Private Chef Salary Guide 2026
Salary benchmarks drawn from real Montclair Chef placements across UHNW households, family offices, private estates, and international residences. Not survey data, not job-board averages.
A full-time private chef in a UHNW household typically earns $185,000 in the United States, £70,000 in the United Kingdom, and €7,000 per month in Monaco. Every figure on this page is for a chef dedicated full-time to one household, not a cook working across several clients. Figures are gross salary and exclude food budgets, accommodation, employer taxes, and benefits.
United States
$185,000
Typical. Range $160,000+ to $340,000 per year.
United Kingdom
£70,000
Typical. Range £60,000 to £150,000 per year, PAYE.
Monaco
€7,000
Typical per month. Range €5,250 to €18,000.
Shortlist Time
14 days
Three vetted candidates at the right salary band.
Estimate realistic compensation for your household by market, experience level, residence count, and service requirements. Built on our own placement records.
Prefer a figure for your exact household rather than a range? Schedule a confidential consultation and we will give you a salary band for your specific brief, market, and residence setup.
Every salary on this page is for a full-time private chef dedicated to a single household. These are not catering engagements, not event cooks, and not chefs splitting a week across several clients.
The households are ultra-high-net-worth and high-net-worth families, most of them busy and high-profile, where the chef runs the entire culinary operation: daily family dining, dietary protocols, sourcing and supplier relationships, entertaining at home, and in many cases travel between residences. The role sits alongside the estate manager and household staff, not outside them.
That is why these figures sit well above general hospitality or personal chef rates. If you are weighing full-time cover against a lighter arrangement, read our private chef vs personal chef comparison before benchmarking anything.
Gross annual salary for a full-time private chef in a UHNW household. Entry reflects the lower quartile of our placements, typical is the median, and top is the highest figure recorded in that market.
| Market | Entry | Typical | Top recorded |
|---|---|---|---|
| New YorkManhattan, Hamptons, Westchester, Greenwich | $150,000 | $165,000 | $330,000 |
| San Francisco & the Bay AreaPacific Heights, Atherton, Woodside, Palo Alto | $155,000 | $179,000 | $340,000 |
| Los AngelesBeverly Hills, Bel Air, Malibu, Pacific Palisades | $158,000 | $175,000 | $320,000 |
| Palm BeachWorth Avenue, Ocean Boulevard | $150,000 | $180,000 | $280,000 |
| AspenRed Mountain, Snowmass, Starwood. Often seasonal | $175,000 | $215,000 | $290,000 |
| DallasHighland Park, Preston Hollow | $155,000 | $182,500 | $250,000 |
| MiamiStar Island, Indian Creek, Coral Gables | $130,000 | $175,000 | $255,000 |
| AustinWestlake, Tarrytown, Barton Creek | $135,000 | $165,000 | $230,000 |
Across all US markets the median full-time private chef salary in our records is $185,000. We have placed above $300,000 on several occasions, each one a multi-residence household with a real travel schedule. Puerto Rico is a US jurisdiction with W-2 employment, and we benchmark it at $200,000 to $300,000 rather than listing it above, because relocation is usually part of the hire. See our private chef placement in Puerto Rico, or all the markets we serve.
European and Middle East households usually negotiate monthly rather than annually. We publish each market the way it is actually quoted.
| Market | Entry | Typical | Upper |
|---|---|---|---|
| United KingdomGross per year, PAYE. London, Cotswolds, Home Counties | £60,000 | £70,000 | £150,000 |
| MonacoGross per month. Roughly €84,000 a year at typical | €5,250 | €7,000 | €18,000 |
| France & the RivieraGross per month. Cap Ferrat, Antibes, Saint-Tropez, Paris | €5,500 | €7,000 | €14,000 |
| SwitzerlandGross per month. Indicative, benchmarked to French and Monaco data | CHF 6,800 | CHF 8,200 | CHF 15,800 |
| Dubai & the UAEGross per month, tax-free. Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills | AED 6,000 | AED 15,500 | AED 22,500 |
UK figures sit below their US equivalents partly because the UK market more often separates the chef role from wider household management, where in the United States a single chef more frequently carries the entire culinary operation. We do not represent UK roles below £60,000 gross.
Two households in the same city can be thirty per cent apart on the same job title. Six factors explain almost all of the variance in our records.
The single largest driver. Every placement in our records above $300,000 involved more than one property and a genuine travel load. See traveling private chefs.
Live-in roles often show a lower headline salary because accommodation carries real value. Compare total package, not salary alone.
Medical protocols, longevity programmes, strict Kosher households, and raw or plant-based work each narrow the candidate pool and lift the number.
A household hosting formal dinners weekly needs a different chef from one cooking three family meals a day. Frequency and formality both price in.
Michelin-trained chefs with verified private household experience command a premium, because the combination is genuinely scarce. Restaurant credentials alone do not.
Children on different schedules, staff meals, several principals with conflicting preferences, and security protocols all add to what the role actually requires.
Households routinely underestimate total cost, which typically runs about 20% to 40% above the base salary, because the salary is only part of it. Five items sit outside every figure on this page.
Where This Data Comes From
Most private chef salary figures online come from job boards, aggregated listings, or general hospitality surveys. None of those reflect what a UHNW household actually pays, because those roles are rarely advertised and almost never reported.
The figures on this page are built from 300+ searches since 2023: Montclair Chef placements, live roles, and verified offers across private households, family offices, estates, and international residences. Where a market is thinly evidenced, Austin and Switzerland in particular, we label the figure indicative rather than present it as recorded.
Our founder, Chris Demaillet, spent 19 years as a private chef to billionaires before founding the agency. He takes the first call on every search and gives salary guidance for your exact household rather than a published range.
In the United States, $160,000+ to $340,000 gross per year, with a typical figure of $185,000. In the United Kingdom, £60,000 to £150,000 PAYE, typically £70,000. In Monaco, €5,250 to €18,000 gross per month. In France, €5,500 to €14,000 per month. All figures are for a chef working full-time for one UHNW household, and exclude food budgets, accommodation, employer taxes, and benefits.
$340,000 gross per year, for a full-time private chef in a multi-residence household with a heavy travel schedule. With benefits the total package on that placement exceeds $350,000. We have placed above $300,000 on several occasions, and in every case the role involved more than one property and significant travel.
Two reasons. The UK market more often splits the chef role from wider household management, where a US private chef more frequently runs the entire culinary operation including sourcing and budget. UK roles also typically carry 28 days of statutory paid leave against 10 in the US, which changes the cost-per-working-day comparison considerably.
For full-time roles, employ them. In the United States that means a W-2 structure, in the United Kingdom PAYE. Contractors often hold other clients and may seek additional work, which leaves you without cover when you need it. We place full-time employed private chefs who work exclusively for one household. Read the private chef vs personal chef comparison.
The headline salary is often lower, but the total package is not. Accommodation carries real value, and in high-cost markets it can be worth a substantial share of the difference. Compare packages, not salaries. We advise on both structures during the brief.
Meaningfully more, and it is the clearest driver in our data. Every placement we have recorded above $300,000 involved multiple residences and real travel. The candidate pool is also much narrower, because most private chefs have only ever run a kitchen they set up themselves. See our traveling private chef placements.
Michelin training alone is not what moves the number. Michelin training combined with verified private household experience does, because that combination is genuinely scarce. Those candidates sit in the upper half of every range on this page, and in multi-residence roles at the very top.
The food and provisioning budget, accommodation if the role is live-in, employer taxes and social charges, benefits, and the agency fee. Social charges in France and Monaco in particular are substantial and should be modelled before you agree a gross figure. Total cost commonly runs about 20% to 40% above the base salary.
It depends on the market's statutory minimum: 10 days is typical in the United States, 28 in the United Kingdom including bank holidays, 25 in France and Monaco, and 30 in the UAE. UHNW households frequently offer above the minimum, and households with heavy entertaining schedules should plan cover in advance.
300+ searches since 2023, drawn from Montclair Chef placements, live roles, and verified offers across UHNW households, family offices, private estates, and international residences. Not job boards, not hospitality surveys. Where a market has too few records to be confident, we label it indicative rather than presenting it as recorded data.
Yes, and it is more useful than any published range. On the consultation call we take the brief, then give you a salary band for your market, residence setup, dietary requirements, and entertaining load. That guidance is free and carries no obligation. Schedule a confidential consultation.
For every question families and estate managers ask before hiring, read our full Private Chef FAQ, or see how our placement process works.
Tell us about the role and we will tell you what it should pay, how quickly we can fill it, and the type of chef your household actually needs.
We have run these searches for UHNW families across the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and the Middle East, so we can set your expectations against what the market is really doing rather than what a published range suggests.
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