Tyumen Chef Brings Home Cooking to Clients' Kitchens

Ordering ready-made food for delivery has long become routine. But Tyumen resident Dmitry Yurovskikh offers a different option: a chef comes to the client«s apartment and in a few hours prepares several dishes at once — for example, soup, cutlets, a hot main course and a salad. After that, he cleans up his workspace and leaves, and the family is left with a supply of food for several days.

The «Shef na vyezde» (Chef on Call) project appeared less than a year ago. Initially, Dmitry had no intention of becoming a home chef at all. He worked in a restaurant 14 hours a day and thought about starting his own business, but had almost no free time to develop it.

In fact, Dmitry«s wife suggested the idea. One day she saw that a blogger was looking for a personal chef.

— About a year ago I decided I wanted to change something. But when you work 14 hours in a restaurant, developing something of your own doesn«t really work out. And then my wife saw that a blogger was looking for a personal chef. At first I didn»t attach much importance to it. I had thoughts of developing catering or banquets. But when I came back from my first visit, I realized how much families need this format, Dmitry says.

That single order gradually grew into a separate line of business. Dmitry began promoting the project through social media — a channel he now considers one of the most effective. His wife, who works as an SMM specialist, helps him with promotion. Most clients, according to him, come from social media, but word of mouth also works: people learn about the service through recommendations from those who have already used it.

Now the chefs visit not only those who want restaurant food at home. On the contrary, one of the project«s main features is cooking ordinary food that people are used to eating every day. Most often the service is used by entrepreneurs, large families and mothers on maternity leave. According to Dmitry, for them the point of the service is not unusual dishes but the chance to free up a few hours a week.

Before the first visit, the chef finds out what the family likes, which foods they don«t eat, and whether there are allergies or other restrictions. After that, the client is sent a menu from which they can put together a suitable set.

— We start by identifying all the client«s needs: food preferences, allergies. We send a home menu where they can choose the items they like. We have about a hundred dishes, so there is something for every family member. When we arrive, we change into clean chef uniforms. If it»s the first visit, we always meet the client, inspect the kitchen and go over taste preferences once more. After cooking, we leave the work area clean, Dmitry explains.

At the same time, clients are in no hurry to order elaborate restaurant dishes for the whole week. The top choices are familiar home food: borscht, cutlets, Olivier salad and dressed herring (seledka pod shuboy). For a family of three, for example, one visit can produce a large portion of salad, two hot dishes and about five liters of soup. Most often people ask for the dishes they themselves spend a lot of time preparing.

On average, the chef spends 2.5–3 hours in the client«s apartment. In that time, in a well-equipped kitchen, five or six dishes can be prepared. But Dmitry admits that reality sometimes turns out very different from what you imagine before a visit. The speed of work depends heavily on the appliances and cookware. A kitchen with a working four-burner stove, an oven and several pots and pans is one thing.

— There have been unusual situations. For example, you arrive at a client«s place for the first time: the stove seems to have four burners, but only one works. Or there»s no oven at all. And you have to improvise. We understand that the client is paying for time as well, so we try to speed up the process as much as possible, Dmitry says.

If it is known in advance that the kitchen has only two burners, Dmitry can bring a portable induction cooktop with him. If there isn«t enough cookware, the client is warned that cooking will take longer. That is why there is no strict rule of »this many dishes in this many hours.«

— If the kitchen is well equipped and the oven and stove work properly, then usually five or six dishes can be prepared in 2.5–3 hours. But a lot also depends on their complexity, the chef clarifies.

There are two options. The client can buy everything needed themselves or hand the shopping over to the chef as an additional service. First the two sides approve the menu, after which a grocery list is drawn up. If some ingredients are already at home, the customer simply crosses them off the list.

— We always take the person«s budget into account. We ask right away what amount they are planning on. If we do the shopping, we draw up a list, send it to the client, and they check what they already have at home and what doesn»t need to be bought, Dmitry explains.

Dietary needs under various restrictions are discussed separately. According to the entrepreneur«s observations, actual allergies and medical conditions affect about 2–3% of clients. Far more often people ask for a meal plan for weight loss or simply want to stick to healthy eating.

Dmitry says clients most often ask about health certificates (medical books) and want to know how the chef handles raw meat and whether he follows food-safety rules. Every chef on the team has a health certificate. But professional skills alone are not enough for this work. In a restaurant, a chef spends most of the time in a familiar kitchen among colleagues. Here, every new order means someone else«s home, new people and a completely different environment.

That is why when hiring, Dmitry pays attention not only to work experience but also to communication skills.

— We can take on a professional chef with good experience and good communication with people. A lot depends on that. Anyone can do a one-day trial: write to us and we«ll arrange a meeting, Dmitry says.

Currently five people work on the «Shef na vyezde» team. Two of them are women. Moreover, according to Dmitry, clients often specifically ask that a female chef be sent to them.

The cost of one visit starts at about 3,000 rubles (about $38). New clients get a 15% discount. One hour of a chef«s work costs 1,200 rubles (about $15). Dmitry believes it is not entirely fair to compare the average cost of the service with a single restaurant delivery: delivered food is usually meant for one meal or one evening, whereas after a home chef»s work the fridge holds several dishes for several days. The project already brings the entrepreneur a stable income.

At the same time, the project has not been limited to home cooking. Dmitry continues to handle banquets — the line of work he was thinking about even before the idea of personal chefs.

— There have been two-hour visits, and I«ve even had one-and-a-half-hour ones. It all depends on the complexity of the dishes, the kitchen itself and the amount of work. On average, one visit costs from 3,000 rubles. If we take only personal chef visits, it comes to about 100,000–120,000 rubles (about $1,300–$1,500) a month. But that»s without banquets. With banquets the sum is, of course, larger, Dmitry says.

Just a few years ago, regular grocery delivery or cleaning services could also be seen as an unnecessary expense. Now, for many families, they are a normal way to free up time. Dmitry expects roughly the same thing to happen with home chefs.

— It seems to me this format will really become a habit quickly. Times are different now: everyone works, everyone is busy with their own affairs. We take care of ours — cooking, he says.

The next stage is expanding the team. Dmitry wants to recruit more professional chefs so that more families can use the service, and then move beyond Tyumen. There is already interest in the service from other cities. Moreover, the entrepreneur receives messages from abroad as well.

— We want to gather a large team of professional chefs so that as many people as possible try this format. And, of course, to open in other cities. We already receive many requests from other cities and even countries. For example, someone recently wrote to us from Italy, he notes.

Incidentally, an attempt has already been made to turn the personal chef format in Tyumen into a full-fledged service. Tesla Burger founder Vladislav Dzhurovich launched the «Moy povar» (My Chef) project. With its help, you can find someone to prepare familiar home food for a whole week with delivery. The project gained fame and, together with its founder, made the Forbes long list. What makes it special was covered in the previous article.