Many of my long-time clients often ask me the advantages of hiring a chef who works as a couple as opposed to just hiring a chef alone. While in both cases the chef is expected to be adept in preparing superior cuisine for both family dining and parties, there are certain differences which I have observed over my 32 years as a placement counselor.
Communication Benefits of a Domestic Couple
For one thing, a chef who works as part of a couple team is quite often a skilled, meticulous housekeeper/houseman who is more than willing to help keep the home immaculate and well organized. When you hire a chef only, you expect to get superb cooking period. The vast majority of chefs simply do not get involved with cleaning any other part of the home other than the kitchen. Then too, and this is important, I have found that chefs that work as couples tend to be better in working with other staff and in personal relations than do chefs that you hire by themselves. Perhaps this comes from years of interaction with their partner and working successfully with them over a long period of time. I must say that while some of the chefs I have placed by themselves have been fine with staff, a number of them have either been “rugged individualists” who tend to want to do it all on their own, or authoritarians who try to boss other staff around rather than working cooperatively with them as a team.
Domestic Couples Share Responsibilities Better
Also, in a couple situation, the chef often has their partner working as a prep cook/sous chef to both speed up the process and to allow him or her to concentrate on preparing a superb meal. The chef who is on their own often does not have this support and has a more daunting task in the kitchen, particularly at dinner time, with meal preparation proceeding at a somewhat slower pace.
At parties, the chef who is part of a couple team has a distinct advantage. For one, he or she generally has a partner who is skilled at serving formally or informally at the table. Secondly, the partner often helps to coordinate the smooth flow of the various dinner courses. The chef working alone doesn’t have this advantage of working together with a trained professional for years and the synergy needed to avoid chaos as the party proceeds. Admittedly, all the above are generalizations which have been formed over a long time as a domestic placement professional.
Tell HSINY Your Domestic Couple and Chef Experiences?
Have you had similar experiences either with chefs hired alone or chefs working as a couple? Perhaps your experiences have been completely different from mine and you strongly disagree with what I have expressed here. Please share these experiences. I welcome your comments both pro and con. After all, this is just one person’s point of view on a very broad and complex subject.