Private chefs stories

Rania Hatoum, Hong Kong

A dish Hatoum cooked for a recent four-hands dinner, The Golden Bowl – black truffle foie gras rice topped with A4 Kagoshima wagyu, Hokkaido sea urchin, Osetra caviar, salmon roe, and 18-carat gold flakes. Photo: RH Fine Dining

Rania Hatoum’s pasta dish and signature caviar mini tarts. Photo: RH Fine Dining

Hatoum’s dishes often come topped with a signature pop of caviar. Photo: RH Fine Dining. That explains Hatoum’s simple, elegant dishes, often topped with a luxury dab of caviar or sea urchin. Normally you can only try Hatoum’s food if you book her for a private dinner at RH Fine Dining. She recently joined John Law, chef of Rêveri, a pan-Asian cuisine restaurant in the city’s Sheung Wan neighbourhood, for a four-hands, eight-course collaboration. “It got really busy for me in the summer of 2020. I was cooking about eight to 10 times a month, going from place to place. By August, I [had] opened a private kitchen in Wong Chuk Hang.” RH Fine Dining is in the same 2,000 sq ft space as the Rania Hatoum Bridal studio. During office hours, the gowns are laid out and displayed for clients. At night, they are placed back in wardrobes and a dining room is set up. “I’m happy being a private chef, doing it on my own time and schedule. I don’t want to open a restaurant,” Hatoum says. “I would have to manage another team and kitchen, and that would be too stressful and overwhelming in addition to my bridal business.”The tart business she is referring to is her online shop, Tarte. A restaurant may not be on the horizon, but Hatoum decided she could handle selling luxury savoury and sweet pastries.The savoury fillings include black truffle, sea urchin, foie gras, and burrata. There are fruit tarts topped with Tasmanian cherries, Japanese strawberries and mango, and a Ferrero Rocher-inspired chocolate tart.Her signature tart with Osetra caviar, foie gras mousse, chive crème fraîche and apple jelly was served at the Rêveri dinners.She is staging her first Tarte pop-up at the Landmark shopping centre in Hong Kong’s Central district, which officially launched on May 3 and runs until June 3.

“The caviar tarts have been on my menu for about three years, and my clients like them so much, they ask, ‘Can we just please order these and have them delivered’? So I started doing that and they kept ordering,” she says.

Matt Collins, Chef Collins Events, Asbury Park 

Matt Collins is a 2009 graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and has worked in some of the most notable restaurants but, by his own admission, was cooking since age 9. “From watching Jacques Pépin on TV, Hollandaise sauce intrigued me.”  

Collins built his business through a significant social media presence, accounting for 40% to 50% of his business. Other customers have found him through internet searches and word of mouth. Unlike some other private chefs, you can, at times, find him out in the wild. He does occasional public events and pop-ups at places like Ava’s Kitchen & Bar in Kenilworth, which allows him to cook from a different perspective and allows more people to try his food.  

He started his personal/private chef business four years ago when he decided he could not financially commit to a brick-and-mortar presence. Collins draws a clear distinction between what he does and a typical caterer, such as a specifically tailored menu for any engagement as opposed to a preset menu, and finishing cooking on-site with plated dinners.  

The challenge of not having an actual location, according to Collins, is “constantly letting people know who and where you are,” although he does seem to be everywhere doing private dinners all over the state, and in New York and Pennsylvania, too. Working as he does, he not only has more choice in the engagements he takes on, but also more freedom to source ingredients, typically on a seasonal and local basis.  

Collins said the ideal is two to four weeks lead time for planning a dinner. He currently is booking up to three months out. You can find him on Instagram at @chefcollinsevents or at chefcollinsevents.com.  

Lauren Owens, Tiny Onion Chef Services, Metuchen 

Lauren Owens believes in bringing restaurant quality food into her clients’ homes and getting people to eat better. Photo courtesy of Tiny Onion Chef Services

Lauren Owens describes herself as a “chef by trade and spirit.” After almost 20 years in the restaurant world in New York and New Jersey, she realized she didn’t want to work for anyone any longer and jumped off the corporate ladder into what she calls “an ocean of freedom.” Of course, one needs to be able to swim to do so, and Owens is capable of swimming a medley of different styles.   

It’s a gig economy, and Owens wears different hats under the Tiny Onion header. She runs two-hour cooking sessions that include instruction and household menu development, and she has several meal prep clients where she prepares the food for them weekly or biweekly in their homes. She is also the consulting chef at Duke Farms Garden Kitchen in Hillsborough.  

Two themes run through her approach to her business: Hospitality and health and wellness. She believes in bringing restaurant quality into her clients’ homes and getting people to eat better. She develops personal and consultative relationships with her in-home-based services. Owens does do private dinner parties in-home for small groups, but what excites her most is what she calls her Date Night service, crafting special, multicourse meals for couples.  

Owens also uses social media to spread the word. “I let people into my life on Instagram because a lot of them allow me into their lives, their homes.” Someday, she would like to open not a restaurant but a Tiny Onion shop, where she can combine the different projects under one roof, but for now, the waters she is in are just fine.  

Find Owens on Instagram.

Sophia Manatakis, Chef Soph, Mountainside 

Food is surely in Sophia Manatakis’ blood, as her grandfathers on both sides of her family were butchers, and her father was a New York City restaurateur until his death. Photo courtesy of Chef Sophia

One is not sure what moves more with Sophia Manatakis — her mind or her feet. The woman has a bunch of projects in various stages, all focused on feeding people and making them happy. It is surely in her blood, as her grandfathers on both sides of her family were butchers, and her father was a New York City restaurateur until his death. She then took the reins of the restaurant with her mother before closing it during the pandemic.  

Manatakis attended the then French Culinary Institute in New York (now the International Culinary Center), and it seems she has been launching one project or idea after another ever since. Uploading cooking videos on Instagram led to a meal prep business. She scrapped her website, got rid of business cards and built her business through word of mouth. Two Food Network appearances, one on “Chopped” and the other on “Family Food Showdown” with Valerie Bertinelli, didn’t hurt her marketing efforts.  

One of her specialties for private events is putting together elaborate grazing tables. While she has done larger-scale parties, her favorite private chef moments are plated dinners for four to eight people. “Those are the most personal, and I feel like a part of the party,” she added.  

Up next for Manatakis is a soon-to-be-released line of Greek olive oil. Beyond that, based on her track record, it will be any number of projects where she puts her personal touch on feeding people.  

In putting this feature together, it is clear there is demand for the various services Manatakis, Owens, Collins and others provide. Plan ahead when trying to engage a private chef. It is not like ordering takeout, and these and other private chefs put time and planning into what they offer. The better ones are becoming as tough to book as some Saturday night reservations at top local restaurants. If you do, though, you will get a very pointed, professional and personal experience of your choosing.  

More private chefs stories soon…