The Audacity of Youth.
It's one thing to be determined, but it's another thing when you think it's OK to act as if you own a business you actually don't.
I had hired Chantal when my business had really started ramping up in 2017.
I was getting calls and emails from potential new clients every day of the week and needed the extra “hands on deck” to expand what I had hoped would become a monster empire, you know, between running my cafe and doing food styling gigs for big tv series and such.
(Looking back now, I think I was totally addicted to the adrenaline of ‘doing more”, of “being more”. Funny how hind sight makes you realize what’s truly important and what’s not.)
Anyway, Chantal was a semi experienced young chef, having worked in cafes, mainly. She was a charmer, for sure, and had a beautiful bright smile, lovely eyes and was a great conversationalist at the brilliant age of 25. She had told me she had hoped to become a professional chef someday, maybe starting her own PC biz in a few years, but for now just wanted to learn some skills and see what cooking in people’s homes looked like. I was happy to help her on her culinary journey.
I had her follow along with me to my clients homes, while my other two chefs were out cooking in other numerous client’s homes. My company was serving about 6 families a day. By having two other chefs out in the field, each cooking for two households per day, the chefs would take the majority of the earnings, with me taking a quarter of the service fee. It was truly a great opportunity for a talented chef looking to work daytime hours, work by themselves and make a bunch of money.
One day, about two weeks into Chantal’s employment, I noticed she was taking pictures of the meals she was making on her iPhone. She said she wanted to show her mom what she had made that day. No problem, I thought. Of course you should be proud of your creations and I wholeheartedly approved. Two days later, while I was scrolling through Instagram, I saw that Chatal had created an IG page for her own Personal Chef business! She was using all the pictures she had taken of the meals we had made for my clients as well as pictures of my client menu sheets (with their names clearly shown!). Her captions were as if she had an actual PC business and that these were HER clients! I was completely floored and speechless. When I showed my husband the pictures on IG he was like, “Call her NOW.” So, I immediately dialed her up. The conversation went something like this:
Chantal: “Hello Chef”.
Me: Hey Chantal. Sooooo, I need to discuss something with you. I just saw your post on IG. I see you are starting your own personal chef business? I’m totally confused. And I see also that you are using photos from the cook the other day at both my client’s homes. You know this is totally not cool, right?”
C: “Well, uh, yeah, but no…uh, I figured I should create something now because it’ll take me awhile to get my own clients going. So, yeah, I uh, I used the pics I took. Its stuff I made though.”
Me: “Look, this is totally not cool. The meals that WE made were for MY clients. You even posted a pic of their menus with their NAMES in view. That is totally NOT permissible. That is a breach of their confidentiality with my business. I need you to remove those pictures now.”
C: “I don’t see the big deal! Its food. Its something I made… Ok, something weeeee made. No big deal! Don’t you want to help me out??”
The audacity with which she spoke blindsided me. I was filled with rage, yet stupefied, all at once.
Me: “Look Chantal. I see that you want to start your own thing, and that’s fine, but this isn’t how you do it. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to let you go. Please remove those pictures at once. If I see them still up tomorrow I’m going to have to take legal action. Please don’t make me have to go there.”
And with that I hung up. Lesson learned. There would now have to be a written and verbal warning about the confidentiality of my clients. Also, pictures were not to be posted on social media. Ever.
I also learned that expansion of this business was not looking as easy as I had plotted and planned over the years.
To end this post, I ask all my fellow personal chefs, especially those that grew their business beyond just themselves cooking, did you ever experience anything like this? What are your stories?
Until next week, thanks so much for following along on this journey!
- Shirlé
Please leave a comment or two…I’d love to hear from you!
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Thank you again,
- Shirlé
PS: All names, places and occupations have been changed to protect the identity of all clients and chefs.
A Shout Out to this Weeks Paid Supporters:
A very special shout out to the following paid subscribers:
Robinlee Garber, Chef Lynn Warlick Wells, Jake Brokaw, Miyuki Furtado and Spanky Wilson, . A special shout out to new paid subscribers Myra Ruppe Schwartz, Lisa Deemer Sethi and Claudia L Sanders, Laurel Estabrooks and Leela Montella,! Thank you all soooo much for your support!
-Leela is a person I have known since kindergarten. She has made a lovely life for her and her family and I love watching her kids success stories.
-Myra is an old NC friend who I recently got to see here in beautiful Lisbon with her partner Scott. Maybe someday they will become expats in this fair land.
-Robinlee is a childhood friend and all around renaissance woman, living and playing music in Chicago.
-Chef Lynn is a fellow Personal Chef buddy and owner of Thyme Well Spent, Personal Chef Service, based out of Greensboro NC. When not cooking for clients or food styling for cookbooks, she can be found hobnobbing with tastemakers and culinary shakers all over the country.
-Jake and his wife Brigitte have long been huge supporters of my cooking and are also huge supporters of the arts in Baltimore, Maryland. Jake also has an Orthopedic practice I have had to use a few times.
-Miyuki has been a lifelong friend and bandmate of mine from days long past. He’s also one of the best fathers and husbands I know and has raised one of the coolest kids, his daughter Mino along with his sweet wife Tricia. Miyuki currently plays music in his Alt-Country band, Divining Rod. You can listen to Divining Rod out on all music platforms. (Chef Lynn, I think you would LOVE his music!)
-Spanky has been a huge supporter of my cooking from my NC days. When not fire fighting you might find Spanky hiking the Appalachian trail.
-Lisa has been in my life since the early 90’s. She’s a huge music supporter and a lover of all things delicious.
-Claudia is an old friend from my days in North Carolina. I met Claudia at a pig pull back in 1998, when I first moved to Chapel Hill. Since then, Claudia has started a successful Personal Chef business, Good Intentions Personal Chef Service in the Hillsborough area, as well as serving the Durham and Chapel Hill area.
-Laurel Estabrooks is a new expat friend, recently becoming a Portuguese resident. Parabens!! Someday I hope to meet up face to face. Muito Obrigada Laurel!!
Thank you all sooo much for supporting me in this endeavor. I am truly grateful for you.
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