Private chefs now pull $300,000 a year because wealthy people figured out restaurants make them sit near strangers. Morgan & Mallet says demand for chefs, butlers, nannies, housekeepers, chauffeurs and estate managers hit record highs. The firm tracks domestic staffing for people who need someone else to remind them when to eat.
Three hundred grand buys you a guy who makes risotto in your house instead of driving twenty minutes to let someone else make it. The math works if your time is worth more than a cardiologist's and you hate valet parking. Also works if you want to pretend you have Michelin stars without the hassle of earning them or understanding what they mean.
The rich seek their own Michelin stars, according to the headline. They do not seek to run restaurants. They do not seek to cook. They seek to hire someone who once worked at a place that had stars, then tell their friends about it at a dinner party where the chef stands in the kitchen wondering if his culinary degree was worth this.
Estate managers are also in demand. That's the person who manages your house when it's too big to remember which rooms you own. Butler demand is up too, which means someone looked around in 2024 and said we need to bring that back.
Retail traders spent the last three years buying zero-day options on companies they can't spell while some hedge fund guy hired a full-time employee to make him eggs. Both thought they were investing in their future.
The domestic staffing boom tells you everything. Rich people are hiring small armies to avoid minor inconveniences. Poor people are trading SPY weeklies to afford groceries. One group employs chauffeurs. The other group thinks Uber is a long-term growth play. The chef makes $300,000 a year and still has to smile when his boss asks if the foam is locally sourced.
Photo by JC Gellidon on Unsplash
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