The Private Chef Guide

The Private Chef Guide is a career manual for chefs who want to enter, or move up in, private service for ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) families. It is written by Chris Demaillet, a Michelin-trained chef who founded Montclair Chef, a private chef placement agency. The agency places chefs with UHNW families, family offices, and luxury estates around the world. It is headquartered in Monaco, with operations in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and London.

Demaillet draws on more than twenty years in elite kitchens, including nearly a decade as personal chef to Amancio Ortega, the founder of Zara. He uses that experience to explain what it takes to break into private service and build a lasting career in it.

The book covers how to become a private chef for UHNW families, billionaires, and celebrity households, and what private chefs earn in markets such as the US, UK, and Monaco. It explains contracts, NDAs, and other legal essentials, as well as household etiquette and the unspoken rules of UHNW kitchens. It also looks at running culinary operations across several residences and at what life inside a billionaire household is really like.

On the career side, it maps the path from restaurant kitchen to full-time private placement. It shows how to position yourself so elite agencies notice you, how to interview with principals, family offices, and estate managers, and what to expect in the first 90 days in a household.

The guide is meant for chefs at any stage: those weighing a move out of restaurants, those already working in private homes who want to advance, and those preparing for placement with demanding households. It answers questions such as how much private chefs earn, how to land a first private chef job, and how to move from a Michelin-starred restaurant to a UHNW family office.