6 private chefs who are almost as famous as their celebrity clients: from the Kardashians’ TikTok-famous Filipina ‘Chef K’, to Beyoncé’s cuisinier Mike Shand and Madonna’s family chef Pia Hambour
If you’re a millionaire star juggling several projects, children and fittings for your next red carpet event, the one thing you probably don’t have much time for is meal prep. Enter the personal chef, whose only job is to keep you fed on the most delicious – and nutritious – meals possible.
So which private chefs have gained fame just like their celebrity clients?
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1. Khristianne Uy
Better known as Chef K on TikTok and Instagram, Uy began cooking for Kris Jenner, but gradually transitioned to feeding Kylie, Khloé, Kourtney and Kim too, according to the Huffington Post.
Sometimes they’re like, ‘Ah, chef, you’ve been here 21 hours, but can you whip up another late-night snack?’
Originally from the Philippines, 42-year-old Uy now has almost 193,000 followers on TikTok at the time of writing, and recently revealed what it was like to work for the Kardashians – though the family didn’t come off in the most flattering light.
“Sometimes they’re like, ‘Ah, chef, you’ve been here 21 hours, but can you whip up another late-night snack?’” she told Page Six in February. She also revealed that Kourtney is vegan, Kim hates coriander, and Kendall can’t eat spicy peppers.
2. Pia Hambour
The 35-year-old chef cut her teeth in the kitchens of New York before returning to Melbourne during the pandemic and has been Madonna’s chef for six months according to the Nine Network.
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3. Brooke Baevsky
LA-based Baevsky goes by “Chef Bae” on her socials, and is known for catering to her clients’ special dietary needs. “If a nutritionist says, ‘I need a low-inflammatory, no nightshade, high-protein diet for my client in the NFL,’ I know exactly how to structure a custom meal plan,” she told Voyage LA last year.
4. Kelly Ruben
With almost 160,000 followers on TikTok at the time of writing, Ruben – aka @diningbykelly – regularly posts her creations for private clients in New York, including for several unnamed celebrities. The Michelin-trained cook told Bon Appétit that TikTok has boosted her client base, which traditionally came from word of mouth, “because you can kind of see what you’ll be getting [from TikTok chefs] just by watching their food videos”.
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5. Kenny Gilbert
“Cooking for Oprah has been an amazing experience,” he told Ebony last year. “It’s like cooking for your favourite auntie.”
6. Mike Shand
“I’m pretty good at noticing what people like, listening when they tell me what they’re in the mood for, and cooking with whatever the heck is around me – that’s the part I love most,” he told the magazine.
- It’s not surprising the likes of Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey and Adele employ private chefs, but in recent years – thanks to social media – the cooks themselves have become stars
- From TikTok-famous Brooke Baevsky, aka ‘Chef Bae’, to chef Pia Hambour, who had to prove to Gordon Ramsay she was Madonna’s chef by giving the star a call, here are the names you need to know