Our ChefsWe do not find a chef. We find your chef.
Cooking experience matters. Household fit matters just as much. We assess ability, verify the person behind the CV and match both to the way your home actually runs.
Chef levels
Professional, Senior, Specialist, Lead Chef — that is the whole system
We used to publish a five-step chef hierarchy. We simplified it — because choosing a chef should not require studying a ladder. There are now two household quality levels, Professional and Senior, plus Specialists for particular cuisines and a Lead Chef for large events. That is the whole system.
None of these are restaurant titles. A chef’s profile shows both: their previous professional title, and the myCHEF quality they earned through our assessment and verified client performance. “Previous title: Executive Chef. myCHEF quality: Senior Chef.” One is history. The other is evidence.
The standard
Professional Chef
Strong everyday household cooking
Suitable for regular family meals, meal preparation and straightforward international cuisines. Displayed prices start here — and Professional is a pass, not a consolation prize: a chef below our standard is not placed at all.
More experienced
Senior Chef
Demanding households and broader requirements
Better for demanding households, broader cuisine requirements, entertaining and more technical cooking. Recommended when the role calls for it — and you see the price difference before you book.
By cuisine or craft
Specialist Chefs
A particular cuisine or skill, for the occasion
Sushi, pastry, Japanese, nutrition-focused cooking, fine dining and particular regional cuisines. Booked alongside your regular chef for the meal that needs one — quoted per occasion, so you never pay specialist rates for Tuesday’s family dinner.
By arrangement
Lead Chef
Private events, complex dinners and larger groups — typically 50 guests and up — where a Lead Chef runs a full team of chefs and assistants, the menu is designed for the occasion, and everything is included in one event price. This is for the occasions where perfection is the point.
We do not publish a price for this. Reach out for access.
Why restaurant rank is not enough
An Executive Chef is not automatically the best private chef for your house
An Executive Chef may be exceptional at running a professional kitchen — and accustomed to a brigade of assistants, established mise en place, specific suppliers and a fully equipped environment. Take all of that away and you are looking at a different job.
A Senior Chef de Partie can sometimes be the better household match: more hands-on, more flexible, more comfortable adapting to an unfamiliar private kitchen and a family’s actual rhythm.
So we do not rank anyone from a job title. Every chef goes through the same assessment, and every level is earned inside our system. That is the difference between a classification and a claim.
Higher does not always mean better for you
If you want healthy family meals five days a week, a Professional Chef who understands your family perfectly may be a much better match than the most decorated chef in the network. If you want an extraordinary Japanese dinner on Saturday, we do not need to replace your everyday chef. We add the right specialist.
Level and specialty are different
Level = verified capability and performance inside the myCHEF system.
Specialty = what that chef is particularly good at.
- A Professional Chef can be an exceptional Indian cook.
- A Senior Chef can specialise in Japanese cuisine.
- A Sushi Specialist can join for one Friday dinner alongside your regular chef.
Japanese is not a level. Italian is not a level. Nutrition is not a level. We match both dimensions: the right level + the right specialty + the right personality + the right household.
You do not need to understand the system before booking. Tell us how you live, what you eat and what you expect. We work out the role and recommend the level. If your needs change, the chef can change with them.
Before anyone is put forward
Selection includes four entry checks — then the match
Identity and right-to-work, a practical cooking assessment, references, and food-hygiene awareness. That is the list we use before matching. We do not add certificates, clearances or guarantees we cannot operate. The procedure — and what we do not claim — is on Privacy & Security and how we vet our chefs.
Identity and right-to-work
Practical cooking assessment
References
Food-hygiene awareness
How a chef earns their level
A score out of 100 — half built before your kitchen, half built inside real ones
Every chef in the network carries a score out of 100, and the score decides the level. It has two parts.
The first part is what we verify ourselves, before a chef is placed anywhere: professional background, a practical culinary assessment, capability in a private household, professional standards, and specialist skills. This carries the larger share of the score.
The second part cannot be assessed in advance, because it only exists in real homes: verified client performance. Food quality week after week. Understanding the household. Reliability. Menu variety. Cleanliness and organisation. Shopping and cost management. Whether the household would recommend them.
myCHEF Verified Quality
Assessed by us, before placement
- Professional background
- Practical culinary assessment
- Private household capability
- Professional standards
- Specialist skills
Verified Client Performance
Earned in real households, from completed placements only
- Food quality
- Service
- Team
- Communication
- Understanding the household
- Reliability and professionalism
- Menu variety and adaptability
- Cleanliness and organisation
- Shopping and cost management
- Household fit and overall recommendation
The exact point weightings and level thresholds live in our assessment framework and are applied identically to every chef. The structure is public; the pass mark is real. A chef below it is not approved for independent myCHEF placement at all.
A CV cannot create the highest level
A chef can arrive with an exceptional CV. That is evidence about their background — not about how they perform inside your home. That is why a large share of the mature score can only come from verified client performance.
So a new chef starts Provisional. A Provisional Senior Chef means the verified background supports Senior — and the household half of the score is still being earned. We will not claim a score that does not exist yet.
After enough real household history: Confirmed. With strong confirmed performance over time, a Professional Chef becomes eligible for Senior review.
Once the chef is in the house, the same record is how we keep quality honest — coaching, a new match, or a chef who does not come back. That loop lives on Quality & Training.
Claimed is not the same as verified
What a chef says — and what we have checked
Every claim on a chef’s profile sits somewhere on this chain. A chef with a spectacular CV and thin verification should not look identical to a chef whose history we have actually validated — so we track the difference.
01→
CV supplied
02→
Employment checked
03→
References contacted
04→
Certificates checked
05→
Practical assessment completed
06
myCHEF household performance recorded
The further down the chain, the more the profile is evidence rather than autobiography.
What a chef profile looks like
Two profiles — one confirmed, one honestly new
Both profiles are demonstrations of the format — not real chefs, and not published scores.
Confirmed
Senior Chef
- Overall score
- 86 / 100
- Verified quality
- Assessment complete
- Client performance
- From verified myCHEF placements
- Professional experience
- 12 years
- Private household experience
- 4 years
- Specialties
- Mediterranean · Japanese · Healthy cooking
A confirmed profile: the assessment is complete, and the performance half of the score comes from completed placements in real households. When we recommend this chef, we can show you why.
Provisional
Professional Chef
- Verified quality
- Assessment complete
- Client performance
- Not yet established
- Professional experience
- 9 years
- Private household experience
- New to private service
- Specialties
- Italian · Family cooking
An honest new profile: strong verified background, no household history with us yet — so no invented performance score. Provisional chefs start on supervised or smaller bookings, and their level is confirmed by real houses, not by us being optimistic.
Matching
The right personal chef in Dubai depends on the household
We do not say “here is our best chef.” When you hire a chef in Dubai yourself, you get whoever replied first and an interview to go on. Here, a family wanting simple high-protein meals does not automatically get the same person as a household entertaining every weekend: you describe the house; we calculate the role; the role determines Professional or Senior. Specialists are for the meal that needs one.
01→
You describe the household
02→
We calculate the role requirements
03→
The role determines the chef level
04→
We search within that level for cuisine and personality fit
05→
You see the chef’s verified profile
06→
You see exactly what the service costs
07
You approve before anything starts
Specialists & Guest Chefs
Exceptional chefs are not a monthly subscription
Somebody who wants extraordinary Japanese food on Friday should not conclude they need the most expensive chef seven days a week. Specialists sit outside the recurring ladder and are quoted for the occasion. Keep your everyday chef. Add the specialist for the meal that needs one.
Cuisines and crafts in the network
Chefs in the network
Cuisine is half of most briefs — an Indian chef in Dubai for the family’s everyday food, a Japanese specialist for Friday, an Italian for the season. Specialty is matched alongside level, personality and household fit.
Independent partner chefs. Matching is not limited to the people listed here.
Questions about hiring a personal chef in Dubai
Identity and right-to-work, a practical cooking assessment, references, then a match to this household’s cuisine, rhythm and personality. A restaurant title is history. A myCHEF level is evidence from assessment and verified placements.
Professional Chef for strong everyday household cooking — displayed prices start here. Senior Chef for more demanding houses. Specialists for particular cuisines, booked for the occasion. Lead Chef for large events, by arrangement. Higher is not automatically better for you.
You see the chef’s verified profile and approve before anything starts. New chefs start Provisional until real households confirm them. High-stakes evenings are not the first time we see someone work in a real kitchen.
Tell us how the house eats and what the role covers. We match within the right level, you see the chef’s verified profile and the full price in writing, and you approve before anyone starts. You are not interviewing strangers, and you are not putting a chef on your payroll.
Yes — the network covers Indian, Japanese, Italian, Thai, Arabic, French, Filipino and more. Cuisine is matched alongside level, personality and household fit, and a specialist can join for one meal alongside your regular chef.
If this is the house you want
See the chef matched to this house
Tell us how you live and what you eat. We work out the role and recommend Professional or Senior — or a specialist for the meal that needs one. You approve the profile before anyone starts.