‘I’m a Private Chef in Beverly Hills—I Cook for Celebrities And Royals’

I didn’t wake up one day and say: “I want to be a celebrity chef.” My career has very much been based on my background, education and experience in the kitchen. I grew up in a household with really specific dietary needs; my mom can’t have gluten, my brother has a peanut allergy, my sister is dairy intolerant and I am allergic to soy. In addition, I grew up Kosher, so we separated meat and dairy and didn’t eat pork or shellfish.

My love of food came from being really inventive in the kitchen. In the 1990s, products like gluten-free bread and almond milk had not been mass marketed yet, so I utilized ingredients like oats and nutritional yeast, before they became more mainstream. Food became my creative outlet; I learned how to make meals everyone in my family could enjoy.

My mantra is: “Recipes with quality ingredients, with integrity.” My schtick is catering to dietary needs and restrictions, for example gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, keto or plant-based diets. I strive to make food which not only adheres to those needs, but is indulgent, sexy and satisfying.

I have very niche training in the culinary world. I never worked my way up in a restaurant cooking French or Italian cuisines; I was laser-focused on health food development and knew I wanted my own business one day.

I started off at Syracuse University, where I did a dual degree in business and communications, with a minor in food science. From there I went into corporate product development, working for some of the largest food companies in the world; creating healthier or vegan products.

When I was in my early twenties, I joined a health-supportive culinary arts program, which really focused on vegetable-based cuisine, holistic health and nutrition through food. Corny as it sounds, you are what you eat and a good diet has a huge impact on overall wellness.

Working with celebrities

At the same time, I was taking on private clients in New York City on the side. It’s very much a word-of-mouth business, but I had such a niche background and experience, which really lent itself to private cheffing for celebrity clientele; including CEOs of major corporations; athletes, actresses, supermodels and members of various royal families.

My first celebrity encounter was with a very successful athlete. If you know me at all, you know I am not interested in sports in the least, so while I knew this guy was big in his industry, I had no idea how famous he really was until much later. But I think one thing my clients love is that I realize, like everyone else, they are people.

Of course, I have tremendous respect for my clients, but I just see them as nice people who are extremely skilled and talented in their industry. I haven’t had any bad experiences with celebrities; everyone has been so kind and very interesting.

On social media, my job can appear very glamorous. And while I love my role, it’s not as simple as it seems; it involves 19-hour days and a lot of background work. I liaise with trainers, nutritionists and health experts, whose job it is to make my clients look a certain way or or perform at their top level, whether it’s for a role in a movie or on the field as a professional athlete.

So, when a nutritionist comes to me and says: “I need a low-inflammatory, no nightshade, high-protein diet.” I understand exactly what that means. I can cater to those needs and come up with an entire meal plan. Sometimes I am given blood reports which will say which foods my clients are intolerant to and which cause inflammation into their body.

Catering birthday parties, yacht dinners and beauty launches

In February 2022, I moved out to Los Angeles and I currently have around 40 private clients, who I rotate between. Working for a variety of people keeps things interesting and means I can control my own schedule.

For some clients, I go to their home and prepare meals for the rest of the week, for others I cater their birthday events. Some may have a yacht docked and ask me to cook dinner for the evening or request I cater the launch party for their new lip gloss. Every day is very different.

Many of my clients require me to sign non-disclosure agreements, which restrict me from revealing who they are, anything about their diets, blood work or medical records. It’s very much a private business and is tough to build that trust. Even once you have that trust, it’s really easy to break, so keeping your clients confidential is hugely important.

Royal clients

I recently cheffed for a royal family who wanted to lose weight and have more energy. The woman I was cooking for wanted to see how a grain-free diet would make her feel and neither she nor the man I was cooking for ate much dairy.

So for them, I did very fiber-rich, organic, vegetable-heavy meals and used alternatives to grains. If they wanted pancakes or waffles in the morning, I used macadamia flour, coconut flour, chia and flax seeds. They had no refined sugar, so I sweetened dishes with dates and other fruits.

I would get gorgeous pieces of fish and organic poultry from the best butchers and farmers’ markets in LA, and would make cultured cheeses out of nuts or go to high-end grocery stores and buy dairy-free products made with coconut or cashew, which were spectacular.

$1000 pasta dishes, truffle concierges and gold steak

The majority of my clients want the highest quality of produce you can possibly find and there is no price tag attached to that. So on top of catering to a specific diet comes the fun stuff, for example having a caviar or truffle concierge, who would deliver ingredients directly to me on a moped whenever I needed them.

I do a lot with truffles, including a $1,000 pasta dish using decadent cheeses, imported pasta from Italy, and white truffle. One of my craziest experiences was being asked to cover everything my client ate in gold flakes, for no other reason than covering anything in gold flakes. From the steak to the salad and the desert, everything was just covered in gold, which cost thousands of dollars.

Typically, I have an event price, which differs depending on a variety of elements. That can include how many people are attending, whether it’s individually plated or family style, whether it’s plant-based and whether the client needs multiple entrée options. Then for my service as a private chef, I have a standard fee that I charge by the day.

Whether I am cooking for one or eight people, typically I do shopping and make lunch and dinner for the client and whatever guests they have. In the middle of the day, I make at least one dessert, a snack and a full extra meal prepared, which I leave in the fridge with instructions. For me, it’s easier to charge by the day and ensure all of those things get done.

I often record TikTok videos and Instagram reels for my social media accounts—it can add on a few extra minutes, but my clients know that I will do everything I need to get done and they actually love that I share my cooking on social media. I had a family of royals who said their relatives back home loved being able to see everything they ate, because the food back home was so different.

My clients usually have hidden accounts under different names, so they all follow me and occasionally like and comment on my videos. The public has no idea who those accounts are. Once, I received a comment saying: “Oh my gosh you filmed in the kitchen, what a breach of privacy” and the client themselves jokingly commented under their alias saying: “Yeah I know right, what a breach of privacy”.

What’s interesting about my job is that it helps me address the dichotomy that exists in the way people experience food. I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts and I was always lucky enough to have three meals a day and a roof over my head. However, this small town resides in a state where a recent survey has shown that over 30 percent of families are food insecure. This type of food poverty has devastated me from a very young age.

So from my early teenage years I have fundraised or used my salary in order to hold cooking classes for inner city children and families, teaching the importance of a healthy lifestyle, diet and how to best utilize food stamps. In my opinion, there is such an imbalance of education around a healthy diet and I want to help bridge that gap and show living a healthy lifestyle does not need to be expensive.

I work with some of the wealthiest people in the world, where money is no object. My clients can afford the best trainers and chefs, nutritionists and superfoods—but that’s not essential to living a healthy lifestyle. You can affordably feed your family without spending thousands of dollars.

Brooke Baevsky, 27, is a private chef known as Chef Bae based in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. You can follow her Instagram account on @ChefBae, TikTok and YouTube accounts on @ItsChefBae or visit her website here.

All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

As told to Newsweek editor, Monica Greep.