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Michelin-starred chefs in the big city are moving in unison from public to private kitchens, closing their haute cuisine businesses to move into those of billionaires who hire them at much higher salaries.
As Bloomberg discusses in an article on the subject, confidentiality agreements keep the details of these positions secret, with semi-exclusive hires giving an idea of why they might be attractive. I’ve known Liam Nichols for a few years. He had worked at Momofuku Ko in New York and at Tom Kerridge’s restaurant at the Corinthia Hotel in London. But one day, like the anonymous chefs before him, he disappeared.’
Liam had been hired to cook for billionaire Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, on the 74-acre Necker Island, which he owns in its entirety, in the British Virgin Islands.
Giving up a public-facing job is increasingly an option, while at the same time the market for privatised services is growing because there are more and more rich people in the world. According to Forbes, millionaires control a quarter of the world’s $431 trillion in wealth.
Members of the new servant class can then benefit enormously from the rich bidding for the best of their class. Thus, chefs who have run critically acclaimed restaurants now have the choice of which private homes they prefer to work in.
