Want To Improve Your Longevity? Get A Private Chef For 2025

Will 2025 be the year of the private chef? While more people cooked and baked daily during the pandemic than ever before, they flocked back to restaurants as soon as it was allowed. Today, restaurants continue to draw crowds, but a new crop of young cooks is moving away from eateries and redefining the role of the private chef to help clients improve longevity by eating healthy at home, without sacrificing the fun of flavor discovery.

Ten years ago, it seemed most aspiring chefs chose culinary school with the hope of emulating Emeril or Bobby Flay.

Austin Beckett, 31, a Le Cordon Bleu Chicago graduate and private chef in West Palm Beach said recently, “At school, there were the dreamers who hoped to become celebrity chefs, and realists who knew the truth of the daily restaurant kitchen grind.”

Beckett worked in the luxury hotel sphere, including the Four Seasons, for twelve years but now cooks on weekdays for a high-net worth individual. In addition, on weekends, he cooks through his company, Double Shift, and creates meals that range from family dinners to tasting menus as well as cooking classes and catered events.

By the time Beckett went to culinary school, he had already been cooking for years but needed the diploma to access higher-paying jobs. “When I meet interns from the Culinary Institute of America or another famous school,” he explained, “I tell them, this is all great. Now you need to get your butt in the kitchen!”

A single parent with two children, Beckett’s mother did not have the time for elaborate meals. Tired of TV dinners, he started cooking at fourteen and discovered his passion.

“A few years ago,” he said, “the buzzword was ‘superfood’. Today, my clients talk to me about gut health, probiotics, and seed oils. They’re not so interested in traditional American cuisine. Healthy eating seems to be driving their choices.”

Maryam Ishtiaq, 32, who cooks in Dallas, Texas, and refers to herself as “self-taught,” learned the secrets of her family kitchen thanks to her Pakistani mother and grandmother. An entrepreneur, she founded a Halal bone-broth company and is currently enrolled in Harvard’s online culinary science classes to expand her knowledge. Thanks to word of mouth and social media, she has built an impressive community.

“I recently discovered that I am celiac,” she said. “So between that and my Muslim background, it has given me a particular vision for what my clients may need.”

Ishtiaq doesn’t limit herself though, and often prepares Mediterranean, Korean, and even French specialties. Her vegetarian truffle meatballs, made from beans and maitake mushrooms and served over Romesco sauce, have certainly been a hit amongst her clients. She hopes to be able to open a cafe where Halal food can coexist with other dietary restrictions on a varied menu.

“I often get calls from future clients who need help keeping their New Year’s Resolution to stay healthy,” said Brandon Rogers, 37, a traveling private chef who attended Washburne Culinary & Hospitality Institute in Chicago. He, too, came from a family of “women who cooked and cooked well.” The oldest of six children, he struggled with ADD and later became fascinated by the connection between diet and mental health. Having enrolled in nutrition classes at Stanford, he now incorporates this health-related knowledge in everything he cooks.

Based in Chicago, he often cooks for professional athletes including NFL and NBA players, paying particular attention to excess sugar and salt but without sacrificing a gastronomic experience. Rogers, who started working in event management, enjoys traveling with his clients, from Indianapolis to New York, Miami, Mexico or even to Ireland, where he spent a month in charge of a family’s meals.

“It seems everybody these days is talking about longevity,” he said. “And to build longevity one needs a good foundation. I believe food is at the base of that foundation.”

Dana Minuta, 47, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and has become one of the most active private chefs in the Hamptons, agrees. “Years ago when I cooked for a family on their yacht, the menu included foie gras and caviar, but things have changed.” In the Hamptons too, the keyword around the private chefs today is ‘longevity’. While she cooked for a family in Southampton, Minuta had weekly consultations with their doctor, Peter Attia, a longevity specialist.

“It was all about diet and exercise but particularly about utilizing good fats and eliminating sugar.”

Minuta will open Ample Kitchen Cafe in Water Mill, NY, this coming spring and is constantly inspired by the farms and the landscape of the East End. Over the years she realized the amount of waste that went into creating dishes for Michelin-starred restaurants. “Imagine if you only use the center part of the beef or the cheeks of a fish!” Today, she is known for using organic, non-GMO and additive-free ingredients.

“We need to go back to simplicity, nature and the old adage ‘what grows together goes together’,” she said. That might be the secret of longevity.