RH Staff

By Candy Wallace and Greg Forte
Wiley, $50

A personal chef gig seems ideal—at least when you're daydreaming about having one while grinding your way through a busy shift at your restaurant. But good cooking skills will take you only so far down this road. You'll need to be an entrepreneur as well. You'll do it all: Setting up the business, getting clients, providing top-notch customer service and making sure you get paid in a timely manner. Menu development, sourcing, prepping the meals—that's the easy part of the job. Some aspiring personal chefs thrive in this environment; many others fail. But fear not. Wallace and Forte's 210-page book provides all the guidelines you'll need to succeed as a self-employed personal chef. Wallace has trained more than 5,000 chefs to join this field, and she and Forte can help you become part of this profession. Be sure to read it before you quit your current job, however; it's a good culinary profession, but a demanding one.