PERSONAL CHEF

To be a personal chef, you must be experienced in the art of cooking and have a thorough knowledge of food preparation, food storage, and nutrition. Personal chefs also need to be flexible and friendly. People skills aren't just a plus in this job—they're a necessity. Restaurants have kitchen doors to separate the staff from the clientele, and rarely do the two meet. That line doesn't really exist for personal chefs.

You can become a personal chef without training. Personal chef Sharon Worster, who was a nurse in Texas for seventeen years, loved to cook for her family. Once she spotted an article on cooking for smaller groups as a personal chef, she was hooked. Today, she owns her own personal chef service in Texas.

Some personal chefs do complete courses of study at professional cooking schools, which gives them formal training and an immediate foundation for starting a business, but it is not required. One option is to combine the two approaches and start your career as a personal chef learning in the workplace and gather as much experience as you can before setting out to be an entrepreneur.

Once you decide you're ready to strike out on your own as a personal chef, it may be a good idea to join a personal chef's association to help you find work in your field, and also to meet people who have done the job for some time. Associations like these offer certification programs. The field is very competitive now, and some qualification will assist you if a potential client chooses to interview you.