Up Close and Personal

From Saudi princes to cashed-up entrepreneurs, private chefs are now highly prized—for their cooking prowess and undying commitment. But can they keep a secret?

By Belinda Aucott-christie 28/03/2024

There’s a reason why captains of industry, celebrities and the Fun Percent clamour for private chefs. Great cuisiniers take ordinary ingredients and make them sublime; they turn a remote nature retreat into a luxury holiday; they transform a side trip to an uninhabited island into a fully-fledged Hawaiian Luau. As elastic as spaghetti, these culinary saviours help feed the kids, prepare a politician for an upcoming run at office, or ensure an actor is in perfectly buffed shape their next film.

New Yorker Matthew Knoll is one such chef, with a stellar resumé gleaned from cooking for a succession of high-net-worth clients in his hometown. As well manning the burners at some of the city’s hippest restaurants—including 30-year stalwart, Gramercy Tavern—Knoll carved a reputation catering parties on the city’s socialite circuit, before becoming personal chef to Madonna (thanks to a lead from Beyonce and Jay-Z’ s own chef).

“I think when it comes right down to it, being someone’s private chef is not about just how well you cook or what you cook,” says the softly spoken Knoll from his adopted home in Brisbane. “It is about them welcoming you into their home. They have to feel comfortable instantly, they have to trust you.”

Whether cooking for a hedge fund billionaire’s family in the Hamptons, or whipping up feasts for Madge’s five children and 14 live-in staff, his experiences convinced him he had the perfect disposition for working in the private sphere. “You’re with the family during the fights, during the laughter and part of the job is being able to digest that, without any kind of judgement.”

Or indiscretion. Want to know what comfort foods his ultra-rich clients craved? His lips are as tight as a caviar tin. Knoll and his peers observe strict codes of conduct, walking a fine line between staff member and friend.

Casino Doxi Stracca, Puglia. IMAGE: The Thinking Traveller

These days, however, private chefs are not only for A-listers. Hiring a culinary master or taking one on holiday is increasingly common among business people, entrepreneurs and the moneyed set in general. Last year, 50 percent of American clients using the upmarket villa rental platform The Thinking Traveller booked a chef; for Australians that figure was 35 percent. The company’s sales and marketing director, Antoine Levy, attributes the uptick in personalised foodie experiences to the surfeit of grand homes for hire post-Covid. “We have so many villas where the cook service is an integral part of the experience. In the past we have organised visiting Michelin-star chefs for foodie groups.”

Kane McAloon, celebrity chef and author of *Flavour of Joy*.

While she may not—as yet—have acquired a hallowed Michelin symbol, that has never stopped Kate McAloon from being pursued by Hollywood’s power set for her services; the US-born chef, who now lives on the Gold Coast, has worked in the homes of the Spielbergs, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, as well as serving as personal chef at Courteney Cox and David Arquette’s Malibu residence.

McAloon, who’s written several cookbooks (including The Flavour of Joy) revealing Gwyneth’s favourite blondies recipe or healthy meals she concocted for the Rock, says working for Steven Spielberg and his wife, the actor and painter Kate Capshaw, ranks as a career highlight. “The Spielbergs had the most incredible kitchen because they are both into food, but they never had enough time to cook for themselves.”

McAloon recounts how Capshaw would creep into the kitchen first thing in the morning to suggest dishes she craved, asking her to “put her magic touch on it”.

She was often called on to create something delicious for dinner when parties at the Cox–Arquettes would swell from 15 to 60 people. “Courteney and David would have these Sunday gatherings with lots of people like Jennifer Aniston and Sacha Baron Cohen,” she remembers. “He was not allowed to eat certain foods because of the kosher thing, so I’d always have something in the pantry in case he showed up.”

Jordan Toft, Executive Chef Merivale’s flagship restaurants Bert’s and Mimi’s.

The required level of commitment comes into even sharper focus when you’re employed by royalty. “Let’s just say I was lucky,” says Australian chef Jordan Toft, of his time working in a permanent role for a Saudi prince—un-named, naturally. “He wouldn’t order 200 cheeseburgers at midnight and only eat two of them, or anything like that. But he still flew a 737 private jet, and might take off in different planes from different airports to confuse someone. And there were common things like “the helicopter’s waiting, sir, and he’s still going backstroke in the pool”.

Toft, who now enjoys a more low-maintenance existence back home as Merivale’s executive chef, fronting establishments such as Bert’s (in Newport) and Mimi’s (Coogee), describes his employer as mainly “low key”—unlike his ever-swelling entourage, who were “always the source of off-the-cuff requests… it was some of the most rockstar shit I’ve ever done.”

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