A Day in the Life of a Private Chef!!

Adrienne and Joe pull back the curtain on what a day in the life of a private chef work actually looks like, cutting through the social media romance to expose the real grind of scheduling, travel, client management, and constant prep. In this episode, we also discuss: Navigating a priority-based calendar where you have to meet the client’s needs The daily New York routine, last-minute plan changes, and private chef communication Pantry management, rotating staples, and keeping cellars stocked across multiple homes The reality of cooking on the road, feeding household staff, and training local teams abroad Why the core restaurant rule still applies: get ahead, stay ahead Why relationships, reputation, and professionalism matter just as much as cooking skill Myth-busting private chef life: chef whites, cooking freedom, and how much time is actually spent at the stove Follow the show: @chefscutpod Follow Adrienne: @chefadriennecheatham Follow Joe: @insta.flamm

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:15Adrienne Cheatham?

  Today on The Chef's Cut, we are taking you behind the scenes for a day in the life of a private chef. I'm messaging with the garden staff every morning and they're telling me what they're harvesting. We'll tell you just how much time private chefs actually spend in the kitchen. I cook more now than I ever did as an exec sous or exec chef. And I'll share some private chef secrets that you can use in your own kitchen. Joe, I live and die by my pantry. That is the key to success in private work. All right, Chef's Cut Nation, you know what time it is. Please take 10 seconds of your day to rate and review the show wherever you get your pods. It really helps.

• 1:03Joe Flamm?

  Age, welcome back. I mean, you're seaside right now?

• 1:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, I'm back in France.

• 1:09Joe Flamm?

  So, speaking of France, speaking of you, I'm sure a million people have sent it your way. I'm sure you've read it, the Wall Street Journal piece that just came out with our friend, friend of the pod, Olivia Tiedemann.

• 1:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes.

• 1:22Joe Flamm?

  Talking about private chef work with her client, actually, too, in the article, which I thought was really cool and really interesting because a lot of times, you know what I mean? There's kind of, there's a big church and state there, right? Like, you could talk about what you do, but you can't talk about the client. So I thought that was really interesting and cool. But also, it's just, I feel like in the last, this summer, it's nothing but articles talking about private chefs, talking about private work, especially, I mean, you know, you have the huge New York focus in that media. So I think especially centering around like the Hamptons and that whole vacation area.

• 1:51Adrienne Cheatham?

  And have you seen on TikTok, the private chef hashtag? It's got over a billion views searching on that hashtag. But that's crazy. I mean, this time of year, I feel like the focus on private chefs is real because it is one of the busy seasons for private chefs. Summertime, it goes down.

• 2:09Joe Flamm?

  Well, especially where you live. You know what I mean? Especially New York, especially with the Hamptons. And I think it's a really interesting thing because people are fascinated by people who live that lifestyle, right? Like, everybody dreams of having a private chef. Like, even as chefs, like, somebody to, like, cook every meal for you, you're like, oh, this is fantastic. That's why we love going to restaurants because somebody cooks a meal for us and it's really, really nice. As much as we love cooking, we also love being cooked for. But, so there's been a ton of attention on that. And then, I think also from like, the perspective of the industry, private chef work is, you know, something where it went from like, oh, like, kind of like naughty, don't talk about it, to like, now, I mean, half the chefs you talk to are like, well, maybe I'll just go be a private chef. And I feel like, I kind of know what it means, right?

• 2:53Joe Flamm?

  Because you and I are great friends. I worked for Art Smith, who's one of the most famous private chefs ever because he worked for Oprah, Miss Winfrey. Maybe you've heard of her. I have like, a little bit of the veil of like, what it is, but I think there's still a lot of mystery about, you know, we always have the joke of like, what do you actually do for a living? Like, that day to day. So I thought today it'd be really cool to kind of get into, not like, the overarching of what you do as a private chef, but like, really the nitty gritty. Like, a day in the life of Adrian Cheeto, because they all see this. They all see this, right? You are on a balcony in France, you're having a glass of wine, the sea is in the background, the sun is behind you, you know what I mean? And they're like, I want to be a private chef.

• 3:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. It looks, it looks very chill and glamorous. Don't get me wrong. It does, the appearance is one thing, but behind the scenes is a completely other thing. Just like, they romanticize chefs in restaurants. It's like, you know, everybody is like Bradley Cooper in that movie Burnt. It's like, no, there's, there's spreadsheets and there's meetings and there's the minutia that people don't see. And my day in private chef work is wild. And it's probably not what people would expect.

• 4:05Joe Flamm?

  Okay, so I want to break it down a little bit. One of the things we talked about in the past, which I think is the greatest challenge of private chef work, is that you don't have a team.

• 4:15Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 4:16Joe Flamm?

  So I cook and I'm cooking a dinner tonight in a private residence in, you know, the Four Seasons in Chicago, right?

• 4:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  But quick question, are you bringing prep from the restaurant?

• 4:26Joe Flamm?

  This is what I was gonna say.

• 4:27Adrienne Cheatham?

  That people have done for you? Yeah.

• 4:29Joe Flamm?

  This is what I was gonna say. I have not, you know what I mean? I will not touch that product with a knife till I show up. Somebody else wrote the prep list. I sent the menu, they wrote the prep list, it's getting packed out, it's organized. Trevor's at the restaurant right now, as we record this podcast, getting us ready for this event tonight. I have a server who's worked for me for five years coming with me, so they know the deal. Like, it's, it's set, locked and loaded. I have team, I have support, you know what I mean? I didn't have to order the food myself. I don't have to get the equipment. I just show up and I get to chef it. I get to just walk in and like, I'm like a TV chef, just like, oh, yeah, hand me that, boom. You know, I'm yelling bam while I'm throwing the salt. But, so, you're doing, you're playing, you know, a lot of away games.

• 5:14Joe Flamm?

  I think especially in, on the level, you know, because you're at the, I think people also need to understand, the level of private chef you're at is the S tier.

• 5:23Adrienne Cheatham?

  Well, okay, and that's something that a lot of people don't realize. There are different types of private chefs. So, there are private chefs, and you see a lot of them on social media, or maybe you know a couple, but they book different clients for different one-off dinners. So they can pretty much build their schedule. If they say, hey, I want to take the month of May off to go travel, or go see family, or do a TV show, they just schedule the clients that they book around that. Then, you have the type of private chefs that do prep at home and drop off meal kits. That's popular when actors and people are traveling to other cities and they don't want somebody in their hotel, or they don't want somebody in their apartment that's been

• 6:08Adrienne Cheatham?

  rented for them by the studio, they just want the meals there in the refrigerator. So that's another type of private chef. And then you have people like me, who are on salary with one client. So I am working, this person essentially pays for priority in my schedule. So when this person says, hey, I need you in France for these dates, I'm in France for these dates. When this person says, hey, we're back in New York, regular schedule, that means Monday through Friday, I'm on call.

• 6:40Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. So I want to talk a little bit more about schedule. So, for like, your schedule, just in general, you know what I mean? I guess my curiosity is, is like, you know, like, because I'm always very curious about how people run their days. Like, do you write a month's schedule at a time? Do you have a year's schedule at a time? Do you have three months, two weeks? Like, how does it, like, begin to function?

• 7:00Adrienne Cheatham?

  The only thing I know about my schedule is that I don't know what my schedule is going to be from week to week.

• 7:06Joe Flamm?

  Sure.

• 7:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  So, my client has homes all around the world. I don't travel with my clients all the time. So, when my client travels and I don't need to go, I'm off. I'm completely off. I don't care if it's two months, I don't care if it's two days, I'm done. But, if my client is in New York, it could be dinner for one person, it could be dinner for two people. So, the way I start my day is typically texting my clients. And this is wild, because a lot of people on this level have a middleman, or somebody that contacts with the staff.

• 7:44Joe Flamm?

  Go through the house manager, or state manager.

• 7:47Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. My client prefers to be more involved in it. So I text my client every morning between eight and nine, say, hey, home for dinner tonight? What's going on? Could be four people, could be two people. If there's a dinner of 10 people or 20 people, I'm given more notice. It's not like, oh my God, I've got 20 people coming tonight and we need to do five courses. No, that would be like, hey, next week, Tuesday, we've got 20 people, want to do five courses, wine pairing. But, typical day to day, Monday through Friday, I'm texting my client and saying, hey, what's up? Are you home tonight? And sometimes the answer could be, nope, I'm out. See you tomorrow.

• 8:26Joe Flamm?

  So then on that day, are you like, that day, you're just like, ah, cool, I'm doing whatever, you know what I mean? I'm putting my sweatpants back on? Or are you gonna go like, you know, like, because there's stuff like, like, you know, going back to, like you said, you're like, well, are you taking prep from the restaurants? Like, you must have like, a base pantry going on, at least at home base in New York, right?

• 8:44Adrienne Cheatham?

  Joe, I live and die by my pantry. That is the key to success in private work. And this is actually something that I learned from my mother. If she had a little bit of extra time, or my sister and I had a sleepover, or we were at our aunt's house, or hanging out, she would get stuff done in the kitchen to stock up. So that's what I do. If my client says, I'm out for dinner, I don't need anything, that just means that I can roll in around 12, make a few things and leave at four or five. So like, I'll do chicken stock, I'll roast some bones and make a brown stock or a jus, I'll make vinaigrettes, I'll make my mayonnaise, I'll make staples that I keep in the fridge. Because that's the thing, like, in private work, you have to know your client.

• 9:27Adrienne Cheatham?

  Every client has staples that they want in the fridge to snack on. My client loves egg salad and salmon rillet. Salmon rillet was a staple from La Berna Dene, and my client absolutely loves it. So I make salmon rillet and egg salad, like, probably three times a week, just a small amount, and keep it, keep it rotating. But, you got to know your client, and you got to know what those staples are, and you have to stay ahead of that stuff.

• 9:54Joe Flamm?

  Well, and I think that's part of like, when you're a CDC, when you're an exec sous, when you work for a chef, like, part of your job is knowing your chef, right? Like I said, I have an offsite tonight. I gave them a menu, I give them a list. There's things not on that list that they know I might want.

• 10:11Adrienne Cheatham?

  You're gonna want, yeah.

• 10:12Joe Flamm?

  And then when you grocery shop, are you not just like, like, obviously you got to buy stuff specific for dinners? If you're like, I'm gonna make sea bass tomorrow with, you know, tomato concassé, whatever. Are you buying like, regular groceries, like stocking his pantries with like, oh, I'm gonna make sure there's like, you know, snacks, or there's fruit in the fridge, or I know what he likes for breakfast, so there's, you know, chia seed pudding and, you know what I mean, green juices or whatever? Are you doing that? Or is there like, a house manager who does some of that? Like, how does that work?

• 10:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  So all that is my responsibility. I manage the wine inventory, so I manage the wine cellars as well as the refrigerator. So I'm pretty much over the food and beverage program for this client.

• 10:54Joe Flamm?

  And that's interesting that you do the wine, because I don't think people realize is that a lot of these clients also have a wine person.

• 11:01Adrienne Cheatham?

  A lot do, a lot do. And he, my client has a wine person that they do the purchasing through.

• 11:07Joe Flamm?

  Right.

• 11:08Adrienne Cheatham?

  But when it comes to-

• 11:08Joe Flamm?

  I was gonna say, they probably have a buyer.

• 11:10Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, but when it comes to tracking the inventory, so I do quarterly inventory in the wine sellers in each home, if it's, if it's across, if it's somewhere else in the world, I'll ask for the updated inventory from the staff on that site. But in New York, I do the wine inventory quarterly, including spirits, everything else. And I'll talk to people like Aldo Som, the sommelier from La Berta Den, or Katja Scharnagle, friends of mine who are sommeliers, amazing people. And I'll say, hey, can you look at this list and tell me what I need to start rotating in to be drank? If there's like a, a 2008, is that gonna age better than the 2015? Which of these do I need to start drinking first?

• 11:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  So, stuff like that. But, but when it comes to like the staples in the fridge, like lettuce, cucumbers, I have to do all that. The house manager doesn't necessarily, in, in my job at least, they don't get involved with that.

• 12:15Joe Flamm?

  When you get into travel, day one, you get there. Are you getting there before him?

• 12:20Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oof, okay, so, this is where it gets tricky. Because my schedule in New York is pretty much set Monday through Friday, dinner only. When I travel with my client, all bets are off. I am, I am on the clock from lunch to dinner. So when I travel with my clients, I'm getting up at seven or eight AM local time, wherever I am, doing the shopping for both meals, for lunch and dinner, because I may not have time to run out in between. And there's also a large house staff, so I'm doing lunch and dinner staff meals as well. So I'm getting up at seven eight, I'm doing the grocery shopping, get to the house by ten,

• 13:05Adrienne Cheatham?

  hopefully nine, nine thirty, but sometimes ten. And then I start my prep for the day, for the client's lunch, for the client's dinner. And then I've probably had stuff for staff meals started the day before. So lunch, I can just pull out, warm it up, and, and put it up for staff. But it's, it's completely different, because when your client is traveling, they're not going to the office. They're not going part, it's different from their daily routine. So that changes my daily routine.

• 13:34Joe Flamm?

  Right. And you don't have, like, you're building up all those staples again on the fly, right? You're not, you're not packing out from New York.

• 13:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. And I'm very, very lucky. So because my client travels a lot, I was able to hire a CDC.

• 13:49Joe Flamm?

  Oh, that's awesome.

• 13:50Adrienne Cheatham?

  Somebody who is based in Europe and will be covering Europe. This quarter, this summer, we've been working together and training to make sure, I mean, he's a, he's, comes from Michelin restaurants, like, don't get me wrong, like, he's a badass on his own, but he doesn't know the preferences, likes, and styles of the client. So we're spending the summer kind of getting to know each other, showing him the ropes, making sure he does everything exactly how the client likes it, and then he'll be on his own. And I won't have to come back to France as much.

• 14:21Joe Flamm?

  Well, I feel like going from like restaurants to private, it's like, you speak the language, you just don't know the local dialect.

• 14:26Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 14:26Joe Flamm?

  So you just like, don't understand. You're like, oh, we do it like this. And it's like, no, like, that's, I understand where you're from, that's how you would do it, but this is how we do it.

• 14:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. So when I travel with my client, I try to get there two days ahead. But there have been times where I have to do a dinner in New York on Friday, and then my client is getting somewhere else on Sunday. So I'm working Friday, flying out Saturday, and pretty much getting there at the same time as my client. So you're always behind the eight ball.

• 14:55Joe Flamm?

  Right.

• 14:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  When that happens. And that fucking sucks. It is the worst.

• 14:59Joe Flamm?

  Even like when I have really big events, like, in the most ideal world, like, if it's a, we did a massive one in Vegas a couple of years ago. And I mean, it was massive. Like, we had to set up four stations in the Raiders Stadium, each serving 250 people, four different dishes, you know, so it's like, you know, a thousand of everything, of four different things at four different stations, and I had to staff the four different stations. Like, you can't bring all that food. Like, you just can't. So there was stuff we could bring, so we brought that. But then I sent, you know, I sent Trevor out two days early. I'm like, take you, take two people, you guys are gonna go two days early, and start working. And then I'm gonna come out the day before the event, and like, we'll roll into it.

• 15:44Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yep. Imagine like, you're coming in from out of town, at home. Like, say you're a home cook, because I'm not cooking for thousands of people. Like, I'm cooking for two people, usually. But imagine, even if you're just at home and it's just you, imagine you're coming home from out of town, so your fridge is empty, and then you've got like, guests coming for dinner that night. It's not an ideal situation. You wanna have done the grocery shopping before. So I like to get there ahead of my client as much as possible.

• 16:15Joe Flamm?

  Right. And you've been to the location you're at enough, or you know it, you know what I mean? I'm sure you had to build all those things out over time. You know, I'm sure when you first started going there, it was like, okay, where do I get this? Where do I get this?

• 16:25Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, yeah.

• 16:25Joe Flamm?

  That front-end work of a lot of sourcing, because like, I think that's another thing people don't realize, like, you know, in restaurants, if you worked in that city before, you know all the purveyors, right? And even if you haven't worked in that city, if I go do a dinner in New York and I need something, I can text you, I can text Missy, I can text Ayesha, a, a number of people to be like, yeah, where can I order? You know, I need 50 pounds of ribeyes, where can I order 50 pounds of ribeyes? And like, you know, I'm gonna have them delivered to your restaurant, I'll come pick them up when I get to town. And I'll be like, yeah, sure.

• 16:53Adrienne Cheatham?

  But that's a big difference, though. So when you're doing private work, it's rare that you need 50 pounds.

• 16:57Joe Flamm?

  Right, that's what I'm saying.

• 16:58Adrienne Cheatham?

  So, I'm, I'm, it's weird, because private work is probably the closest thing to bringing restaurant cooking experience to home cooking. Like, I, and it's weird, because my mom worked in restaurants. So the more I've done private work, the more I see, I run my schedule like my mom ran our home. There's certain things that she kept doing, that she would always, she'd put things in the freezer, she'd do this. So like, when I start my day, say it's just a normal day, I'm only doing dinner, not lunch. I get up, I do the grocery shopping, the first thing I prep is dessert. It's the last thing served, but the first thing you need to prep.

• 17:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  Because nine out of 10, dessert needs to chill. It needs to set, it needs to chill. So sometimes desserts, I'll do the night before I leave, if I have a big party the next day. Like, if it's a chocolate mousse, or a chocolate olive oil cake, which I love, I have a go-to chocolate olive oil cake recipe on like, from the New York Times. This recipe is solid, it has never failed me, and then I'll top it with like, a whipped ganache or something. Super easy. I can do both of those things the night before, leave them in the fridge. That way, I'm spending my whole day prepping the savory food, and then dessert, I just have to take out of the fridge and assemble.

• 18:20Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. And I think that's always like, you know, and I think it's very of your personality and who you are. I think especially private work at like, the level you do it, it's just a masterclass on like, organization. I had a friend ask me recently, he's like, how do I, how would I get one of those jobs? And I was like, honestly, the best way to get one of those jobs, and you've said this on here before. I'm like, you go work at a restaurant, that's a two or three Michelin star restaurant.

• 18:42Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 18:43Joe Flamm?

  Where those people who need a private chef eat.

• 18:47Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yep.

• 18:48Joe Flamm?

  So you're in their world, you're in their orbit, you have to exist. You know, because you either have to be on the smaller side where you're selling your own work, you're selling to families, you're putting it out on the internet, you're, you know what I mean? Selling yourself constantly. But if you wanna be, you know, the Adrian Cheatham of the world, like, you gotta get in these people's orbit somehow.

• 19:06Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 19:07Joe Flamm?

  And the best way to do that is to be somewhere that they like to go to eat.

• 19:11Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, a hundred percent. And can I tell you, another thing is that this business, private business, is very heavy on relationships, reputation, and referrals.

• 19:25Joe Flamm?

  Oh, I believe it.

• 19:26Adrienne Cheatham?

  Wow, that's like three Rs. Wow, I hadn't realized that. So, I mean, I have no less, when my client has a dinner, and the people come in the kitchen, or when I go out to the dining room to introduce the dessert, because I usually stay in the kitchen until the dessert, and then I'll walk out with the dessert, um, when everything is set. But at that point, I can tell you, it's been, I mean, maybe 10, 20 times a year, I have people, friends of my client, family of my client, asking me for a referral for private chefs.

• 20:08Joe Flamm?

  One more like scheduling thing. I'm kind of curious about that. So like when you look at like, like a year of Adrian Cheatham, are there days on the calendar where it's like, he's like, okay, you know, your client's like, these days are locked in stone. You have to have these. And then are there days where you're like, these are my days that are, you know, I won't work on these days. And then those ones in the middle, like, what do you do? Like, what if, you know what I mean? Like, like, if I have a wedding come up, I have, you know what I mean? I have four CDCs. I have, you know, 10 sous chefs. Like, you know what I mean? There's a bunch of people who can cover for me so that like, I can go to like, you know, I'm going to my sister-in-law's wedding in two weeks. And it's a Saturday night. So it's just like, okay, hey, guys, I'm going on that Saturday. If you need me, I'm not there. Schedule an extra body. It's not a big deal.

• 20:54Adrienne Cheatham?

  That comes with being more grown up in your career. Like, I was the person who, for years, in restaurants, never took a vacation.

• 21:04Joe Flamm?

  Right.

• 21:04Adrienne Cheatham?

  Never took a vacation, never asked for days off, showed up to work when I was sick, just because I was too scared to call out, because I was always afraid that somebody would be like, oh, we knew she wasn't real anyway, or we knew she couldn't hack it.

• 21:18Joe Flamm?

  No, that was my, that was my whole twenties, dude.

• 21:20Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 21:20Joe Flamm?

  You know what I mean? It was just like.

• 21:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  I'm used, and then the thing about the hospitality industry that we all know, nights and weekends, holidays, like, when people are off of work, that's when we are busiest.

• 21:33Joe Flamm?

  Yes.

• 21:33Adrienne Cheatham?

  So I don't really have the expectation. There are certain things that like, come up family-wise, like, oh, if it's my mom's 70th birthday, I'm requesting these off well in advance. I want to make sure I'm there. And that's totally fine.

• 21:47Joe Flamm?

  But if there's, like, do you have to find, like, coverage then? Are you like, okay, like, now you have a CDC, but before that, are you like, okay, I'm, I gotta go to Chicago for a week. It's my mom's birthday. Are you like, this is my homie Phil. You have Phil for the week.

• 22:02Adrienne Cheatham?

  I've done that. So I had the show with Food Network, Barbecue Brawl. When I was filming Barbecue Brawl down in Austin, Texas, it was over a holiday. And my client was celebrating the holiday with family. And I asked months in advance, and I said, hey, I'll find somebody to cover me, but I really want to do this show. The thing is, I normally get my client's schedule for each quarter. So I know when my client is traveling, so I don't have to request days off, because when things come up, I can slot them. Exactly. I can slot them into those times. If

• 22:44Adrienne Cheatham?

  I'm off two weeks a quarter, or three weeks a quarter, because he's traveling, I can schedule the things that I need to do during those times.

• 22:52Joe Flamm?

  Let's celebrate mom's birthday, you know what I mean, this week instead of that week. Then I can be there for five days instead of 24 hours.

• 22:58Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. How about I get there the three days, and then on her birthday, instead of the weekend after, or the week after, whenever, you know, it's like, so we'll, we'll build the schedule around there. And when I met my husband, I was still in restaurants. So, you know, he knows that when it's, when it's work time, you know, it's work time.

• 23:19Joe Flamm?

  Momma's gotta go to work.

• 23:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  He knows how busy it is. Like, he knows that when I travel, I'm doing lunch and dinner. So my family's okay with it, because we all know what it is. But then when I'm off, like, two years in a row, I was off the entire summer. This is the first year I've had to work a summer in three, four years. And don't get me wrong, I've worked a lot this summer, but I had a few summers off in a row. That kind of made up for it.

• 23:46Joe Flamm?

  I feel like it's one of those things, and restaurants get like that too, where it's like, you know, it's like, we kind of tell the team where it's like, hey, like, don't, you know what I mean, be here just to be here. But like, when we gotta be here, like, you also, you know what I mean, like, just be in it. Like, don't, like, oh, it's a long day. It's like, I know it is. But, you know, we've had some short ones too. We've had some good ones too. Everybody's gotten their time off. Dig in.

• 24:05Adrienne Cheatham?

  It all balances out. Right. When it's time to lock in, lock the fuck in and go to work. That's all there is to it. It's just be, be a professional, be a grown up. Because that's one thing about private work, is because your reputation is not just how the client sees you. But if you want to get referred to a private client, I'm not referring people that I worked with in restaurants that were dirtbags. If they ask me about who, who would you refer for private work, and I start making phone calls or sending out texts, like, hey, are you still in restaurants? I've got, I know people who are looking for private chefs. I'm not texting the people who were assholes, and were, you know, the dirtbags at work, who were like, trying to

• 24:48Adrienne Cheatham?

  sabotage other people, or out for themselves all the time, or always bullying and talking down to other people. Those are not the people that I'm referring to. Because you're, this is a very relationship-heavy business. So if somebody comes into a friend of my client's home, and is an asshole to the other staff, it doesn't get along, just has bad energy, that reflects on me.

• 25:11Joe Flamm?

  Right. Or they're messy, or they're not timely, or they're not responsible. Like, I think it's so much like the, you know, again, like, we've talked about this seven ways till Sunday in restaurants, but it's like, the cooking is, is still just this much of it. It's everything else that makes you, right? Same with like chefs in restaurants. It's like, everyone at this level can cook. You don't get to this level because you can't cook. You mean, everyone who's doing private chef work at your level is really, really good cooks. It's like, the separation is all the other things. It's all the intangibles. It's always being there. It's being responsive. It's, you know, getting back to that email right away, that text, that, you know what I mean? Like, thinking ahead, I'm sure, is like, what sets you apart, you know?

• 25:48Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. And that's the fun thing about it, is like, you do feel like a mercenary in some ways. It's like, put me in any city. I was traveling with my client to another country earlier this year, and he was like, uh, are you gonna be okay? I was like, yeah, I got it.

• 26:05Joe Flamm?

  Right.

• 26:06Adrienne Cheatham?

  Like, I got it. Put me, drop me in the middle of any country. I will find the purveyors, because I will, I'll try to zigzag streets. Like, when I pick up my rental car at the airport, I'll Google search grocery stores nearby. And I already love, as a tourist, when I'm just on vacation, if I see a grocery store, when I'm walking around a city, I just walk the aisles, just to see what they are.

• 26:31Joe Flamm?

  The dreamiest part of your job, to me, is going to another city, another country, and getting to cook there, with the local stuff. Because that's the one thing, when I travel, like, I always wish, like, you know, I'm always like, man, I wish I could cook one meal when I'm here. And I've done it a couple of times when I've traveled, but not, you know, typically. But it's like, when I, I go to, you know, because I love going to markets. I go to markets wherever I go, when I travel, and I'm just like, walking through the markets. And you see, you know, beautiful fish, or beautiful vegetables, or mushrooms, or cheeses, or whatever.

• 27:03Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 27:03Joe Flamm?

  And you're like, man, I would love to just shop this and put it together. Like, it would be spectacular. And that, like, you get to do that. That, to me, is the one where it's like, you know what I mean? It's not the, you know, oh, you might get a summer off for this. It's like, that, to me, is the one where I'm like, that, that's a dream. You know what I mean? Going to France, walking through a market in France, picking out the best vegetables, you know, going to the fishmonger, you know, grabbing some beautiful fish, and like, making a dinner for a couple of people with that. Like, you know, making staff meal in France, like, that, to me, those are the things, when I hear about, like, your private work, that I'm like, oh, my God, it's like, it's like, dreamy.

• 27:43Adrienne Cheatham?

  You know what I made for staff meals today?

• 27:45Joe Flamm?

  What?

• 27:46Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay. Now, you're gonna, you're gonna find this very anticlimactic. I did egg salad sandwiches and tuna salad sandwiches. I had a bunch of hard-boiled eggs that the CDC made before I got there, in case I needed them for other stuff. So chopped them up, made egg salad, bought a loaf, a nice loaf of bread from the French bakery, and then made egg salad sandwiches, made tuna salad sandwiches. It's like, you know, it's like, it's fun, because for the staff here, they're like, oh, it's American sandwich day. Like, for them, it's exciting. And then, sometimes for other staff meals, yes, I'll do like a fregola sarda, like, with Parmesan and vegetables and stuff like that, with like grilled chicken. But that's one of the coolest things, is finding

• 28:28Adrienne Cheatham?

  the grocery stores wherever you go. I think, if you're a tourist, if you're visiting a city in another place.

• 28:35Joe Flamm?

  You made them some Italian beef sandwiches yet? Really, really blow their minds?

• 28:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  I really, ooh, on a baguette, that would be so good.

• 28:42Joe Flamm?

  Dude, hit it with some beefs.

• 28:44Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes. With a.

• 28:49Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, I really need to make some Italian beef here. That would be a killer. Um, but that's the cool thing. Like when I, as a tourist, as a vacationer, I like to check out grocery stores in other cities. I feel like if you really want to get to know a city or a culture or a group of people, look what they have to eat. Look at what they shop for at the grocery store. So I love to walk grocery stores in Seattle, New Orleans. Like I saw, I saw alligator and chicken sausage at a grocery store in New Orleans. And I was like, dear God, what is this? I don't know, but I need to try it.

• 29:25Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, no, it's, I'm with you. I love like, you know what I mean? Like just a random grocery store anywhere I go.

• 29:32Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, it's my jam. And here, like, I'll just drive down the street and I'll see a bakery. And I'm like, oh, let me pop in and see if the baguette here is better than the baguette at the place I went to before. Because also, don't get me wrong, like sometimes I'm super busy and I just have to pick stuff up and go. So sometimes I'll have a few things in mind, but I love that curve ball. If I see a market stand set up somewhere, I'm pulling over and I'm going to see what they have. And it could be some beautiful squash because it's squash season, it's tomato season. Um, and I love it, you know, and I'm really lucky here because my client's place has a massive vegetable garden. So I'm messaging with the

• 30:17Adrienne Cheatham?

  garden staff every morning and they're telling me what they're harvesting and I'll take a walk down into the garden. You know, it's, it's really cool. It's like, it's like a culinary wet dream.

• 30:27Joe Flamm?

  Incredible. Yeah. Oh, I mean, unbelievable.

• 30:30Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. Like literally the past, I've been here for a few days. Every meal I have cooked, I have maybe used one ingredient that was not from the garden.

• 30:40Joe Flamm?

  And I think like the other side of that though, like, you know, I mean, like as much as that's like dreamy, it's like also like, but like for me, I'm like, you know, you're not going home tonight. Like, yes, you're in France, you're cooking out of the garden. It's incredible. It's like, but that's still hard. That's still hard for a lot of people. You know what I mean? Where it's like, you know, for me, that's like, I couldn't do that right now. I couldn't just be in France for two weeks. You know what I mean? It just wouldn't, you know what I mean? It'd be too hard. It'd be too difficult. I couldn't balance that out. I couldn't, you know? Um, so it's like, I think as much as there's this, you know, it is incredible. You already mean, and I think like what I get to do is incredible and it is a dream that like, you know, we both, you know, somehow have chased down these crazy dreams. But I think like, there's always, there's, there's always a trade off for

• 31:25Joe Flamm?

  a better one, right? There's no, there's no gain without sacrifice. There's no gain without hard work. And I think, you know, it is a lot. And I think people, you know, it's easy to get caught up in the, you on a, you know, veranda, having a glass of wine and sunset and not what it takes to get there.

• 31:49Joe Flamm?

  Okay. So to round it out, so I can let you go enjoy your night off out in France or out to Monaco for dinner.

• 31:56Adrienne Cheatham?

  I am gonna go to Monte Carlo for dinner.

• 31:58Joe Flamm?

  Ah.

• 31:59Adrienne Cheatham?

  There's a fine dining Lebanese restaurant that I'm gonna check out.

• 32:03Joe Flamm?

  I love that for you. All right. So we're gonna do a little teasy and beasy to

• 32:08Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, little turn and burn?

• 32:10Joe Flamm?

  Little turn and burn.

• 32:10Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, okay.

• 32:12Joe Flamm?

  So these are kind of some like true and false preconceived notions

• 32:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay.

• 32:18Joe Flamm?

  about private chef work.

• 32:20Adrienne Cheatham?

  There are a lot, especially based on the comments that I see on like Olivia Tiedemann and other people's comments on their posts on social media. People think they know, but they have no idea about what goes on in private work.

• 32:33Joe Flamm?

  I think like the number one is like, people think like, you know, they're like, oh, you like barely cook anymore.

• 32:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  I cook more now. False. That is patently false. I cook more now than I ever did as an exec sous or exec chef. And I'm cooking more of a variety than I ever did even as a line cook. As a line cook, you're prepping a few dishes that come up off of your station. And you're just prepping large quantities of each ingredient or each component. You're doing everything in private work. You're doing the desserts. You're doing the bread courses. You're making butter sometime. Like you're doing everything. I'm making the mayonnaise. So if I'm making tuna salad, I gotta make mayonnaise first. Yeah.

• 33:23Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. Uh, yeah, no doubt. I, I agree. I think you cook a ton. Uh, is what people don't realize. Uh, I mean, half the time we're on the phone, you know what I mean? You're in a kitchen cooking.

• 33:33Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. And you're in an, you're in an office looking at spreadsheets and numbers.

• 33:38Joe Flamm?

  Right. You know what I mean? Like it's just

• 33:40Adrienne Cheatham?

  The non glamorous side of, of what we do.

• 33:43Joe Flamm?

  I'm on a roof hitting an HVAC thing with a hammer. All right. So this is what I'm curious about. So true or false? You don't pack the chef whites anymore. You don't rock them.

• 33:53Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, you know what? I think I know what you mean because people in private work are always like wearing cute outfits or apron on a cute t-shirt. No, I am regard jacketed up, apron.

• 34:05Joe Flamm?

  You're full, full, full jack. You were, you were wearing chef pants.

• 34:09Adrienne Cheatham?

  I mean, I usually keep my jeans on.

• 34:12Joe Flamm?

  Right, right. I mean, I'm not, I'm not wearing chef pants.

• 34:14Adrienne Cheatham?

  If I wear a dress that day in the morning, then I have a pair of black pants at work. And I have kitchen shoes at work because you don't wear your outside shoes in a restaurant.

• 34:25Joe Flamm?

  So you're still like rocking a pair of like Dancos?

• 34:27Adrienne Cheatham?

  A hundred percent. Well, no, not Dancos, but I have Hoka's.

• 34:31Joe Flamm?

  Oh, Hoka. That was Hoka's, our kitchen shoes.

• 34:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  I have ons at one house. I have Hoka's at another. I'm trying to figure out what works best for my aging knees.

• 34:40Joe Flamm?

  So you're still butt like in the morning, put on the chef coat, put on the apron.

• 34:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  So that is a big misconception. If you're working for like, I don't know, like a young, hip, cool person who like, I don't know, doesn't give a fuck and they want the person who looks like the renegade, maybe. But in the world that I work in, there's, there's a couple of rules where it's like, be professional. Like I'm a professional. I, I may not wear a long sleeve chef jacket. I might wear a short sleeve chef jacket, but I am in a chef's jacket with jeans. You know, maybe sometimes I'll wear a waist apron instead of a full length bib apron. But I am in a chef jacket every day. There is, there's a level of professionalism.

• 35:28Joe Flamm?

  I, I'm in a chef jacket four times a year.

• 35:31Adrienne Cheatham?

  You know, to each their own.

• 35:33Joe Flamm?

  I wear the dishwasher. I wear the button up dishwasher cup.

• 35:35Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. And it's just, it looks different. So in the restaurant setting.

• 35:39Joe Flamm?

  Without a doubt, without a doubt.

• 35:40Adrienne Cheatham?

  If you're in somebody's home, wearing that, it looks different.

• 35:44Joe Flamm?

  I agree.

• 35:44Adrienne Cheatham?

  So in the restaurant setting, if you're wearing that, it's, it signifies one thing. But when somebody has a chef in their home, they want guests to walk in and it's like you're identifiable as the chef. Otherwise it's like, oh, you just got some dude walking around here or some chick just walking around in a white snap front shirt. Like it looks weird. It doesn't look the same in somebody's home. So I always wear a chef jacket. I'm not, sometimes if it's a light day and I'm just doing prep, I'll wear a t-shirt with my apron over it.

• 36:16Joe Flamm?

  Okay. Um, last one. You get to cook whatever you want.

• 36:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  Nine out of 10? Yeah.

• 36:23Joe Flamm?

  Really? That much?

• 36:24Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 36:25Joe Flamm?

  Wow. That's shocking to me. Do you think that's unique to you though?

• 36:30Adrienne Cheatham?

  That's a good question. It could be unique to my client because my client doesn't have small children. So some people whose clients have kids and people with dietary very specific things. I know people who get very explicit instructions about what people want to eat sometimes.

• 36:47Joe Flamm?

  Right.

• 36:48Adrienne Cheatham?

  My client is like, I want to eat light today. That's the most guidance.

• 36:54Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, sure.

• 36:54Adrienne Cheatham?

  He'll, you know, my client will give.

• 36:56Joe Flamm?

  Cause I've had friends in private work who they're like, I had to make like a hundred quesadillas a week because like the 16 year old kid only ate quesadillas. And so they would just make stacks of chicken quesadillas to like cut and put in the fridge and then like cut.

• 37:09Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 37:09Joe Flamm?

  You know what I mean? Like 40 pounds of fruit.

• 37:12Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, my client very much likes food and likes exploring and likes trying new ingredients and new techniques and combinations. So I'm very lucky that sometimes it can be like, oh, A-Rod is coming over for hors d'oeuvres. So no dinner tonight, but we've got Barbra Streisand for lunch, or we've got this person, you know, it's, but you're not, you're not tied in.

• 37:38Joe Flamm?

  So are you friends with A-Rod?

• 37:40Adrienne Cheatham?

  No, definitely not.

• 37:41Joe Flamm?

  Read this in the New York Post of like a picture of you and A-Rod at like the Lebanese restaurant?

• 37:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  Absolutely not. A hundred percent not. No, no. It's funny though, when A-Rod came over, he thought I was Dominican or Puerto Rican. And I was, I think he was still with J-Lo at the time and thought I was Dominican. I was like, no, I'm, no, I'm mixed. I'm, I'm black. He was like, same thing. He was like, ah, same thing.

• 38:04Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. Yeah, that's.

• 38:06Adrienne Cheatham?

  Um, but that's, you know, that's the fun thing is like my client likes to try new stuff. So I get to do most of the time, whatever I want, but I know what the client likes. I know what the client doesn't like. So I'm not going to go too, too far off field and you know, do something that's not going to land.

• 38:27Adrienne Cheatham?

  I can tell you though, one time I was doing like a full on like Japanese dinner and I had like a chow and mushi course. And my client was like, took a bite and was like, you got something else? I was like, oh shit. Because my client likes texture, likes crunch, not soft things. He was like, I don't even eat this when I go to like, you know, Nobu.

• 38:49Joe Flamm?

  Japan.

• 38:49Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. Yeah. Like miss me with this one. Another funny misconception about private chefs is uh, people like, oh, you don't really cook that much. You must never burn yourself anymore.

• 39:03Joe Flamm?

  Oh, you see, I would, I would not think that at all because it's like, I burn myself more, more cooking at home than in the restaurant.

• 39:11Adrienne Cheatham?

  I got a triple tag this week.

• 39:13Joe Flamm?

  Everything's, everything's set up nice. You know what I mean? Like you get bigger equipment.

• 39:17Adrienne Cheatham?

  Three.

• 39:18Joe Flamm?

  You get all the stuff. It's like I, I screw myself up at home.

• 39:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 39:22Joe Flamm?

  Like, you know what I mean? On the air fryer, trying to fit my fat hands in there. Like.

• 39:26Adrienne Cheatham?

  See, that's why you don't need to have an air fryer, Joe.

• 39:29Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, you're so wrong.

• 39:29Adrienne Cheatham?

  Just use a connection oven.

• 39:31Joe Flamm?

  I want you to go have a wonderful night out in Monaco with or without A-Rod. I'm not going to ask any more prying questions there. You know what I mean? Uh, that's between you and the Lord in Monaco. But you know, um, have a great night off. You've worked hard for it. It looks beautiful there. I'm gonna head to work here.

• 39:54Adrienne Cheatham?

  That is it for this episode of The Chef's Cut. Don't forget to take a moment to rate and review the show and hit subscribe on YouTube and follow us on IG. For Joe Flamm, I'm Adrian Cheatham, and this has been The Chef's Cut. Life beyond the past.