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0 / 37 Fotos
Fussy eaters - What do A-listers, billionaires, and designers have in common? According to Clancy Atkinson, it's that they're picky. “All of my clients are fussy eaters in the sense they know what they want,” he told Vogue.
© Shutterstock
1 / 37 Fotos
Gwyneth Paltrow eats "nothing" - Kate McAloon was a private chef for then-married couple Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin. "I had a brief from their assistants". "They eat nothing. They are very strict. They avoided any sugars, anything sweet, no dairy, just more vegetables."
© Getty Images
2 / 37 Fotos
They don't have to know - However, McAloon said that when she started adding more ingredients into their meals, they said, "'Your food is getting better.' That's what happens when you eat more than grass," she joked.
© Getty Images
3 / 37 Fotos
Prince William is easy to please - Personal chef to celebrities, aristocrats, and royals, Michael Harwood revealed to The Telegraph that Prince William loves nothing more than a nice cottage pie.
© Getty Images
4 / 37 Fotos
You don't always have a fixed schedule - Margaret Wetzler was hired as the late Prince's private chef right after graduating from culinary school. Her first client ate at odd hours of the day, and Wetzler reportedly had to be on call 24/7.
© Getty Images
5 / 37 Fotos
One must never speak to Prince unless spoken to - Wetzler was also instructed by one of the singer's assistants "not to speak to Prince unless spoken to." However, she told Food & Wine in 2016 that Prince was polite and would always introduce her to his guests, despite not really knowing anything about her.
© Getty Images
6 / 37 Fotos
Prince was sometimes unknowingly served store-bought food - Wetzler also admitted that, because no human could be equipped for Prince's every whim, she sometimes had to buy and serve ready-made food to him and his guests. For example, he once asked for a birthday cake at 11 pm, so Wetzler ran out to the store.
© Shutterstock
7 / 37 Fotos
Prince wanted to host a tea party with an hour's notice - Prince once also wanted to host an impromptu traditional English tea party—because he's Prince—which meant Wetzler had to outsource the scones and cucumber sandwiches.
© Getty Images
8 / 37 Fotos
A lot of celebs rarely leave the house - A private chef who asked to remain anonymous told HuffPost in 2017 that, despite living in some of the most beautiful cities in the world, his celebrity clients rarely leave the house.
© Shutterstock
9 / 37 Fotos
Privacy is essential - He said the reason their homes are so extravagant is because celebs hide out there from paparazzi. "For more privacy, some people even request food they can reheat themselves so my staff doesn't actually have to be there when they eat it."
© Shutterstock
10 / 37 Fotos
Many personal chefs must become "invisible" - Personal chef Kat Turner explained on The Lonely Hour podcast that the tabloids were after her when she took on a mega movie star client, despite the fact that she was not allowed to say who she worked for. She said she needed to become "as invisible as I could be publicly."
© Shutterstock
11 / 37 Fotos
Sometimes you have to trick celebs into eating their veggies - Chef Richard Ingraham told Best Health that since some of his clients aren't fans of vegetables, he often purees veggies and hides them within the meal for more nutrition.
© Shutterstock
12 / 37 Fotos
Rihanna is a "moody eater"
- While most personal chefs offer menus for the week, Rihanna's personal chef Debbie Solomon told Bon Appétit that Rihanna is a "moody eater," and her appetite fluctuates, so she finds out what she's making when Rihanna decides that day.
© Getty Images
13 / 37 Fotos
RiRi's breakfast routine - Solomon made an appearance on 'The Doctors' and revealed Rihanna's breakfast of choice: four boiled eggs, toast without the crust, and berries.
© Getty Images
14 / 37 Fotos
There's still nothing like mom's cooking - Solomon also needed to learn how to make some of the star's favorite Barbadian and Guyanese dishes, which required the help of Mama Fenty, according to Bon Appétit. "It was just, like, her mom coming up and saying, 'This is how we make it,'" Solomon said.
© Getty Images
15 / 37 Fotos
Rihanna needs this one ingredient
- Solomon said her "job really depends on" Scotch Bonnet pepper sauce from Barbados. Rihanna apparently puts it on everything. She likes it hot!
© Shutterstock
16 / 37 Fotos
Miranda Kerr does not eat any chemicals - Chef McAloon also worked for Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom while they were an item, and she revealed that the supermodel doesn't eat any foods with chemicals.
© Getty Images
17 / 37 Fotos
Kerr sticks to an "80/20 rule" - McAloon told News.com.au, "She has the 80/20 rule that she sticks to—so eating healthily 80% of the time and having a treat the other 20%."
© Getty Images
18 / 37 Fotos
Even though they're at-home meals, presentation is important - Chef Richard Ingraham crafts meals for A-listers and celebrity athletes, some of whom request restaurant-quality presentation, he told Best Health.
© Getty Images
19 / 37 Fotos
Former President Obama credits pasta for his reelection - Sam Kass (left), former Obama White House chef, told Food & Wine when Obama nailed his second debate for the 2012 reelection campaign, he credited Kass' chicken and pesto pasta dish, now dubbed "POTUS's Lucky Pasta."
© Getty Images
20 / 37 Fotos
It takes work to gain a client's trust
- Lauren Gerrie, personal chef to Marc Jacobs, told Cosmopolitan in 2016 that it took several years to build trust with the designer. Eventually, he would be excited when she tried something new.
© Getty Images
21 / 37 Fotos
It's so much more than cooking - Gerrie added that she also creates the whole dining experience, from the lighting to the music, and that she's also "the hostess, the server, the bartender, and the dishwasher. You have to be an entire restaurant staff squeezed into one person."
© Getty Images
22 / 37 Fotos
The richer the client, the nicer they treat their staff - An anonymous chef told HuffPost that, surprisingly, it's usually the wealthiest clients that are the most kind and down to earth. His logic is that middle-rich clients "act like they have to prove they are better than other people. But real billionaires tend to treat us like normal humans. When you have millions and billions of dollars, you don't care about proving how rich you are."
© Shutterstock
23 / 37 Fotos
You don't just have to worry about the client
- While rude clients are said to be rare, the anonymous chef warned that sometimes the celeb's entourage is the real danger. He said he would sometimes arrive in the morning to a kitchen littered with cigarette and joint butts—and sometimes ashes on the food he'd prepared.
© Shutterstock
24 / 37 Fotos
The personal chef life is not as glamorous as it seems - "Sure, the job involves travel to amazing places, luxury villas, private jets and super yachts," Clancy Atkinson told Vogue, "but in reality I'm on call 24/7 and usually spend 15-plus hours a day in the kitchen."
© Shutterstock
25 / 37 Fotos
Long days - "My clients usually request breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, so the day consists of early starts and late finishes," Atkinson added. "The only break is usually a mad dash to the local market for supplies."
© Shutterstock
26 / 37 Fotos
Mariah Carey treats her staff well - One chef who worked with her, Zipora Einav, recalled going to local food markets everywhere they traveled for Carey's tour and getting specific items from specific places to serve to the entourage. She said the biggest challenge was finding the best ingredients: "I had to go into the markets wherever we were, with a driver who understood the local language and currency."
© Getty Images
27 / 37 Fotos
You become a kind of celebrity by association
- "They love Mariah so much, some guys asked for my autograph," Einav said.
© Getty Images
28 / 37 Fotos
Kim Kardashian's 1,800-calorie diet
- While following the Atkins diet after giving birth, Kim worked with nutritionist Colette Heimowitz to create a 1,800-calorie-a-day diet, which reportedly consisted of omelettes, grilled chicken, and peanut butter cups.
© Getty Images
29 / 37 Fotos
It's rumored that Jay-Z had a chicken wing chef - Known for his fondness of chicken wings, reports say Jay-Z once took a chicken wing chef on the road with him, which apparently involved using specific chickens from a family-run farm in Mexico.
© Getty Images
30 / 37 Fotos
The richer they are, the weirder their requests - Chef Jaqueline Raposo's 2016 Delish article about high-earning clientele included a story from one of her celebrity chef peers who confessed that a client once asked him to cook a meal in his bedroom while he was being intimate. He replied, "Whatever you can afford, I can cook," and explained, "The more money they have, the more absurdity they express."
© Shutterstock
31 / 37 Fotos
Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady were strict - The supermodel and American football quarterback unsurprisingly had a strict diet while back when they were still together. Chef Allen Campbell said they eat mainly raw, vegan foods, but no white sugar, white flour, MSG, iodized salt, nightshades, coffee, caffeine in general, fungus, dairy, and so forth.
© Getty Images
32 / 37 Fotos
Bündchen and Brady don't really do comfort food - Campbell also revealed that they never really indulge in traditional comfort food. "I did this quinoa dish with wilted greens. I use kale or Swiss chard or beet greens. I add garlic, toasted in coconut oil. And then some toasted almonds, or this cashew sauce with lime curry, lemongrass, and a little bit of ginger. That's just comfort food for them."
© Getty Images
33 / 37 Fotos
Paris Hilton's weird strategy - While Bethenny Frankel is a talented chef, she was technically just Paris Hilton's nanny. She revealed, however, that Paris' trick to staying healthy is the "taste everything, eat nothing" guise. "She has a little bit of a cheeseburger, half the French fries," she explained.
© Getty Images
34 / 37 Fotos
You're integral to their success - Chef Ingraham said that in 2012, just after Miami Heat won the NBA Championship, Dwyane Wade presented him with an engraved championship ring and told him "how much a part of what I do helped him to become a champion and that I was one as well."
© Getty Images
35 / 37 Fotos
Sometimes it's all about color
- Private chef Yuda Galis declined to give details on his clients, but reportedly revealed that one of his clients once demanded only green food. "It required me to be quite inventive!" Sources: (Vogue) (news.com.au) (The Telegraph) (Food & Wine) (HuffPost) ('The Lonely Hour') (Bon Appétit) (Best Health) (Cosmopolitan) (Delish) See also: Bizarre eating habits of the stars
© Shutterstock
36 / 37 Fotos
© Getty Images
0 / 37 Fotos
Fussy eaters - What do A-listers, billionaires, and designers have in common? According to Clancy Atkinson, it's that they're picky. “All of my clients are fussy eaters in the sense they know what they want,” he told Vogue.
© Shutterstock
1 / 37 Fotos
Gwyneth Paltrow eats "nothing" - Kate McAloon was a private chef for then-married couple Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin. "I had a brief from their assistants". "They eat nothing. They are very strict. They avoided any sugars, anything sweet, no dairy, just more vegetables."
© Getty Images
2 / 37 Fotos
They don't have to know - However, McAloon said that when she started adding more ingredients into their meals, they said, "'Your food is getting better.' That's what happens when you eat more than grass," she joked.
© Getty Images
3 / 37 Fotos
Prince William is easy to please - Personal chef to celebrities, aristocrats, and royals, Michael Harwood revealed to The Telegraph that Prince William loves nothing more than a nice cottage pie.
© Getty Images
4 / 37 Fotos
You don't always have a fixed schedule - Margaret Wetzler was hired as the late Prince's private chef right after graduating from culinary school. Her first client ate at odd hours of the day, and Wetzler reportedly had to be on call 24/7.
© Getty Images
5 / 37 Fotos
One must never speak to Prince unless spoken to - Wetzler was also instructed by one of the singer's assistants "not to speak to Prince unless spoken to." However, she told Food & Wine in 2016 that Prince was polite and would always introduce her to his guests, despite not really knowing anything about her.
© Getty Images
6 / 37 Fotos
Prince was sometimes unknowingly served store-bought food - Wetzler also admitted that, because no human could be equipped for Prince's every whim, she sometimes had to buy and serve ready-made food to him and his guests. For example, he once asked for a birthday cake at 11 pm, so Wetzler ran out to the store.
© Shutterstock
7 / 37 Fotos
Prince wanted to host a tea party with an hour's notice - Prince once also wanted to host an impromptu traditional English tea party—because he's Prince—which meant Wetzler had to outsource the scones and cucumber sandwiches.
© Getty Images
8 / 37 Fotos
A lot of celebs rarely leave the house - A private chef who asked to remain anonymous told HuffPost in 2017 that, despite living in some of the most beautiful cities in the world, his celebrity clients rarely leave the house.
© Shutterstock
9 / 37 Fotos
Privacy is essential - He said the reason their homes are so extravagant is because celebs hide out there from paparazzi. "For more privacy, some people even request food they can reheat themselves so my staff doesn't actually have to be there when they eat it."
© Shutterstock
10 / 37 Fotos
Many personal chefs must become "invisible" - Personal chef Kat Turner explained on The Lonely Hour podcast that the tabloids were after her when she took on a mega movie star client, despite the fact that she was not allowed to say who she worked for. She said she needed to become "as invisible as I could be publicly."
© Shutterstock
11 / 37 Fotos
Sometimes you have to trick celebs into eating their veggies - Chef Richard Ingraham told Best Health that since some of his clients aren't fans of vegetables, he often purees veggies and hides them within the meal for more nutrition.
© Shutterstock
12 / 37 Fotos
Rihanna is a "moody eater"
- While most personal chefs offer menus for the week, Rihanna's personal chef Debbie Solomon told Bon Appétit that Rihanna is a "moody eater," and her appetite fluctuates, so she finds out what she's making when Rihanna decides that day.
© Getty Images
13 / 37 Fotos
RiRi's breakfast routine - Solomon made an appearance on 'The Doctors' and revealed Rihanna's breakfast of choice: four boiled eggs, toast without the crust, and berries.
© Getty Images
14 / 37 Fotos
There's still nothing like mom's cooking - Solomon also needed to learn how to make some of the star's favorite Barbadian and Guyanese dishes, which required the help of Mama Fenty, according to Bon Appétit. "It was just, like, her mom coming up and saying, 'This is how we make it,'" Solomon said.
© Getty Images
15 / 37 Fotos
Rihanna needs this one ingredient
- Solomon said her "job really depends on" Scotch Bonnet pepper sauce from Barbados. Rihanna apparently puts it on everything. She likes it hot!
© Shutterstock
16 / 37 Fotos
Miranda Kerr does not eat any chemicals - Chef McAloon also worked for Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom while they were an item, and she revealed that the supermodel doesn't eat any foods with chemicals.
© Getty Images
17 / 37 Fotos
Kerr sticks to an "80/20 rule" - McAloon told News.com.au, "She has the 80/20 rule that she sticks to—so eating healthily 80% of the time and having a treat the other 20%."
© Getty Images
18 / 37 Fotos
Even though they're at-home meals, presentation is important - Chef Richard Ingraham crafts meals for A-listers and celebrity athletes, some of whom request restaurant-quality presentation, he told Best Health.
© Getty Images
19 / 37 Fotos
Former President Obama credits pasta for his reelection - Sam Kass (left), former Obama White House chef, told Food & Wine when Obama nailed his second debate for the 2012 reelection campaign, he credited Kass' chicken and pesto pasta dish, now dubbed "POTUS's Lucky Pasta."
© Getty Images
20 / 37 Fotos
It takes work to gain a client's trust
- Lauren Gerrie, personal chef to Marc Jacobs, told Cosmopolitan in 2016 that it took several years to build trust with the designer. Eventually, he would be excited when she tried something new.
© Getty Images
21 / 37 Fotos
It's so much more than cooking - Gerrie added that she also creates the whole dining experience, from the lighting to the music, and that she's also "the hostess, the server, the bartender, and the dishwasher. You have to be an entire restaurant staff squeezed into one person."
© Getty Images
22 / 37 Fotos
The richer the client, the nicer they treat their staff - An anonymous chef told HuffPost that, surprisingly, it's usually the wealthiest clients that are the most kind and down to earth. His logic is that middle-rich clients "act like they have to prove they are better than other people. But real billionaires tend to treat us like normal humans. When you have millions and billions of dollars, you don't care about proving how rich you are."
© Shutterstock
23 / 37 Fotos
You don't just have to worry about the client
- While rude clients are said to be rare, the anonymous chef warned that sometimes the celeb's entourage is the real danger. He said he would sometimes arrive in the morning to a kitchen littered with cigarette and joint butts—and sometimes ashes on the food he'd prepared.
© Shutterstock
24 / 37 Fotos
The personal chef life is not as glamorous as it seems - "Sure, the job involves travel to amazing places, luxury villas, private jets and super yachts," Clancy Atkinson told Vogue, "but in reality I'm on call 24/7 and usually spend 15-plus hours a day in the kitchen."
© Shutterstock
25 / 37 Fotos
Long days - "My clients usually request breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, so the day consists of early starts and late finishes," Atkinson added. "The only break is usually a mad dash to the local market for supplies."
© Shutterstock
26 / 37 Fotos
Mariah Carey treats her staff well - One chef who worked with her, Zipora Einav, recalled going to local food markets everywhere they traveled for Carey's tour and getting specific items from specific places to serve to the entourage. She said the biggest challenge was finding the best ingredients: "I had to go into the markets wherever we were, with a driver who understood the local language and currency."
© Getty Images
27 / 37 Fotos
You become a kind of celebrity by association
- "They love Mariah so much, some guys asked for my autograph," Einav said.
© Getty Images
28 / 37 Fotos
Kim Kardashian's 1,800-calorie diet
- While following the Atkins diet after giving birth, Kim worked with nutritionist Colette Heimowitz to create a 1,800-calorie-a-day diet, which reportedly consisted of omelettes, grilled chicken, and peanut butter cups.
© Getty Images
29 / 37 Fotos
It's rumored that Jay-Z had a chicken wing chef - Known for his fondness of chicken wings, reports say Jay-Z once took a chicken wing chef on the road with him, which apparently involved using specific chickens from a family-run farm in Mexico.
© Getty Images
30 / 37 Fotos
The richer they are, the weirder their requests - Chef Jaqueline Raposo's 2016 Delish article about high-earning clientele included a story from one of her celebrity chef peers who confessed that a client once asked him to cook a meal in his bedroom while he was being intimate. He replied, "Whatever you can afford, I can cook," and explained, "The more money they have, the more absurdity they express."
© Shutterstock
31 / 37 Fotos
Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady were strict - The supermodel and American football quarterback unsurprisingly had a strict diet while back when they were still together. Chef Allen Campbell said they eat mainly raw, vegan foods, but no white sugar, white flour, MSG, iodized salt, nightshades, coffee, caffeine in general, fungus, dairy, and so forth.
© Getty Images
32 / 37 Fotos
Bündchen and Brady don't really do comfort food - Campbell also revealed that they never really indulge in traditional comfort food. "I did this quinoa dish with wilted greens. I use kale or Swiss chard or beet greens. I add garlic, toasted in coconut oil. And then some toasted almonds, or this cashew sauce with lime curry, lemongrass, and a little bit of ginger. That's just comfort food for them."
© Getty Images
33 / 37 Fotos
Paris Hilton's weird strategy - While Bethenny Frankel is a talented chef, she was technically just Paris Hilton's nanny. She revealed, however, that Paris' trick to staying healthy is the "taste everything, eat nothing" guise. "She has a little bit of a cheeseburger, half the French fries," she explained.
© Getty Images
34 / 37 Fotos
You're integral to their success - Chef Ingraham said that in 2012, just after Miami Heat won the NBA Championship, Dwyane Wade presented him with an engraved championship ring and told him "how much a part of what I do helped him to become a champion and that I was one as well."
© Getty Images
35 / 37 Fotos
Sometimes it's all about color
- Private chef Yuda Galis declined to give details on his clients, but reportedly revealed that one of his clients once demanded only green food. "It required me to be quite inventive!" Sources: (Vogue) (news.com.au) (The Telegraph) (Food & Wine) (HuffPost) ('The Lonely Hour') (Bon Appétit) (Best Health) (Cosmopolitan) (Delish) See also: Bizarre eating habits of the stars
© Shutterstock
36 / 37 Fotos
What personal chefs reveal about working with celebrities
The truth behind feeding the fit and famous
© Getty Images
A personal chef actually plays an enormous role in a celebrity's life. They're with them from breakfast to dinner, cooking in their homes and on their vacations, and they wield a lot of power. These experts in the kitchen also get to see the stars when all the cameras are off, and while they have to deal with their clients' every wish—presuming they're getting paid enough—they also have some secrets of their own.
Usually, personal chefs are required in their contracts not to share details of their clients' diets (how else will celebrities sell those lifestyle books?), but there are few occasions on which they've generously spilled the beans. And what spicy beans they've been! Click through to see some wild confessions and hard truths about what it takes to feed the famous.
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