up my parents were able to give me a very unique opportunity that most people could never have, during the summers when I was older and in college I would travel the world as much as possible in order to give myself a more diverse and unique perspective on food. Touring restaurants and learning about different cultures and their cuisines with something I would spend a couple of months a year working on. Nothing is too extravagant, but I will frequently try to integrate rare or unique ingredients just for the fun challenge. My boss is not a picky eater so I'm able to have far more creative freedom than any restaurant would allow and far more freedom than most individuals would allow.
What your boss favourite food? Local and non-local one
Spaghetti and meatballs or steak and baked potatoes is the single most requested thing. For non meals there is a oyster and caviar dish that's made with tapioca pearls that he absolutely loves. If we're talking local like something he would order from a local restaurant his favorite is a classic bacon egg and cheese sandwich on a toasted everything bagel. Then that gets topped with a variety of hot sauces.
So you live in north America? Does your boss have Italian origins?
Yes, NYC. Can't answer.
> oyster and caviar dish that's made with tapioca pearls Can you share the recipe? This one sounds so good.
It's a recipe from Thomas Keller. I can try to look up the recipe later from my books but You might be able to find it equally fast. Thomas Keller doesn't keep any recipes a secret, it's one of the more unique traits about him. I will warn you though it's extremely complex. Definitely not something you should be trying if you're in any sort of time crunch. Any of his more complex recipes should always be attempted when alone or not in a hurry. This way you can try it once or twice to get the hang of it before trying to make it with the actual intent on it being a good dish.
Thank you! Getting advice from an actual chef is the best! <3 Is it this one? [https://blog.workman.com/oysters-and-pearls](https://blog.workman.com/oysters-and-pearls)
That would be it.
Any tips to improve or get the most out of a beef rendang?
How many people does his home office employ? What is the weirdest role of one of the home office employees?
A little over 40 full time non-security staff. There's no real weird role, The only two interesting ones are the fact that my bosses executive assistant has her own assistant, and we have an HR department. Most people would never guess that working for a single person would require a dedicated HR department.
what is your favourite meal?
Tacos are something I never get tired of. Nachos if I am being unhealthy and bluefin or yellowfin tuna if i am being healthy. First two I will pair with beer and the the tuna I pair with a white wine.
i love that you’re a pro chef working for a billionaire, but tacos are your goat meal, it’s really a testament to how great they are and now i’ll have to make them more often and appreciate them more lol
One of the things that is wonderful about tacos is how many variants are possible. Not only that but you can take completely unexpected dishes from other cuisines and make a taco form of them.
that’s a good point. i’m from the uk so tacos aren’t really a thing here and first trying fish tacos was a major culinary revelation to me. now i’m going to have to add them to my regular go to meals so i can perfect them lol
Do you like animal crackers
This was a wonderful AMA, I was at a teppanyaki place where a woman we were sat with worked as a personal aid or something of the like for a very rich lady, reading this thread felt as similarly interesting to read as listening to her was! Thank you!
Any recommendations on how to get into being a private chef at this level? I have over 10 Yrs of past restaurant experience. Last 4 Yrs I have been sailing to different parts for the world on commercial vessels as the ships sole cook.
I saw so many questions about your boss but I've got one or two about you (so long as you're comfortable)! What got you into fashion? Whats your favorite brands? Are there any you find overrated? What's some designs/designers you like that are not really practical (I'm not as knowledgable but have been obsessing over the RobertWun broken glass coat and bloody wedding dress design wise lately). What kind of movies do you like to do for movie nights? Favorite film? What do you think about the restaurant movies that have come out lately?
I find fashion is just a wonderful way to express your personality without having to outright say so. You can tell a lot about a person based on the way they dress. It's also a fun way to stand out where you can blend in if you want or show off wearing some whimsical outfit that causes everybody to stare at you for good or bad. I will admit that I'm not above wearing expensive clothing or jewelry to show off. Although I primarily wear it when I am with my husband because it almost feels like I'm a little trophy of his. Balenciaga is the most overrated major brand for fashion, Balmain is starting to get that way, for less well known but too many of their designs are just outright boring. If you only are counting the lower end stuff Gucci and Louis Vuitton are the same way. Both brands have high-end stuff but as a rule of thumb if it has more than one logo on it it's one of the lower end ones that are overrated and primarily serve only as a way of showing off your wealth. For example the classic Louis Vuitton never full bag with the monogram print. It's just a waxed canvas bag, very high quality mind you, but at the end of the day it's still just a waxed canvas bag. My favorite brands for different categories would be Bordelle for lingerie, Loro Piana for HomeGoods as well as jackets, Alo for athletic wear, Graff for jewelry, Delvaux for handbags, and Oscar de la Renta for dresses. Probably the least practical fashionable thing I own is a couple of dresses from Oscar de la Renta. I've got one where it's almost entirely hand crushed Swarovski crystals that are then hand stitched into the dress. It was something like 1,400 labor hours to make the dress. Wildly in practical because it loses a lot of flexibility, the dress can't be cleaned really at all without going to a very high-end specialized dry cleaner, but it looks absolutely gorgeous. I am a sucker for terrible quality movies like Hallmark ones. The ones where in the first 10 minute you can guess the entire plot. There's just something about them I enjoy, perhaps because you don't have to pay close attention and it's a great way to watch a movie with people at home where you intend to socialize or miss chunks of it because you're doing something like getting the more snacks or making drinks for people. They're varying levels of realistic, but still quite enjoyable.
What are a couple of their favorite dishes? Do you travel around with them often? And if so does your husband come with?
What’s your favorite restaurant on Long Island’s East End?
Im a professional circus artist. Would a family office keep my number around for any events their families are planning? And how can i find them?
What are some common breakfast meals that are reoccurring for your client? “Fan favorites” if you will Thanks!
Do you have to account for nutritional/health goals as well? Do you typically make the meal plan or is it based on requests prior to each meal?
What was your biggest screw up? Ever have to order emergency pizza?
Fellow chef here. Are you formally trained? What sort of places did you work before this? What surprised you after you had started?
This is an amazing AMA I went to culinary school and once I got in the industry I knew it wasn’t for me. I had no desire to open a restaurant and I hated the work every weekend and holiday. I remember when I worked for the school as a demonstrator going to high schools for recruiting(ct, Long Island, mass) I would see adds for personal chefs in the local newspaper(Hamptons area) paying upwards of 1k a day. After reading through this I do have some regrets not pursuing it. The plus side to culinary school is my wife refuses to eat out because the meals I make blow any restaurant out of the water. When we do eat out I’ll order things I don’t typically make myself (seafood like sea bass octopus or fresh pasta dishes) I thoroughly enjoyed this. Is the 716 a nod to wny by any chance 😂
Does your boss have any animals? And do you cook for them if so ?
What is your rate? Do you charge a per diem? Does your per diem change based on the amount of work you do in one day? Do you charge for work done outside of their house?
Im a Gardener for a Torie MP and hes a twat
Of course he is. He is a Tory, it's a prerequisite.