Kitchen reality: Families pay professionals to plate up

MEET the latest addition to the Aussie household - the personal chef.

Fuelled by the popularity of reality shows like My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef, time-poor parents and busy workers are paying up to $500 a week to have gourmet meals personally prepared at home.

Jessica Muir left her job as head chef of Christine Mansfield's prestigious Universal restaurant in Sydney to set up “Personal Chef Service” after seeing a growing demand in the market.

Ms Muir says cooking professionals are no longer reserved for cashed-up executives but now an affordable luxury for the average home.

"My clients are really wide and varied,” she told news.com.au. “There are a lot of families and mums who don’t have time. Then you've also got people who want to keep a check on their health and just eat nutritious food, and then there's the executives that just can’t be bothered cooking.”

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Ms Muir estimates it costs between $400 and $500 a week plus ingredients to have a personal chef prepare lunch and dinner in your home over five weekdays.

“We charge a minimum of $35 an hour, so for some people they might have a chef come in three days a week, for a few hours each day, or for others it’s a more permanent, full-time arrangement,” she said.

Canberra-based The Gourmet Saint charges $310 plus ingredients to pre-cook two weeks worth of restaurant-quality meals in the client’s kitchen, ready to be re-heated each night when they get home.

Owners Mark and Maggie Taylor set up the business in 2003 after seeing the success of the $1.2 billion personal chef industry in the US.

They said Australia had been slow to catch to the trend but people are now much more aware of the industry.

"When we look at our stats online, people are googling personal chef a lot more, they're really honing in and getting a much better idea about what a personal chef is and they're more food savvy thanks to the cooking shows."

Ms Taylor says having a cook come to your home is now more likely to become a normal part of Aussie households as careers become more demanding and families have less free time.

“We aim ourselves at double income families with kids who are eating out three to four times a week, picking up pizza or McDonald’s on the way home because they don’t know what to cook or are just so busy,” Ms Taylor said.

“They’ve been out to sports and extracurricular activities after school, it’s 7pm and it’s getting late.

“They’re the people that need us and like having us in their kitchen, so they can come home, reheat a nutritious meal and in 20 minutes it’s done. They don’t have to worry about all the saucepans and washing up and going to the shops to buy the ingredients, and having the limp carrots at the end of the week.”

Ms Taylor describes herself as a “roving chef” who goes from house to house and says the best part is getting to know and satisfy the families she caters for.

Busy Sydney mother, Karen, said she mainly used a personal chef to free up more time for her family.

"It’s reassuring for me to know that the dishes prepared for my family are organic, thoughtfully prepared and nutritionally sound,” she said. “There is also the added benefit of little or no food wastage, which saves us money.”

"We are also much less inclined to eat out now as the food at home is high quality & includes all of our favourite dishes."

The director of personal budgeting service My Budget, Tammy May, said she was not surprised the industry was booming in a busier world. But she urged families to consider their financial position before pouring hundreds of dollars a week into a personal chef.

"More and more we're outsourcing our life, so we can fit in more of the stuff we like to do and use that extra time to generate additional income,” Ms May said.

"If they’ve got the time to cook and it's better financially to prepare and shop for the food yourself, then do that.

“But if you have a really busy life and you can afford to outsource and that suits you, then it might actually be an advantage because you know what you’re eating and you’re not spending hundreds on takeaway.”

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Dianne Butler reviews My Kitchen Rules.

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