What does a private chef actually do during a week’s holiday?

Many families engage a private chef for the first time when renting a villa, and learn how it works at the same time as they learn the house. Most disappointments start there: not from disappointing food, but from expectations never stated.

Here, concretely, is what a week with a chef involves.

Before arrival: the week is prepared

Work begins several days before the first service. The chef wants to know who will be there, at what ages, with what dietary constraints, and above all how the family lives: early risers or late, lunch at the table or on a corner of the terrace, dinner at eight or at ten.

He will also ask about the kitchen. A chef who asks no questions before arriving is a poor sign: it means he will improvise on the first day, and the first day is when the house forms its opinion.

This is also when practical points are fixed: access times, the gate code, parking, and above all the question of sourcing, which must be settled beforehand rather than on Monday morning.

Which meals are actually covered

This is the first decision, and it is yours. Three arrangements recur:

• Dinners only: the lightest arrangement, often chosen when the family lunches out
• Breakfasts and dinners: the most common compromise, leaving days free
• Three meals a day: the full arrangement, sensible for large houses or isolated villas

Nothing obliges you to take the widest arrangement. A family eating out four times a week does not need a chef at midday, and there is no point paying for a service that goes unused.

A typical day

Morning

Breakfasts are laid as people wake, with no set time, precisely the advantage of being at home. The chef prepares what needs preparing, keeps the table going through the morning, then clears.

Midday

Lunch, where covered, stays deliberately light: people are coming out of the pool, it is hot, and nobody wants a heavy meal. This is also usually when the chef goes out to source.

Afternoon

Preparing dinner takes up most of the afternoon: mise en place, long cooking, pastry. This is when the kitchen is his, and when it is best not to compete for it.

Evening

Dinner service, then putting the kitchen back in order. A serious chef does not leave the house with a full sink: the kitchen is returned clean, ready for the morning.

Sourcing, the real subject

On most villa assignments the chef chooses the produce and does the shopping. It is the most comfortable arrangement: he knows what he is looking for, knows his suppliers, and adapts the menu to what he finds that day.

Two points must be fixed in advance: who fronts the cost, and to roughly what level. Produce is at the expense of the house, and an indicative budget per person per meal prevents any misunderstanding. A chef given no guidance will have to guess, and he will guess wrong.

What a chef does not do

The boundary is worth setting. A private chef is not a butler, nor a housekeeper. He cooks and leaves the kitchen clean. He does not clean the house, deal with the linen, permanently receive guests, or run table service at a large reception.

As soon as dinners grow in scale, what is needed is service staff: the chef then stays in the kitchen, where he is useful.