Private Chefs
The Specialism We Are Known For.
Private chefs for professional athletes, private families and clients who travel — from performance-led kitchens to households that entertain at the highest level.
01Why chefs
Food is where a household is most exposed.
The private chef sees the calendar, the guests, the injuries, the diet, the arguments and the timing of every day. It is the most intimate appointment in a house and the one most often made badly — usually because the chef was assessed on a CV rather than on a plate.
Greystone began with chefs and still spends most of its time on them. We hold a network of private and ex-professional chefs we have met, eaten with, and in most cases already placed once. That is the difference between a shortlist of three and a database of three hundred.
02Professional Athletes
Nutrition that survives a real season.
A performance chef is a member of the support team, not a luxury. Macro targets set by a nutritionist only matter if someone can hit them at 6am before training, again after a late fixture, in a rented house in another country, for eleven months.
We place chefs who work directly with performance and medical staff: weight-making for combat athletes, fuelling and recovery windows through a fixture-heavy season, tightly controlled protocols for anti-doping compliance, and the discipline to keep it interesting so the athlete actually eats it.
Briefs usually arrive through an agent, a club or a performance director. They are handled without the athlete’s name leaving our office.
03Private Individuals & Families
Every day, not just the dinner parties.
Most family chef roles are won or lost on the ordinary weeknight rather than the twenty-cover dinner. Children who eat differently from their parents, a principal who is dairy-free, guests arriving at short notice, and a kitchen that has to feel calm at seven in the morning.
We look for chefs whose repertoire is broad rather than signature-driven, who source and manage a budget without being asked, and who understand that a private kitchen has a family living around it.
Where a household entertains formally, we place chefs with the brigade experience and event background to deliver a seated dinner properly — and the judgement to keep it invisible.
04International & Travelling Clients
A kitchen that moves with you.
Training camps, summer residences, tours, charters and relocations all place the same demand on a chef: produce the same standard from an unfamiliar kitchen, in an unfamiliar market, with a day’s notice.
We maintain a group of chefs who travel permanently — current passports and visas, rotational schedules of two-on two-off or longer, and experience sourcing at the level required in the Gulf, the Mediterranean, the Alps and North America.
Right to work, tax residency and rotation structure are all established before we present anyone.
05Selection
How we select chefs.
Roughly one chef in twelve who approaches us is represented. The filter is not pedigree — it is evidence.
We eat the food
Every chef cooks a trade test before representation, briefed the way a real household would brief them: a budget, a diet, a short list of preferences and no menu supplied.
We verify the history
Dates, kitchens and titles confirmed. Private roles referenced with the principal or house manager directly, never with a written testimonial alone.
We check the conduct
DBS or local equivalent, right to work, food safety certification, allergen competence and an explicit conversation about confidentiality.
We assess the fit
Temperament in someone else’s home, tolerance for changed plans, how they behave when a service goes wrong. This is what decides most placements.
“A brief for a chef is really a brief about a household. We spend most of our time on the second part.”
Enquiries
Whichever side of the kitchen you are on.
Clients: tell us what the household needs. Chefs: introduce yourself and we will meet you properly.