“I’m Worried That One Day They Will Find Out”: Personal Chef To An Upper-Class Family Confesses About How They Really Cook Their Food
Just because a dish is expensive, looks elaborate, and took half a day to make doesn’t guarantee that someone will like it. People have different tastes. And just because someone is upper class doesn’t guarantee that they’ll automatically have incredibly fancy tastes. Similarly, just because someone is well-off doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be able to tell the difference between high-quality ingredients and the cheapest stuff that their kitchen staff could find.
Redditor u/Mission_Issue_9198, a personal chef, shared a tantalizing tale about cooking for an upper-class family. They shared how they quickly learned that it wasn’t worth spending hours upon hours and tens of thousands of dollars on ingredients to cater to the family. For one, they didn’t enjoy the fancy food the chef made. Besides, they loved the cheaper versions of the dishes and raved about them to everyone they knew.
Scroll down for the chef’s full post, as shared on r/TrueOffMyChest, dear Pandas. Do you think that the chef was right to hide the truth from the family? What would you have done in their shoes? Share your thoughts in the comments.
The food you’re eating might not be as fancy and authentic as you think
Image credits: Jason Leung (not the actual photo)
A personal chef working for an upper-class family shared how they started substituting expensive ingredients for cheap ones
Image credits: Yente Van Eynde (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Mission_Issue_9198
It’s a difficult balance to maintain when you’re catering to high-end folks. On the one side of the equation, you have the essence of food—the taste! If something tastes awful, it will destroy the fabulous presentation. Though everyone has personal preferences for what they enjoy, there are some objective things that you should avoid. For instance, overcooking or undercooking food will ruin the experience.
Now, on the other side of the equation, you have the aesthetics of the dish, i.e. how everything looks plated. We do tend to eat with our eyes first. And first impressions do matter. So if someone brings out a dirty plate with unidentifiable gloop smeared all over it, odds are that you might lose your appetite. The food itself might taste fine! But you’ve already lost your customer through your (lack of) presentation.
Some high-end chefs focus on the presentation, at the expense of the taste. They create gastronomic experiences. The over-elaborate works of art they create might impress some. Others, however, might be left confused and hungry because the portions are often tiny. The chef needs to maintain a close connection to the essence of food, otherwise they might come off as pretentious.
The author of the post, whose account was eventually suspended for an unknown reason, explained that they partly feel guilty for going along with the charade while their clients boast about their ‘authentic’ food to everyone. “I just smile and nod,” they wrote.
They admitted that they’d been getting away with this for nearly a decade. Though a part of them is scared that one day the family will find out…
Some readers praised the chef for their ingenuity and skill
Others, however, were slightly suspicious and had some questions for the author of the post
Meanwhile, some people shared similar stories
!["Karen Complains To HR About My Body, I Uno-Reverse Her Complaint, [And Now] Everyone Hates Her"](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/coworker-complains-to-hr-about-womans-body-revenge-latest.jpg "\"Karen Complains To HR About My Body, I Uno-Reverse Her Complaint, [And Now] Everyone Hates Her\"")
If those you are cooking for can't taste the difference between saffron and turmeric, or fresh and boxed pasta, then they don't have much of a palate.
That's the point. Most of these types of people just want to feel like they're being catered to. Somewhere in the replies, there was the lady that gets a pound of bacon cooked only to select the strips and throw the rest in the garbage. They just want to feel like they're special, they don't give a sh1t about actual authenticity or quality or any of that nonsense.
Agree, especially the inability to distinguish saffron from turmeric. Saffron has such a distinctive flavor, turmeric doesn't come close.
There's actually a whole classic Penn and Teller episode about this haha. They serve super cheap food spruced up and presented by a waiter to be top tier and literally no one noticed except one guy. It's really all about presentation & how you perceive it, if you're eating a $/£5 meal but you're told it cost 100s most people will swear it was the best thing ever. Now obviously an extremely knowledgeable and experienced person could tell, but the average eater definitely not.
I agree and I wonder if they may have had Covid at some point. My mom and I had Covid early this year and our sense of taste and sense of smell are still screwed up.
I was thinking the exact same thing. HOW do you mistake saffron for in actual fact no saffron, how is that possible…? And how do you mistake hand made pasta for machine pasta? That never even came close to ever happen to me - there’s a massive difference between hand made and machine pasta. Not as in “better” or “worse” necessarily, just vastly different. What’s up with these people, I’m confused. Did this really happen…?
I have a fairly good palate and can't always tell the difference between fresh and boxed pasta. Let's be honest, if you look at the ingredients of pasta there is nothing special about it. So being pretentions about it being "fresh" doesn't make sense. It's just empty carbohydrates that taste like wallpaper paste. (Because, except for the addition of eggs in some pasta that's what it is.)
Just because something is expensive or well known does not mean it tastes better. And often with "local" cuisine it's not made with expensive ingredients, just local. And fruits can different from different regions.
Unless they were exclusively going to michelin restaurants in the mountains that somehow have fresh, high quality, super expensive versions of every ingredient despite being located in the fkin mountains, I doubt most of the places they went to had a higher requirement than 'red wine higher than aldi quality' However, big doubt on someone with no culinary degree being hired to cook for some super duper rich people that are barely home anyways.
Yeah, the whole story stinks. You don't substitute cooking with expensive wine to cooking with grape juice and vodka. You just use cheaper wine. I don't have a culinary degree either, but I love cooking and event to me, none of the substitutions add up.
I have used vinegar when wine wasnt available and it does work pretty well as a substitute in a pinch. It would be more a white balsamico, but even cheap vinegar can work if you know how to add to it with other ingredients. Butter goes a long way in helping make substitutes work in sauces. Grape juice not so much that's just sweet juice. The point is though alot of rich peoplr arent as refined as they think they are..
Yeah. I found that pretty weird too.
As someone who worked as a professional nanny for 15 years, nothing about this story stinks at all. It's common for the rich to oddly enjoy hiring people with zero experience and pay them less. They somehow think they can mold you the way they want you, like clay. I was forever "wowing" parents with ordinary solutions for their children but I had to cloke it under the illusion of something fancy, unique or special. Domestic work is super strange and you can't keep your job unless you lie. Honesty is your ticket to a jobless existence with many of these people. Not all of course, but when you find yourself working for one of them you know right away. And you must play along accordingly!
They are probably a clueless couple. 'Travel in the European mountains'. Soo...there are mountains in many countries and all regional /national dishes are distrinctly different from eachother. So *what* did they eat exactly? Chicken Alfredo? Kapsalon? Luttefisk? McDonald's? Oreo's?
Kapsalon in the Dutch mountains probably. ;-)
All 300 meters in Limburg 😂
Kapsalon, lekker
Probably not Oreo‘s 😏
I have to say Lutfisk isn’t really more common in mountain ranges here in Sweden, it’s more of a Christmas food - but I totally agree with your point.
So in Norway 😃
I think they were likely referring to the known culture of curated quality food present in the mountainous regions of Italy, France, and Italian regions of Switzerland. These areas have very unique types of wines and flavor combinations that the couple probably associates with quality just because the food is much fresher there.
There's plenty of mountains in Europe, such as the Swiss Alps, the French Alps, the Italian Alps, the Ural Mtns (in Romania) and others. Sure, they can SAY "travel in the European mountains", but can they say WHERE in Europe exactly? My guess is that couple may have been either watching too many travelogues, or hearing about it from friends who actually DID travel to those places!
The Ural are in Russia, not Romania. In Romania we have the Carpathians and the Dobrogea mountains (which are now hills because they are very old)
If those you are cooking for can't taste the difference between saffron and turmeric, or fresh and boxed pasta, then they don't have much of a palate.
That's the point. Most of these types of people just want to feel like they're being catered to. Somewhere in the replies, there was the lady that gets a pound of bacon cooked only to select the strips and throw the rest in the garbage. They just want to feel like they're special, they don't give a sh1t about actual authenticity or quality or any of that nonsense.
Agree, especially the inability to distinguish saffron from turmeric. Saffron has such a distinctive flavor, turmeric doesn't come close.
There's actually a whole classic Penn and Teller episode about this haha. They serve super cheap food spruced up and presented by a waiter to be top tier and literally no one noticed except one guy. It's really all about presentation & how you perceive it, if you're eating a $/£5 meal but you're told it cost 100s most people will swear it was the best thing ever. Now obviously an extremely knowledgeable and experienced person could tell, but the average eater definitely not.
I agree and I wonder if they may have had Covid at some point. My mom and I had Covid early this year and our sense of taste and sense of smell are still screwed up.
I was thinking the exact same thing. HOW do you mistake saffron for in actual fact no saffron, how is that possible…? And how do you mistake hand made pasta for machine pasta? That never even came close to ever happen to me - there’s a massive difference between hand made and machine pasta. Not as in “better” or “worse” necessarily, just vastly different. What’s up with these people, I’m confused. Did this really happen…?
I have a fairly good palate and can't always tell the difference between fresh and boxed pasta. Let's be honest, if you look at the ingredients of pasta there is nothing special about it. So being pretentions about it being "fresh" doesn't make sense. It's just empty carbohydrates that taste like wallpaper paste. (Because, except for the addition of eggs in some pasta that's what it is.)
Just because something is expensive or well known does not mean it tastes better. And often with "local" cuisine it's not made with expensive ingredients, just local. And fruits can different from different regions.
Unless they were exclusively going to michelin restaurants in the mountains that somehow have fresh, high quality, super expensive versions of every ingredient despite being located in the fkin mountains, I doubt most of the places they went to had a higher requirement than 'red wine higher than aldi quality' However, big doubt on someone with no culinary degree being hired to cook for some super duper rich people that are barely home anyways.
Yeah, the whole story stinks. You don't substitute cooking with expensive wine to cooking with grape juice and vodka. You just use cheaper wine. I don't have a culinary degree either, but I love cooking and event to me, none of the substitutions add up.
I have used vinegar when wine wasnt available and it does work pretty well as a substitute in a pinch. It would be more a white balsamico, but even cheap vinegar can work if you know how to add to it with other ingredients. Butter goes a long way in helping make substitutes work in sauces. Grape juice not so much that's just sweet juice. The point is though alot of rich peoplr arent as refined as they think they are..
Yeah. I found that pretty weird too.
As someone who worked as a professional nanny for 15 years, nothing about this story stinks at all. It's common for the rich to oddly enjoy hiring people with zero experience and pay them less. They somehow think they can mold you the way they want you, like clay. I was forever "wowing" parents with ordinary solutions for their children but I had to cloke it under the illusion of something fancy, unique or special. Domestic work is super strange and you can't keep your job unless you lie. Honesty is your ticket to a jobless existence with many of these people. Not all of course, but when you find yourself working for one of them you know right away. And you must play along accordingly!
They are probably a clueless couple. 'Travel in the European mountains'. Soo...there are mountains in many countries and all regional /national dishes are distrinctly different from eachother. So *what* did they eat exactly? Chicken Alfredo? Kapsalon? Luttefisk? McDonald's? Oreo's?
Kapsalon in the Dutch mountains probably. ;-)
All 300 meters in Limburg 😂
Kapsalon, lekker
Probably not Oreo‘s 😏
I have to say Lutfisk isn’t really more common in mountain ranges here in Sweden, it’s more of a Christmas food - but I totally agree with your point.
So in Norway 😃
I think they were likely referring to the known culture of curated quality food present in the mountainous regions of Italy, France, and Italian regions of Switzerland. These areas have very unique types of wines and flavor combinations that the couple probably associates with quality just because the food is much fresher there.
There's plenty of mountains in Europe, such as the Swiss Alps, the French Alps, the Italian Alps, the Ural Mtns (in Romania) and others. Sure, they can SAY "travel in the European mountains", but can they say WHERE in Europe exactly? My guess is that couple may have been either watching too many travelogues, or hearing about it from friends who actually DID travel to those places!
The Ural are in Russia, not Romania. In Romania we have the Carpathians and the Dobrogea mountains (which are now hills because they are very old)