The Life of a Private Chef to Pro Athletes

You've seen the viral TikToks: a private chef invites you into an Architectural Digest-worthy kitchen, where you can watch as they cook elaborate breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for a rich and famous client. "Drool worthy" is always on the menu, it seems, with each meal more decadent than the next. Handmade pasta, freshly baked pie, chocolate soufflé — the limit on luxury (or budget) does not exist.

For private chef Alex Baker, things look a little different.

For starters, Baker works with a handful of Major League Baseball players in New York City, typically in the mornings before they head off for practice, and usually just for a few months during the playoffs. Their atypical schedules precludes your standard 9-to-5 meal planning (or 8-to-8, as it is for many full-time private chefs), which means she has to be extra intentional with prep.

"Athletes have such busy schedules and they're not around or in their homes that often," Baker says. "They're eating at weird times, they have practice, they take some food to their games, and they sometimes also have families [where their] wives and kids are all eating at different times."

What she cooks also has to pack a nutritional punch. These are high-level professional athletes, after all, and while everything should always be delicious, it has to satiate those specific dietary needs of high protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats. "I've worked with athletes that will literally eat anything even though they're not supposed to, and that's why they hire me because they are eating kind of crappy on their own," Baker says. "They hire me to fix their diets."

Here's exactly what a day in the life of a private chef to some of your favorite athletes looks like.

There's a reason those "day in the life" videos are so engrossing, and it's because no one day looks the same. This is especially true for Baker, whose clients range from local New York-based players to free agents coming in from out of town to play in a series.

"If it's not their home base, they're typically renting a house or an apartment. There's nothing in their fridge at all, and there's also sometimes no cutting board, no knives, no pans. I've had to bring my own stuff."

Typically, though, the work begins and ends in the morning, with two to four hours of meal prep. She arrives at 7 a.m. to organize the groceries, set up her station, clean up the kitchen, and get started on breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the day.

"Usually I start with the biggest thing, or the thing that takes the most amount of time. So if I'm making chili for dinner, then I would start with that, and then do the sides for dinner and then lunch," she says. "I always do breakfast last because by the time I finish, they're waking up and then breakfast is hot and ready for them on the counter. Then I leave, usually around 10 or 11 a.m."

As for the rest of their meals: "For the athlete I'll put lunch and dinner in a to-go container, just in case he wanted to take it with him to the field, and the rest I put in containers for the family so they can eat whenever they want during the day."

At the beginning of the week, Baker will send over a menu of what she plans to make for the whole week. They'll weigh in at that stage on preferences, if any. She'll grocery shop or order delivery the night before, typically a few days' worth at once.

"I've never been asked to avoid anything food-wise," she says. "They're hiring me because I know what they're supposed to eat. They don't want to have to think about it. I just avoid things that I know are not healthy or not good for them. I'm not going to make them pizza or fried chicken wings. I'm not going to do fried foods."

What she does prioritize are foods that fuel the body: lots of mono- and polyunsaturated fats, lean protein, healthy carbs, and foods that are filling. "These are athletes, so they're expelling a lot of energy and they need food that will give them a lot of energy."

That might look like a taco bowl with quinoa and ground turkey with peppers for lunch, or "I do a lot of healthy breakfast burritos with lean protein, ground turkey or ground chicken, turkey bacon, eggs. I try to add beans in there too, and avocado to get those healthy fats."

Otherwise, Baker keeps the pantry stocked with shelf-stable food like grains (think: quinoa or farro), canned beans, condiments. "Then I always like to have, and this is not just for athletes, things I can make a quick dressing with like anchovies, garlic, capers," she says.

All that personalization sounds expensive, but is it? While every client varies — and the cost is largely dependent on how many people she's feeding and whether she's going to the athlete's home, among other variables — a typical day of cooking three meals for a family of five is about $500, or $3,500 per week. For one month that adds up to $14,000; for three months, you're looking at $42,000.

That's not including groceries. Baker typically pays for those upfront and folds that cost into her invoice to be reimbursed after the fact. There's no set budget to stick within.

If you assume professional athletes are predisposed to healthy eating habits from the get, well, what did your mother tell you about assumptions? In fact, "I was shocked to learn that most of these players in the MLB or NFL do not have chefs and are not eating very well, even though they're playing at the highest level," Baker says.

Part of this is because many clubs don't offer it as part of their contracts, which means athletes often have to make that investment themselves. "You would think it would be a priority to give them meal plans or nutritional information, because being an athlete, eating well is part of your job — you play better if you eat better," she says. "A lot of them don't want to spend the money, and so they're just not eating very well."

Still, many players who do invest in a private chef see it pay off on the field. "People are starting to realize food as medicine or food as fuel, and it's the same in sports," Baker says. "Some of the athletes I've cooked for have talked about how much better they feel now that they are eating healthy because of their chef. They tell me they're playing better, they feel better, and it's pretty crazy how immediate it is — it will only take a week or two for them to notice a difference. It's super rewarding and makes all the hard work worth it."

Kelsey Castañon (she/her) is an ASME Award-nominated writer, editor, and content strategist with enough years of experience to warrant a retinol prescription. She is currently the senior content director at PS, where she oversees the Beauty, Health, Fitness, and Balance verticals while simultaneously stockpiling (and reporting on) everything from skin care to wine.