The Best Hire You Can Make For a Personal Chef Business

This week on Chefs Without Restaurants we have chef Kyle Shankman. Kyle is the chef and owner of Speak Easy Supper Club, an exclusive dining experience in the Atlanta area. As tickets for Speak Easy are hard to come by, Chef Shankman also finds a way to feed folks as a private chef and cooking class instructor.

A chef for two decades, Kyle has run multiple restaurant kitchens as an executive chef and consultant, taught hundreds of cooking classes for home cooks, been the personal chef to A-List celebrities, and has been the on-camera talent in both live and produced segments for several national brands.

On the show, we discuss the best hire you can make for your personal chef business. This was part of a longer conversation we had about Kyle's  Speak Easy Supper Club. I had asked Kyle what position he'd recommend hiring if he had the budget. Kyle has actually already hired an assistant, and talks about how it was a game-changer for his business.

Kyle shares his experience of working with his assistant who has helped him take his private chef work to the next level. She has an understanding of the details that go into service and provides an eye for detail that takes their work to the next level. Additionally, she has excellent people skills that balance Kyle's dry humor and fills in gaps when he's busy cooking.

Because I thought this would provide tremendous value, I removed it from the full episode, and have released it here as a standalone mini-episode. You can find our full conversation here.

KYLE SHANKMAN

Kyle's Instagram
Kyles Website
Speak Easy Supper Club on Instagram
Kyle's Facebook

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Episode Transcript

Chris Spear (00:01):
One last thing is, you know, so many of us are
solopreneurs. And we're tryingto save money. If I
hypothetically gave you money tohire someone one position, don't
worry about what their salaryis, who are you going to hire,
like, Who is that key member ofyour team that you think would
move the needle so much for you?

Kyle Shankman (00:23):
In general, or if I added to my existing

Chris Spear (00:26):
ease, let's say, let's say you're starting off by
yourself, you're you're doingthis thing by yourself. And you
need to hire someone with theknowledge in hindsight of like,
oh, wow, it would be reallygreat to have or have had a

Kyle Shankman (00:41):
I think the biggest shift in quality
happened for us, when I met sortof my full time assistant, now
her name is Dawn. And I met heras my wife was approaching her
third trimester. So my wife washelping me with like serving and
dishes, big pregnant, and I knewthat that wasn't going to last

(01:01):
much longer. And I met Dawnwhile I was teaching cooking
classes. And she expressedinterest and I was like, This is
great timing, because I needsome help. She came in with
decades of front of the houseexpertise, and sort of an
understanding of a sort of thedetails that go into service, if

(01:26):
somebody is doing what we whatwe do private chef work, it's
really easy to miss some of theOn the Table details. Like, like
how the linens are folded. Like,I can't count how many times I
just sort of like tightly rollednapkins to make it look like
they weren't wrinkles, because Iran out of time. And Dawn is
sitting here like steaming, youknow, naming these these linens

(01:51):
with with the steamer I had isstuff that like I had, it didn't
cost me any money. She has thatlevel of awareness and eye for
detail that I think takes thisto kind of the next level, I
think when you're doing whetherit's private dinner parties are
something really bizarre, likewhat we do, like actually
running dinner parties out ofyour house, sometimes the reason

(02:13):
people are doing it is for theexperience, because they could
spend less and go to arestaurant, like just about
every time, right? Especially ifthey're bringing their own wine
and you add you know, paying,you're probably in the hundreds
per person. Um, you know, I'm inthe hundreds per person, it cost
less to go to a restaurant, sothey're doing it for the

(02:33):
experience. So what can you dothat elevates that experience to
the next level. And I'm alsotalking about somebody who's
excellent with people, it's notjust an eye for detail, like she
brings sort of, like thepersonality balanced that that I
need. I'm very even when I'mbeing funny, I'm very dry, which

(02:55):
doesn't always translate, right.
Whereas, you know, whereas Don,or other people have had helped
me are, you know, a little bitmore outgoing and naturally
enthusiastic. And that fills inso many gaps for you, when
you're like, you know, there'sonly you can only move so fast
as one chef trying to knock out14 plate by yourself, you know,

(03:19):
so if it's just, it's reallyquiet, like, that's when it
probably like sucks the most todo what we do, you know,
everybody's staring at you,like, while you're like putting
on like that last garnish, youknow, but having somebody who's
like, handles, front of thehouse, and it's just going by
and like, picking up on that andrefilling waters and talking to

(03:41):
people while he or she is doingit, I think goes such a long way
and making these little privatechef experiences a lot more
comfortable and fun.

Chris Spear (03:53):
I think that's probably one of the biggest
takeaways from this episode,especially for those who do what
we do. You know, for me, thatwas a big shift because I
started doing twos and fours,you know, everything was very
manageable by myself. And then Imade a dedicated decision to do
bigger parties, but I didn'thave staff, you know, and it's
like, what's the breakpoint?
What is the most that I can doby myself? Where it doesn't feel

(04:14):
like a shit show and it givesthat elevated experience and
I've really had to look at thatand it's hard when you're going
to spend the money especially ifyou're paying someone well, you
know, I pay $200 a person tocome to a dinner and you're
like, Man, I really wish I couldlike keep that 200 bucks, can I
just work faster or harder orbetter to not have to pay
someone but it's just, you'regonna miss those things. They're

(04:38):
gonna slip through the cracksand like you said, it's the
experience at this level. Thesepeople are dropping 1500 $2,000
For dinner, you can't cheap outin my opinion on that area.

Kyle Shankman (04:51):
And if you don't have that expense already for
staff, you can roll it into thecost and people who are spending
$150 A person will live thereI'm going to change their mind
as it changes to 160 If that'swhat it takes for you to like
reckoned with having to add thatstaff member, like, bullet into
the cost.

Chris Spear (05:10):
And also something that I've noticed is you know,
my business I get gratuities,gratuities are often based on
quality of service. If you bringsomeone who does a great job,
hopefully the gratuity will bethere. And then that money, you
know, it helps out, right. Soit's like now, sometimes the
gratuity is enough to like coverstaff like I don't. I mean, the

(05:35):
way my business works is like,the gratuity goes into the pot,
and it's spent. So like, ifsomeone doesn't tip might people
still get paid. They're like 200bucks. But if I get a $200 tip,
like that covers the cost ofthat server, you know, and I
just looking at it that way. Ithink it's an easy decision to
spend the money to give thatservice.

Kyle Shankman (05:53):
I mean, we got $600 in tips last night, at a 14
person party. I like I never gotany tips before. Like before she
came into the mix almost threeyears ago. I don't know I think
maybe people are more likely totip when they see sort of like

(06:13):
somebody dedicated to quotefront of the house. Like it sort
of feels more like a restaurantthat feels more implied that
it's expected, we outright say,you know, gratuity is accepted
but not expected. And we stillgenerally speaking, get get
really generous tips. But again,yeah, I wouldn't have gotten I

(06:34):
wouldn't have gotten without herhelp.

Chris Spear (06:37):
So to all those personal chefs out there, if
you're not bringing help, justthink about you know, where you
want to position yourself andwhat that experience looks like
because I think this it'ssomething that you should
definitely consider. Go to chefswithout restaurants.org To find
our Facebook group, mailing listand Chef database. The

(06:57):
community's free to join. You'llget gig opportunities, advice on
building and growing yourbusiness and you'll never miss
an episode of our podcast. Havea great week.