Privacy & SecurityYour home changes the standard.
A private chef works inside your personal space. That is why identity, references, right-to-work checks and ongoing management are part of the service, not an afterthought.
Identity & background
Only checks we actually run
Someone is entering your private home. We check identity and right-to-work, cook in a practical assessment, take references, and require food-hygiene awareness. That is the list.
This is also where we differ from a private chef agency. An agency typically hands over CVs and steps away once someone is hired. We stay in the assignment — the checks below are ours to run, and ours to stand behind for as long as the chef is in your family’s home.
We do not publish police certificates we have not seen, licences we cannot show, or absolute safety guarantees. If a check is not below, we do not claim it. The same four steps are described when we vet our chefs. How those chefs are then matched to a house sits on Our Chefs.
01
Identity and right-to-work
Government-issued identification, valid UAE visa status, and right-to-work documents. We do not accept a chef who cannot prove they are legally permitted to work here.
02
Practical cooking assessment
A cook-off, not a conversation about cooking. Knife work, hygiene, plating, timing, more than one dish at once.
03
References
We contact previous employers, clients or venues. Gaps get investigated before anyone is put forward for a house.
04
Food safety
Safe handling, temperature, cross-contamination, allergens. PIC certification is preferred. Basic food-hygiene awareness is mandatory. We do not claim every chef holds one named certificate.
New chefs start on supervised or smaller bookings, and placements are reviewed after service. Those are operating habits, not extra credentials. How feedback is used — and when we change the match — is on Quality & Training.
Household conduct
How we expect a chef to behave in your home
- Family members are treated as the household — not as an audience.
- Children are cooked for, not performed at.
- Other household staff are colleagues in the same house, not a hierarchy to exploit.
- Guests are served to the standard you have set, then the kitchen is handed back.
- Personal property stays where it is. The chef’s job is the food and the kitchen.
Discretion
Information boundaries
Discretion is not a slogan. It is a split between what the chef must know to cook safely in this house, and what is none of the assignment. The Food Profile holds the former — see how that record is built.
What the chef needs to know
- Who lives in the house, and who eats
- Allergies and foods that must never appear
- Timing, service style, and how the children eat
- Kitchen layout, and who else works in the house
- Guests when they affect the meal
What they do not need to know
- Family business or finances
- Arguments, medical history unrelated to food, or private correspondence
- Access beyond the kitchen and the rooms required to serve
- Anything you have not chosen to put in the Food Profile
Dedicated contact
You should not have to manage every issue directly with the chef
myCHEF sits between operations and the household. Something that was not right, a change of chef, a specialist on Friday, or an absence goes through your household manager.
When an assignment ends, access ends with it. The Food Profile stays with the household. The next chef is briefed from that record — not from an informal handover at your door. We only describe procedures we actually operate.
What we do not promise
- — We don’t promise every chef is available every day.
- — We don’t pretend one person should work seven days without rest.
- — We don’t promise every chef will fit every household.
- — We don’t promise mistakes never happen.
- — We don’t promise every request is possible at every hour.
- — We don’t promise zero allergy risk.
What we do promise
- We promise a match, a standard, and a backup.
- We promise one contact once you are an ongoing client.
- We promise the Food Profile travels when the chef changes.
- We promise to tell you when an equivalent chef is not available — then give you the options.
- We promise the full price and the logic behind it, in writing, before you commit.
- We promise no chef score is invented — performance comes from completed placements only.
Those are operating commitments — a match, a contact, a travelling Food Profile — not extra background-check products.
Questions about privacy, checks and discretion
Yes — family households are the core of the service. Children’s food, allergies and school-week timing sit in the Food Profile. Conduct is explicit: children are cooked for, not performed at, and the chef’s access is limited to the kitchen and the rooms the job requires.
Not in the usual sense. An agency introduces CVs and steps away once someone is hired. Independent licensed partners cook; myCHEF stays in the assignment — the match, the checks, feedback, backup and one contact for the household.
Government-issued identification, valid UAE visa status and right-to-work documents; a practical cooking assessment; references from previous employers, clients or venues; and food-hygiene awareness. PIC certification is preferred, not claimed as universal. We do not publish guarantees we cannot operate.
The chef needs to know how the house eats, who lives there, allergies, timing and how you like to be served. They do not need family business, finances, or anything that is not required to cook and work safely in the kitchen. Issues go through your household manager, not through a confrontation at the stove.
Access ends with the assignment. The Food Profile stays with the household. The next chef is briefed from that record, not from informal handover at your door. We only describe procedures we actually run.
If this is the house you want
A chef in the house, with a standard around them
A private chef for family life means guests, children and school-week reality. Tell us about the household. We match, run the checks above, and manage the assignment — you are not left running the operation yourself.