Path to Private Chef

Hey all.

I’ve been working in kitchens for about two years now as a line/prep cook, and I can already tell that this sort of high-volume, repetitive, service-oriented work is going to blow me out of the water in the long term.

I love cooking professionally. I didn’t go to culinary school. All of my skills are self-taught and learned through commercial work. I find it rewarding and fulfilling; but as we all know, the pay is shit, the work/life balance is awful, and it’s easy to fall prey to burnout.

Private chefs, how did you get into private chef work? Was it all just marketing yourself and trying to find local clients? Did you just call yourself a private chef and start handing out business cards? What does that process look like?