Career Highs and Lows: The Journey of a Private Wellness Chef

This episode dives into the professional life of Anastasia Riva, exploring the trials and triumphs of her journey from a struggling private wellness chef to a highly sought-after culinary expert.

1. Career Flexibility: Anastasia's journey underscores the importance of adaptability in one's career, especially when transitioning between different sectors within the culinary industry.
2. Overcoming Challenges: The discussion reveals how personal setbacks, such as a divorce, can lead to new professional opportunities and personal growth.
3. Learning Opportunities: Working in commercial kitchens provided Anastasia with crucial experience that enhanced her ability to serve high-profile clients.
4. Networking: Building a strong professional network is essential, as demonstrated by how connections led to job opportunities with affluent clients.
5. Passion and Dedication: The deep passion for food and commitment to health and wellness are pivotal to succeeding as a private chef.

1: Introduction

Hannes Hetji introduces the episode and guest, Anastasia Riva, who shares her background and initial interest in cooking. Hannes Hetji: "Welcome to the Private Chef Podcast, where we delve into the intricate lives of private chefs to the elite."

2: Career Shifts

Anastasia discusses her move from Malibu to Orange County and her decision to switch from being a private chef to exploring commercial kitchens. Anastasia Riva: "I decided to take a break from private cheffing and learn from the commercial side to broaden my skills."

3: Challenges and Opportunities

The chef explains the difficulties she faced in commercial kitchens and how these experiences prepared her for high-profile clients. Anastasia Riva: "Working in such a fast-paced environment was challenging, but it taught me invaluable lessons about kitchen dynamics."

4: Return to Private Cheffing

Anastasia narrates her return to private cheffing, emphasizing the advantages of specialized dietary knowledge in serving elite clients. Anastasia Riva: "My experience with different diets directly informed my ability to cater to specific client needs, setting me apart in the private chef market."

1. Embrace Change: Be open to changing your professional path as opportunities arise.
2. Network Effectively: Always be building and nurturing professional relationships.
3. Seek Learning: Continuously look for educational opportunities to enhance your skills.
4. Maintain Passion: Let your passion for your work drive you through tough times.
5. Be Adaptable: Adapt to various working environments and client needs to succeed.

From childhood memories of food as medicine, Chef Annestasia Rivard has journeyed to become a professional chef in both commercial kitchens and private residences. Throughout her career, she shares the experiences and lessons she's gathered along the way. From unexpected opportunities to setbacks, she reflects on how they have molded her path, offering valuable insights and fostering growth, particularly in the private service space.

Annestasia is a certified Holistic Health Practitioner and a seasoned Private Wellness Chef with over 15 years of diverse culinary experience. Based in Beverly Hills, California, she specializes in crafting clean, green foods, vegan dishes, and high-protein options for ultra-high-net-worth clients.

Tune in to hear about her job setbacks, transitions, and successes that have defined her unique culinary career.

People

Anastasia Riva, Hannes Hetji

Companies

Blizzard Entertainment

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

Anastasia Riva

Content Warnings:

None

Anastasia Riva
This thing that I was so passionate about doing all happened because in my future timeline as a chef, I'm going to come across these clients that really need my help and I'm going to like, bring so much light into their world. If you're a chef and you're thinking about how to venture into the private chef space, how to set yourself up for success from resume to first interactions with your clients as well as succeeding at the job, our one on one coaching got you covered. Go to www. Dot Privatechef, dot CC and connect with me. Decades of experience can be your support to seize the next private chef opportunity.

Hannes Hetji
Welcome to the private chef podcast serving the 1%. I'm your host, Hannes Hetji, and on our show we speak to the best chefs, how they honed in on their skills to excel in the industry, and what it takes to work as a private chef over some of the most exclusive clients in the world.

Welcome back to the Private Chef podcast. I'm your host, Hannes Henshi. Today we're joined by chef Anastasia Riva, a seasoned private wellness chef with over 15 years of diverse culinary experience as a certified holistic practitioner. Chef anesthesia creates healthy, green, vegan, high protein options for her clients using sustainable and organic ingredients. It's a pleasure to have you here with us today, anesthesia.

Welcome to the show. So now the interesting question is, what are you currently learning that unfolds in the next chapter? So I've never worked in a commercial kitchen. So when I had a divorce, left Malibu, moved to Orange county, so my clients are all up in LA and so I'm like, I'm just going to take a year and a half or two off and I'm going to go apply for a corporate job, a commercial kitchen job. Look, I'm gonna learn this year as like continuing education.

Anastasia Riva
So I'm like, but where do I even begin? Like, my resume is just private chef and holistic health coach and, you know, don't have that much under my belt in terms of, like, experience except one category. So I'm like, oh, I guess I'm just gonna start at the bottom. Prep, cook, whatever. I just want to get my foot through the door, right?

I started just researching. I'm like, oh, bona fide's with compass group. Oh, blah, blah. Oh, there's a position for Blizzard. I worked for Blizzard Entertainment or applied for blizzard entertainment as whatever position that was on their feed.

And usually in those kind of circumstances, circumstances they hire in house, in the system, from the system, right. But for some reason I got an email, like, five days later. No, not even an email. A phone call, actually. Phone call stating they had received my resume and my video questions answered and that they would like to proceed with a formal interview.

It's like five days later. I've never even applied for a regular job in my entire life. I'm like, oh, I guess this is how it goes. So I go in for the interview, and he's like, well, you're overqualified for this job position, but you're lucky. We are trying to look for a health and wellness type of chef in our catering division getting the orders from the CEO because apparently CEO Blizzard Sia was vegetarian, vegan, something like that.

Health conscious. Excuse me. And so, um, he goes, let me go get the guy from that department. Just, you know, hold on. But then I have another interview right then and there he comes in, reviews my resume, and he goes, you sound like the perfect fit.

I'm like, okay, I don't have commercial kitchen experience. I'm here for the experience. And they're like, all right, well, let's start you. This is pre Covid, so 2019. So I went in and, boy, yeah, I got a lot of politics in the kitchen.

I didn't realize. I'm just so used to working by myself and a lot of male energy in the kitchen. I think I was the only female chef in the kitchen. That was. That's for another podcast.

Hannes Hetji
And sometimes you have women in vacation, but they don't have any female energy left because they've been in the kitchen. Yeah, yeah, totally. Because they have to, you know, hold masculine. So that in itself is such a learning curve for me. But I did learn fast paced.

Anastasia Riva
Come on, let's push these orders out. Like, I'm just like, order up. You know, my head was just, like, all over the place because I'm so used to doing things on my time, like slow, relax, communicate with the clients. You know, there's no middle person. There's no, like, just very chaotic.

Thank God for Covid. Covid happens. And we all get laid off.

We got paid laid off. We got paid laid off to all the way to August. Yep. Lizard paid us. So then I reassessed, and I said, oh, then I'm gonna go back to private.

But that time at blizzard was. I only needed that time to learn what I did. Yeah. And from that little short amount of time of what I learned, how the commercial kitchen flows is what I now have instilled in, you know, my billionaire clients commercial kitchen. And.

But if I had not had that little scope of time, I would not have been equipped to be in the position that I am in. Mm hmm. So, like, anytime where you're like, oh, man, I don't know about this. There's always a reason. Like, maybe it's not expressed to you in the way that you can understand yet, but there's a reason.

There's, like, stepping stones to everything, and. That'S so interesting that. That, you know, there are those little, little pockets of experience, and sometimes it means we don't need to make a whole chapter out of it. You know, we just need to, like, okay, I understand that it's been a good experience, and probably, for me, something to compare here would be like working on a yacht. I've worked on yachts, but it was short enough that I know I don't want to do it full time.

Yeah. Where I'm like, okay, I got the flavor of it. I know to some degree how this works. Not for me. Yeah.

I wouldn't know. Have not had any. I do have people that I know that run chartering yacht services and the Caribbeans. And I said, hey, if you ever need a chef, they're like, I know we got you, Anastasia. Like, I've known him for many, many, many, many years, and I've always wondered, I wonder how it would be.

But who knows? I think it very much depends. I mean, we did speak to, like, Hannah and a couple other people who've been on yacht, and we spoke with Nina Wilson the other day, and there is very different sizes and dimensions and different ways on how they can go down. Like, I know people who are on smaller catamarans with, like, very intimate setting. And I think that probably more sounds like what you would enjoy.

Hannes Hetji
Rather than being on a hundred meter yacht where you have, like, 15 staff and all kinds of people, you also have to feed on top, and there's, like, a full, full commercial blow going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It seems like operation on sea. Like, just like the private residences I work for. It's a huge operation.

Anastasia Riva
It's not just client and chef. It's like, gosh, staff of 20 people. Yeah. You know, it's just a lot of people. So I can't even imagine that on a boat.

Hannes Hetji
Yeah. And that's the thing, you know, you have to share space with other people. It's very, very different. You don't get to go home, have a break. Yeah.

Anastasia Riva
I mean, brain reset. Exactly. You know that. So it's made for. For a certain kind of individuals.

Yeah. The younger ones or energy. So tell me a little bit more about how your journey started in. In the food world. Where did the passion for food come from?

Passion for food. Passion for food has always been a part of my life since I was. I mean, I can think back as early as maybe eight years old.

Grandmother raised us most of the time because our parents were always, you know, working middle class, working all the time, never home. And grandma was quite the cook. She's constantly in the kitchen. That's where she found her escape. So you imagine, like, just an old korean grandma always in the kitchen.

And when she would have her breaks, the only thing that she would watch on tv would be Julia child. Mind you, she's Korean, doesn't know English, but there's obviously a common language with food. Like, she's a chef in the kitchen. She can look at what she's doing. And she always, you know, she always watched Julia child.

So I remember just, like, sitting next to her and just being engaged and whatever, you know, is on tv. And I remember Julia making some kind of ice cream, and I'm like, I can make that ice cream, you know, like, eight years old. What do you need? I'm trying to jot down whatever I listen to on tv, and it's like, eggs, milk, sugar. Of course, korean household, we don't have heavy whipping cream.

So I just used what we did have and put it in a metal bowl, put it in the freezer, went and checked on it, you know, every 20 minutes, and it ended up coming out as just a block of ice and an egg yolk in the middle. That's what it looked like. Milky block of ice with egg in the middle. So that was my first epic fail. But I was so excited, so excited to, like, execute whatever I had seen.

Hannes Hetji
What was the feedback that the family gave you? Oh, well, first of all, what are you doing with the ingredients? You're creating a mess, and I don't know if this is going to turn out for you. Like, it was always, like, you know, you're doing outside of what you're. You know, you're not supposed to be in the kitchen doing this right now.

Anastasia Riva
You're eight years old. You're making a mess. You're just creating chaos in the kitchen. I just felt like I failed constantly. So what kept you motivated to keep failing?

Keep failing? Well, failure is very painful. We don't want to keep failing. But I've gotten to a stage where I look at failure as, oh, I feel myself getting into this space again where I feel like I'm going to fail, but I'm going to look at it as well. What happens when I usually fail?

In the past, something like so expansive comes from it. Every lesson, every journey comes, like, I learned so much more from my failures. Right. So it's not so scary, but getting to that point has been a long journey. I felt quite a bit.

I failed my parents with not going to dental school. I failed my parents of not going to college, you know, straight and narrow way. And because I knew it wasn't my calling from. From the very beginning, since I was young, I've always had this connection with food. It's always been there.

It's never disappeared. And I've never gone to culinary school. My parents probably wouldn't spend that money to send me to culinary school because they would be like, we're paying money for you to go be a cook. They're like, the ROI on this doesn't turn around. Like, there's no return on cooking.

Yeah. What do you get? What's the most, the best situation scenario you could be? Cook for someone. Cook for a restaurant.

You're gonna be married to your restaurant. You know, you're not gonna have a life, you know? Of course, my brother's. My brother is prosthetics and orthotics. Right.

My other brother is in business finance. They all went to college. They all got funded by my parents. They don't have any student debt, but, yeah, black sheep me did not go the straight and narrow path that my parents thought that I should go on. Do you sometimes speak about that with your brothers and how they feel about going that route?

Hannes Hetji
Or maybe there's something that they not, did not pursue in terms of the passion that you pursued. Well, so they've always said they're like, sis, you know, we look up to you. You're like superwoman. Like, you always have, like, a dream or a vision, or when you are into something, you're 100% in. Like, you're never half in half.

Anastasia Riva
Like, you. You are sold on yourself getting to where you want to go, and you've never not gotten to that point. Like, there's never been a challenge that you didn't, like, climb over and get to, or, you know, pitfall after pitfall, but somehow you just, like, you get there. And we had this conversation years back, and I said, you really look up to me. Like, me, the one that didn't, like, follow parents route, and they're like, we only wish we had the courage to go against our parents, you know, and just, you know, no fear of just, like, failing.

No fear of, like, not listening to your traditional korean parents that day. You need, you must go to college, and you must live life this way to succeed and create a future for you. Right. The interesting thing there is that it's just an extension of what they think success is defined as. And that's where we get to either comply or we can kind of zoom out and make sense of what a success look to us as an individual.

Or, mind you, I don't know what success looked like. I just know. For me? Yeah, for you. How do.

Hannes Hetji
How do you define it? For you? I have to be completely happy at what I'm doing 100%. If I have to work eight to 16 hours doing something every day, all day, I better love what I do because, I mean, I'm just the person. If I don't like something, it is written all over my face.

Anastasia Riva
There's no. I don't have a resting bitch face. Like, you will know if I am upset. And it's just I'm not going to last very long but not go to say that there's been times where I've had, I mean, challenging lessons to get to where I am now, where I'm not struggling, but, like, not happy because I want to get to z, but I'm at not eck, I'm at c. You know, it's like all the.

All the little steps to get to the whole entire Alphabet, right? It's like, I don't realize that I'm only at letter c. I have, like, so many letters to get to till I get to z, right? But I'm just, like, in my mind, like, oh, struggling. I don't want to do this.

Getting up at 430 in the morning, being in the kitchen by six, working by two, you know, it's like. And I'm a single mom, so I've had kids since I was 19, so I've always had kids a part of my life, so I have to structure in and manage single mommy life. And this dream that I held so close, you know, and. But the thing is, my dream or vision was never clear. The only thing that was clear is that I wanted to play with food.

Hannes Hetji
And then, you know, we were told to not play with food. Your parents didn't tell you not to play with food? So when I first started getting excited about really, like, diving into recipes was playing with food and specifically raw vegan food. How do I make this dish with these ingredients? How do I make it mimic this with the textures and, you know, with all vegetables and only being able to cook, what, 105 degrees, dehydrated, it was just like, kitchen is your science lab.

Anastasia Riva
Here are your ingredients. Do as you will. Right? So, so much fun for me. Share this a little bit with us.

Hannes Hetji
Why were you so much into the raw part of it? And, like, maybe you can also elaborate why the benefits or what got you into it. So in theory, we'll just say in theory, right? There's no really science based evidence. So my roommate at the time, my girlfriend tiara, she was, like, way more advanced than me in terms of, like, tuning in with your body, what you can do holistically.

Anastasia Riva
And so she had said, oh, I'm gonna go on this raw vegan diet. She's like, it's all, it's all vegetables that's not cooked. So essentially, I'm just thinking, she's gonna be a rabbit. She's gonna eat raw vegetables for, you know, and she was always going on through these, like, diet fads all the time, right? And she had taken me to a restaurant, and, you know, it's quite expensive for just a bowl of roughage, right?

But I distinctly remember that first meal that I had there. I felt so nauseous after I had that bowl of salad, because it had. Your raw food is not your regular bowl of salad. Let me just say that it's very nutrient dense. It looks like a regular salad, but beyond that, you don't know how it's actually, like, all the stuff that's in it.

And so with raw vegan food, you have to think nothing is cooked over 105 degrees. So essentially, you're saying the vegetables are outside in 105 degrees for hours, like 24, 48 hours at a time cooking in the sun, right? So in theory, we're thinking the enzymes are kept intact. Nothing's cooked off by really, really high heat intensity heat. So when you eat the vegetables and grains and seeds, nuts and seeds, everything is in its whole state nutrient dense.

So when you eat it, you're fully engaging your body with all the enzymes and all the good stuff that it's supposed to give you. So I got super nauseous that day, like, really just not doing well. And she goes, you're having a reaction because you're either detoxing toxins, pushing whatever toxins in your system. So I'm pretty sure it was alcohol back then in my twenties. So pushing whatever toxins out of my system, I'm like, that doesn't make me feel good.

I don't want to eat that again. But I did try it several times after and what I found out is I didn't have the same reaction consciously going into it, you know, thereafter. And it actually did give me boosted energy, you know, no foggy brain, no phlegminess. I mean, it no anti inflammatory. You know, it, like, reduces inflammation in your system.

So a lot of benefits, actually. The interesting thing is, I think the. This getting to know our body is a real journey. Like, initially, at least for me, when I was in the kitchen, I would eat just about anything and anytime, you know, and I would have a pizza after work at night and then go to bed and, like, just the worst. Took me a little while to understand that if I eat a certain way, I can feel different.

Hannes Hetji
But the thing is the connecting your body. Yeah. And then also just kind of tuning in over a long period of time. Like, I started fasting. That's when I really realized, starting from kind of zero resetting the system.

What good can feel like if you allow yourself to get to a certain point? Like, sometimes I would think I'm good, but if I think about what good means now, today, it's a very different good than it was 15 years ago. Well, 15 years ago, you didn't connect with your body. Oh, no, no. I was.

Anastasia Riva
How you're feeling also, like, growing up, I was raised in a korean family where literally. So my parents would go to Korea. We. My parents did a travel agency growing up, so they travel all around the world all the time. But particularly when they go to create a visit, they'd always come back with some kind of new gadget.

So it was like, I think I was, like, ten years old. And they bring home this big angel juicer, which is essentially like an omega juicer. And it's metal. It's all metal. It's got to be, like 20 pounds, not 15.

It's all metal. It's really heavy. And this is when, like, the first line of juicers came out, you know, heavy parts, all metal, clunky, and they would bring, like, certain, uh. Oh, yeah. Oh, it came.

That's exactly it. I think it's a newer version. Yeah, it looks like a pretty new version, but it's just an image. Yeah, yeah, that's like a newer version. I mean, it looked way clunkier than that, but that's more sleek, modernized version.

Think about 1990s. More like a meat grinder. No, it does look like a meat grinder. So. And then he would, like, bring, like, they called it compri, which I don't.

I don't. It's some kind of herb plant. That you could plant outside. So he'd bring the plant with the roots and plant it out in our backyard. And we live in Seattle, wash.

They live in Seattle, Washington. And he brought this, and he was juicing it, right? He'd grow it, and then we juice. I just distinctly remember him bringing things and juicing things. Juicing was a big thing.

So they would make this green juice, and I would just be like, eh, you know, just making all these vegetables into liquid, and we're supposed to drink it. So that's, like, my first memory, but I remember them, you know, them instilling in me, this is healthy for you. This is what helps you from the inside out. Like, this is. This is medicine.

When I'm first starting to understand, food is, like, medicine, right? Food is medicine. So such an early age, I was, like, always introduced to food as it. It's a key feature in terms of, like, how our health goes. You eat crap, you're gonna feel like crap.

You know, you put bad stuff in your body, it's gonna come out bad. You know, it was always, like, food related or if we were sick, grandma's, like, making up some kind of herbal concoction, you know? So it was never like, we just need to go to the doctors. It was always home remedies. First was our go to.

And so growing up, I think I just got that mindset. Like, there's got to be a different remedy besides just, like, going to the doctor and putting a mask on it, you know, band aid. Yeah. And then oftentimes, it's those habits that are the underlying driver of the condition. It's like, okay, maybe if you trust that you get further, like, I'll give an example.

Hannes Hetji
I used to have this really bad diet, and I used to drink on top, and I have the stress in the kitchen, and I would just use those omeprasol. Pantoprasol to kind of settle the stomach. And instead of actually turning towards the issue, I just like, okay, what is the next pill that I can take to suppress the symptoms? Right. You need to drink cabbage juice.

Anastasia Riva
Drink green cabbage juice. I think first I had to stop drinking a bit more eventually. Cabbage juice. Oh, yeah. You need activated charcoal, then cabbage juice.

Hannes Hetji
Yeah. So then connecting food again with health. So, in my twenties, I'm learning about raw vegan food, right? Little did I know that interest was going to lead me a set of clients that were on their health journey. And very specifically, I had a client find me through the Internet, and they're in a health crisis.

Anastasia Riva
Basically, the client had had two heart attacks in three months. And they're like, we need to stop eating at. His favorite restaurant is boa Steakhouse in Santa Monica. So doctor's like, you can't eat at steakhouses every single day. Now.

He's like, but that creamed spinach and filet, creamed corn, all the fat. But imagine eating that every day with wine and cheese and crackers, right? Yeah, it got to him. And they were basically reaching out to me in terms of, we need to hire you. We need clean and green foods, you know, please come help.

So started with them, they had a panel of, you know, blood work done before. And then after a month of me helping them, they had panel of work done again, and the numbers came out so expansive, like, good. Yep. So they started connecting food as the outcome of the solution. Right.

So moving forward. So I had been working with them, then they found this amazing cardio like, holistic cardiologist center in Houston, and they left for six weeks to get into some program. And lo and behold, guess what their doctor put him on.

So he stepped into the facility with eight medications under his belt that he had to take on a daily. At the end of six weeks on six week raw vegan diet before coming back to California, he was literally sent back with only having to take three medications out of eight. And so, you know, they had tuned me in on what was going on throughout the weeks, and they said, can you make raw vegan food? Or they said, we're on this raw vegan diet. I wonder how we can incorporate this so we don't fall behind, so we can just continue on coming back home.

And I said, well, lucky are you guys, huh? That's how the whole journey started off with me doing raw vegan, because I was just having so much fun with it. Never did I know that 20 years later that I would actually be able to step into that role that I love so much fully. The interesting part here is that, you know, these clients are so, as much as we would like to live that passion, which for you was raw vegan food, and kind of explore that they really needed somebody who is as passionate about it. And so sometimes when I look at this world of private chefs, and if you were really into some kind of diet for yourself and you're exploring it, there might be an individual who really wants this, too.

Hannes Hetji
And it's. And this can be like a match made in heaven. Like, there are sometimes I've had personal interests which really carried into my positions, and the person was so appreciative because it was not just another chef who had a Michelin star background, but somebody who went down the rabbit hole himself. It's very true. But on the flip side, you would never, when you're going through this process of learning in your journey, right, getting to where you want to go, but you don't know where you're going.

Sorry for the interruption. We will be right back. And if you're a chef thinking about venturing into the private chef space, this is for you. We coach you on how to set yourself up for success from resume to first interactions with your clients, as well as succeeding at the job. Our one on one coaching got you covered.

Go to www. Dot privatechef, dot Cc and connect with me. Decades of experience can be your support to seize the next private chef opportunity. You never really realize this thing that I was so passionate about doing all happened because in my future timeline as a chef, I'm going to come across these clients that really need my help and I'm going to, like, bring so much light into their world. You know, like, oh my goodness, you can cook raw vegan?

Anastasia Riva
Well, not cook, but make raw vegan food. Not only that, it's just not regular raw vegan. It's, oh, I should have sent you photos. Like, it's gourmet raw vegan. Yeah.

And it's not like slapping a bunch of vegetables together, right? It's pretty exciting to me. Like, I get excited just thinking about it. And raw vegan food doesn't have to be boring. It's all about technique and preparation.

But on the flip side, just realizing you create something that's actually bringing awareness to their health, you know, and changing their life. I think many, many folks are. Again, it's like, where are they in the journey of health? Like, sometimes I find it very interesting when I work with principals and I know I can help them, but at the same time, I know their pain isn't yet great enough to actually make a change. And, like, once you have two heart attacks, I think it's written on the wall, but interesting enough even there, there's people who are just like, yeah, okay, fine, I see the writing on the wall, but I just want to live the way I'm used to.

Unfortunately, like, even a heart attack, most people probably won't even, like, wake up to it. You know, they won't even think food is going to be the solution. They're just going to constantly look towards the medical field. And the thing that was, like, quite striking with my clients is the cardiologist that they were seeing in California said, your only answer is you need a heart transplant. The only fix is for you to get a new heart.

So you go from, I need a new heart to, okay, I'm going to step away from the traditional way of, like, addressing this. Step out of my awareness of, like, this is what you should be doing, and say, maybe I'm gonna entertain this alternative. And to realize that no heart transplant was not the only alternative. Right. I mean, thank goodness they took that leap of faith.

Hannes Hetji
Imagine how wild that they would literally open your. Opt for a heart surgery. I mean, the complications of that, the cost of that, it's just like mind boggling. Alternatively, you can literally just change your lifestyle and, and at least to some degree, reverse and rejuvenate 100%. We're not taught that way from an early.

Anastasia Riva
Since early on as children. Yeah. Our connection, I think there is, like, no education on food and health. See, earlier you mentioned that in career or in your family, it was also looked at as medicine. And that's, that's definitely nothing that is western culture like I'm from.

No, it's not. And to some degree, my grandpa had a. I think he had a better connection with food than us in that regard. But for the, for the biggest part, people look towards food as entertainment. They use it to get over certain emotions or induce certain emotions.

Right. You know, it's, it's, it's rarely about like, okay, I'm literally building this body, and I can do something great for this body or can screw this body. And I think what also, what isn't as obvious in Ishni is the connection between what is going on in our gut and what is going on in our brain. Like, the kind of mental implications of having a bad diet. Well, I've always compared it to.

You have a turbo engine. What kind of gas do you want to put in your turbo engine? 90. What is that? 91, right.

Hannes Hetji
Well, 93 if you have real 93. Right. Turbo. We have this turbo engine, but we keep on putting the 80, 87, 89, it's your age, is not going to perform to its optimum capacity. But again, it's because we're using it for entertainment.

And the interesting thing is, once people get really wealthy, some like to indulge, and then others might have a health risk, and they're looking at the options. Some get treated, others not. But I've seen a lot more wealthy people become extremely health conscious, because once, once you're rich and you start enjoying life, what is the next thing you want to solve for? Is longevity. You want.

You want to expand as long as you can. You want to enjoy as long as you can. And then if you. If you look at, there's robust science that, like, eat better, move your body, you will have a better life and then be happy and marry, you know, if you have, like, there's literally ten years of lifespan in having healthy relationships. Right.

Anastasia Riva
Very important. Yeah. With my client, once again, it's like, I don't think everyone realizes they need to look to health for longevity of life. And in a situation where they're wealthy, it's like, yeah, they like to overindulge until there's, like, a health scare. It's usually some kind of health scare that, like, is the catalyst to their.

Hannes Hetji
Change, unfortunately, because otherwise, it's business as usual. No, if, and as you said, there are some people, like myself, father in law, who had a heart attack, and he's not willing to make changes. So then you're like, okay. You're eating the same kind of fried food, the same kind of. Yeah.

Stuff. I'm like, okay, that unfortunate reality is that has a certain outcome. Right. That's very scary. Yeah.

But then those are people choices. You know, it's. They think they're making the right choice for whatever their experience of life. Well, I also feel like they haven't. It didn't scare them enough.

Anastasia Riva
You know, everyone's baseline is different. Right. Yeah. How does your family feel about now that there is, like, a bigger picture? Like, you know, there's actually also real money involved in having.

Hannes Hetji
Having the ability to be a private chef. How do they feel about it now that from originally, like, there is no money in cooking, and this doesn't make any sense to. I actually work with some of the wealthiest people in the world, and I turn around the health, which is actually. Yes, it's always been. And, you know, I've never gone to culinary school.

Anastasia Riva
I've just always hold this vision of, I'm going to work for someone that's going to need me, and I'm going to. It's going. I'm going to love what I do, and it's going to be someone of importance. Not importance to me, but someone that's going to be noticed or the word known celebrity. What do you want?

Whatever you want to call, put a name, whatever. So I lived in Malibu for ten years, and I didn't know how things were going to transpire in terms of. Because I was. I had my third child, I was staying at home. My ex husband did a medical marijuana company.

So I was the in house baker, so I, you know, I did in house baking for the company, so I didn't know how the private chef thing was gonna all unravel or how it was ever gonna actually come into play. So it was like my daughter had ballet with one of the girls, and the girl's father was a retired NBA basketball player, so. And I was good friends with the mom, and so she had invited us over, and she lived right behind us. She had invited us over to have her daughter's birthday party, and they also love raw vegan food, so I've given them raw vegan dishes, and, you know, have been over at their house quite a bit. At that birthday party, they introduced me to my first long term client.

Little did I know, because she was like, hey, anastasia, I want you to meet my friends. You know, we've been friends with them since they were really young. I think, right when they got into NBA, Michelle's looking for a chef. You should trial with them, you know? And I ended up being with them for, like, eight, nine years.

Hannes Hetji
Yep. And little did I know, even going into that, that was also gonna be all geared towards healthy. So I think when I first started with her, she had. She had. She had just had her third child, and then she, you know, over the years, she got pregnant again, had her fourth.

Anastasia Riva
So each child had different restrictions. Like, we had the two older that were just, you know, regular, and then we had middle child that, you know, needed vegan. And then, you know, the youngest was allergic to everything. Like, everything. You name it, he was allergic to it.

So we really had to navigate so carefully since he was little, like, baby, just eating his first foods, having allergic. Allergic reactions. And so I think now he's, like, eight, nine years old, and they had moved out. They don't live in California anymore. So when they came back to visit, they're like, can you make us x, y, and z dishes?

You know, he would love to eat those dishes again because he's gotten so used to it. But I was making, like, 14 meals a day, four different dietary restrictions for many, many, many years. But all those years was like, training for what we're to step into. Yeah. Every experience, every client was like, stepping stone to where you're gonna go.

Stepping stone to where you need to go. Yeah, that's. That's the interesting part of the journey. Like, you can't connect it, and sometimes you pick up stuff that you think doesn't fit there. Like, but then somehow it fits there.

Hannes Hetji
Like, I used to do a bunch of nutrition work for one of my early clients. And initially it was, I really didn't embrace it to be, but then eventually, it really gave me a sense of recipes and nutrition values, and now it became second nature in a way where it really helps me help other chefs make sense of it. Yeah, I think it's starting to slowly become mainstreamed. Like, more awareness around food and its effects, the good and the bad. But, yeah, it's slowly, just like, every client that I've been approached with, and it's always been, you know, word of mouth has always lead me into, like, the next chapter of what you're going to learn.

Anastasia Riva
It never stops. The learning never stops, by the way, you never, I'm still going to z. I haven't gotten to z yet, you know, but, yeah, this journey, just getting to where I am has been just, like, one lesson after another. I never. Oh, I didn't even actually incorporate how I even got to the clients that I've gotten.

Like, how. So when I applied for Blizzard, right, I didn't know where to begin, so of course I was like, oh, let me make a LinkedIn account. Yep. So, 2019. I make a LinkedIn account and, you know, write up my resume on there.

So, remember, I made up a LinkedIn account. I got an email when he. Yeah, it was right before the new year. Got an email from a gal on LinkedIn, and she. She actually was the one that opened me up to this 1% niche market.

She goes, hi, my name is blah blah blah. You know, I come across your profile, I think you'd be a great fit for my x, y, and z client. And first thing I said was like, hi, how are you? May I ask how you have you found me? Because I'm, at this point, I have not done any kind of Internet marketing or connection networking.

Nada. So now when we talk about connections again, right, give it your all. Me making my resume account on LinkedIn in 2019, and it was like, basic. Remember I told you I didn't even know what to put on my resume? Yeah, right.

It's basic. That resume came in front of a person that saw the value in what I did and contacted me close to 2024 years later. That resume that I thought was just a crappy old resume. I just need to put something out there so I can get my foot through the door so I can get into a commercial kitchen. Never would I have known, would I get to the position.

So she said, I have a tech giant who's moving to Laguna, and he is looking for something like, you? Yeah. I'm like, wow, this is exciting, because also during that time, I had two clients that have moved away, out of state, actually. So for me, who does private? Two privates is my whole income.

Hannes Hetji
Yeah. Although I had known for, you know, a year in advance, it's still like, oh, my goodness. I need to make shifts and changes. And I was at a time in my life where the word of mouth wasn't happening. It was an instant.

Anastasia Riva
It wasn't, you know, something wasn't happening. So I was like, I was grateful for this, but here's the catch. Never have I worked with a recruiter. She was a recruiter. They sent my profile to the client.

Client approved. They wanted to have me schedule for, you know, one, two interviews before your trial date. They went radio silent. Radio silent. Nothing came of anything.

Nothing. And I'm just like, it's like, I felt like I was breadcrumb. You gave me a piece of candy. I want the whole bar, you know? Like, what happened?

Like, is this. Is this what happens? This is the process. And then she went on to say, well, you were the perfect candidate, but things can go like this. It's not your fault.

It's not their fault. It's just what is. And so that was my first hit. But that was a catalyst for me to like, oh, there's a whole nother market. Like, I didn't even know this other world existed.

Of course the 1% need chefs. Of course they want their own private chefs, right? Yeah. And so that made me improve my resume. Like, make it so perfect.

I spent. Actually spent months on it, perfected it, put it on LinkedIn, linked everything. Then I started realizing, oh, there's agencies. Not just recruiters. There's actual agencies, housing agencies.

So then I found this one agency, and they're like, oh, how did you come across. I mean, it's a older, established agency. Like, I think they have enough clientele or candidates. It's like, oh, how did you find us? Right?

Like, I came across some job posting, found them, called them, and I was applying for a position, and they go, oh, well, this position has actually been filled. But reviewing your resume, we actually think you're a great fit for this other position where they just trialed with the chef. And I don't. They didn't think the chef was going to stick. So they're like, let me streamline your application into them and get it in front of them, because we need to fill this empty space with more candidates.

So I said, okay, they sent in my application. They approved it. And then it went fast on their end, they said, yeah, it looks good. Let's have a formal interview. They already had an in house chef, but they wanted to split.

They needed to. So I had the interview with the estate manager. I had the interview with the in house chef. Everything went great. Great rapport, great.

We're very good at communicating. And then they set a date for my trial. So we went. I went for my trial date, and everything was fine. Everything was great.

But I didn't get the position. And there was no negative feedback.

Hannes Hetji
Welcome to the world of private shipping. So I said, is there any kind of feedback? So at least I can learn from this and, like, you know, take it with me, right? They're like, we love you. You know, obviously, talking to the management, right.

Anastasia Riva
Food was great, but this is what happened. They had received a referral from friends and family, and before they decided to say they wanted to trial with them. So then I'm like, okay, no negative feedback. Everything's great. I was visioning working there, right?

Hannes Hetji
Yeah. Dream blown up again. But this one was really hard on me because I felt like this one, I actually seeked it. Like, I did the work. Yeah, I found it.

Anastasia Riva
I seeked it. I. No one came and presented it to me, and I felt like it just got taken away again. I felt like, the bridge is burned again. How am I going to build this thing up?

And I was very, very. It wasn't good. Not in a good headspace at this point. I haven't been working for six months, and I'm like, I need to get work. So my best friend, who I've known for 20 some years, she is an interior designer for the 1%.

And so apparent something happened with one of the clients chefs. She's in house, so she knows everything that's going on. So she had presented, hey, my best friend's a chef. If you guys are needing someone right now, let me get. Let me get her cv in front of you.

That evening, it was a Sunday evening. She was anastasia. Send me your cv now. Like, just send it. I'm like, huh?

Just send, send me it. I sent it. This is Sunday. I get a phone call on Thursday for an interview. And I had forgotten that I had already met this property manager before.

Actually, Sarah had gotten invited to one of the events, and I had came with her. So I had met some of the people and I said, oh, okay. I remember speaking with you. And, you know, he proceeds with the interview. Everything goes great.

He goes, so how soon do you think you may be able to start, I guess. I guess soon, you know, get back with me with some dates and, you know, I'll get back to you. We hang up. He calls me back. I think it was at this point.

Okay, so interview was at three. We're done at 330. He calls back at 04:00 p.m. can you come in now? What?

Can you come in now? Our chef has gone rogue. I'm like, come in now. I'm in Venice right now. To get to Beverly Hills will be thick of traffic, but I'm like, okay, you want me to come?

Hannes Hetji
Yes. We need you now. Our schedule is. They need to have dinner pushed up by 07:00 p.m. that is our schedule for today.

Anastasia Riva
So my partner, he does reality tv, and he's done a lot of chef reality. He's like, oh, my goodness. I feel like we're on an episode of Top Chef truly. You should have just popped up the camera, like, now we gotta rush to Beverly Hills here, get dinner out by seven. So I am in the car driving, and at this point, they're sending me the preferred list.

Right. Food list. I have to go through the list. I'm, like, driving, trying to read the email on my phone doc while I'm driving, and I'm looking at the preferred list. So I'm thinking my mind, okay, I know the ingredients, yes and no's.

What am I gonna make? What am I gonna make? Gonna make chicken marsala. Okay, chicken marsala. We're gonna make chicken marsala.

They're like, just make anything that you can make from the, you know, out of the ingredients. You in the fridge? Yeah, or yeah. Yep. So good.

Go to the property, open the fridge. Most of everything is there. Order some things on Instacart. Have it delivered. By now, it's already 445.

I get there nearly five. Our instacart order, I think, got to the house at, like, almost 650 or 550. I mean, you know, it's an hour. Obviously. I'm prepping everything else.

Pushed it out by, like, 710. And that's only because he wasn't ready. Not because I wasn't ready. You know, things change by the minute in those situations. So let me ask you one question.

Hannes Hetji
Did the principal know what was going on? No. I mean, could you imagine if the cameras were on me? Very high intensity. That happened within an hour and a half.

Yeah. I was just wondering because, you know, it could, for example, be that the principal has no idea what's going on. And then on top, it was like, what is, what am I eating here? This what we usually eat and give you negative feedback. Meanwhile, you've been throwing your.

Your weight and your life around for 3 hours to try to make it happen. Yeah. So pushed the food out, and the girlfriend had said, I want whatever he's eating. Can you ask chef to make more? And so they run back.

Anastasia Riva
The butler comes back. He's like, we need more marsala. She wants the marsala. I'm like, huh? Okay, whip it up.

Hannes Hetji
Oh, yeah. Send it back out. And then they finished up, and all the plates come rolling in, and I'm like, yes. Clean plate club. Nothing left.

Anastasia Riva
And so I guess that was my interview, my trial. And as the story goes, it's like the estate manager had a meeting with me after, and he goes, how did you know his favorite dish was chicken marsala? I had no idea. I'll just say divine guidance. I have no idea.

Somebody whispered in my ear, you're making chicken marsala while I was driving. Nailed it. Sometimes you get lucky. Yeah. And so here we are.

I got the job, but not the traditional route. No recruiter, no agency, no background check, none of it. I was just submerged in. And this. This is why I love these episodes, too.

Hannes Hetji
It's because there is. Yes, there is a traditional way, and there is none. Like, there are so many stories where people like, this is how it went. And, you know, suddenly I was a chef, and I love this. Like, I love this, like, the way this went down.

It's when preparation meets luck. You know, you were ready. You knew what we were doing for whatever reason. You knew what to cook in that moment, and. Yeah, for whatever reason.

Anastasia Riva
And I. You know, I was so upset about not getting the. The previous job position. I was so very, very upset. I mean, I think I was, like, downtime six weeks.

But in hindsight, if I had told myself, the client that you're waiting for is on his way, he's gonna be worth three times more than the previous client that you've been crying over. You never know. You just. We can't be hung up. We never know what is in store for us.

We just don't know. Yeah. And sometimes we, like, hold on to something that's not worthwhile holding on to. And then attachment. Yes.

Hannes Hetji
Gotta let that go for something better to happen. Yeah. And I think the reason why I had stepped into that house to see it was almost like, this is how this household runs. And then it's like, but this is the household you can be at, because the way that both houses, all households run differently. Yeah.

Anastasia Riva
But that particular household was very, very. By the second, lunch served at 115. You know, then they're on block schedule, pop up, and you don't even get to see the principals. Well, you see the principals, you don't speak to them. Yeah.

You know, you need to go back into the kitchen. Yeah, I don't think they had a butler, because I was doing. Yeah. So you need to go back into the kitchen, because after every meal, they will be doing written reviews for the meal. One.

Yeah, for the one. The job I didn't get right before. Yeah. Like, have paper reviews or feedback. It was just too, um.

How do you. Stuffy. I don't know. Yeah. And then I got into the energy of, you know, the current position where it's, like, such teamwork.

Like, the principals did not know what was going on behind the scenes until after they had finished. You know, it was like, oh. And then they came. They came down and said, oh, hi, nice to meet you. Thank you for.

Thank you for showing up. And this is where I find it so important that. That the principals eventually know what happened. Like, yes, ideally, in our world, we want to keep everything in a way where it doesn't touch them because they have bigger things to work. But I think for the degree of showing appreciation, they will need to know, because otherwise they will never reward people that go the extra mile, which is, to some degree, it's expected of us.

Hannes Hetji
But I think it still makes a very good relationship overall and work environment, if the principle is filled in and can show appreciation for something like that. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, that's been my. Wow. Ride of a journey, but I have to say, such, where I'm at now, just great team cohesiveness and the energy of the environment is very uplifting.

So who would you say creates that environment? Is this something that comes from the team? Is it something the principles allow to unfold? Where does it come from? Yeah, I believe, first of all, it does start from the principles and how they engage with the household.

Anastasia Riva
I would say he treats his staffing with care, like concern, care. And in return, we, as their staff, put a lot of care towards our work. It's just a domino effect. And everyone, I mean, it's a communication thing. And on top of that, like our boss, like executive management, they're really good at communicating and buffering everyone, you know, but it's all a team effort.

There's so much more psychology to the position of work than the work itself. Now, you pick me up on one of my favorite lines here. I keep saying for years now that the private household is more psychological warfare, while the commercial kitchen is like actual warfare, you know, and you go from kind of the physical to the mental. Yeah, it's a lot of mental. Well, there's.

Hannes Hetji
There's emotional intelligence. There's anticipation. There's. You just have to be tuned in more. Like, you can't just, like, throw out orders and stuff and.

Anastasia Riva
No, it's. It's just different. You have to know when to speak, when not to speak, when to step into a room, when not to step into a room. You know, there's so much more nuance to this. No, there is.

And quite honestly, with this, with any work position, if we can have some kind of a psychology one on one before stuff, it would help so much. It really would. Because we all have different learning styles and we look at life all differently. Right. You know, there's some jobs that match based on psychology tests.

Hannes Hetji
I've been interviewed with complete, like, psychology tests that are like, an hour long before I was even in the actual interview process, which is great. And then there's some other kind of. Some families use a psychological matchmaker and try to see, like, a coach, you know, whether it's. This person is a good fit for the overall environment that they want to have. And so there's different.

Different ways to go about that. Yeah, I think it would be very helpful. Right? Yeah, I guess it also depends, like, how. How much do they care?

Like, see, sometimes the energy comes top down from the principles, and they themselves don't know what healthy looks like. So what they're, what they're creating is not necessarily a structure or an organization that serves the larger well being of everybody in the household. And then there's other people who are very tuned into that. Yeah. Personal preferences, for sure.

I'll touch up on that quickly. Years ago, I put my resume on estategobs.com. Oh, I. Oh, my goodness. Talk about estatejobs.com.

But then one of my principals, estate managers, chief of staff, found me there, and they flew me to Florida where they were and everything. And. And I was just, like, amazed in the same way that you were, because before that, I got my jobs differently. Like, I would have never thought this is an extremely well known family. I would have never thought that their estate manager would find me there.

And it speaks to having these seats floating in the Internet. It speaks to having a LinkedIn presence. It speaks to having your resume on the pages where it matters. It speaks to being in the kind of, in the catalog of agencies, like, every individual point is a, is a seed that you're planting and some will grow and others won't, you know? Right.

Anastasia Riva
Yeah. I mean, I would have been ever so lucky if I got a response from one of my estatejobs.com application. I mean, there's a time when I was just like in the dark abyss of just sending in, resume, getting on. I mean, one thing is, I never stopped quitting. I kept on pushing.

Hannes Hetji
Yeah. And that's, this is so important. This is so important where, like, sometimes I get a little bit almost upset with people. Like, I forward jobs on LinkedIn all the time to just keep them floating in the communities because people want work, need work. Like, just take a look because I have a little bit of reach.

But then there's people who literally just go, interested in the comments. Really? You think you'll get one of the highest paid chef positions in the United States by saying interested on the bottom right. Takes a little bit more effort than that. Like, it takes what you're doing, you know, putting yourself out there, going to events, meeting people, being available when it counts, you know, and then pursuing, pursuing, pursuing.

Anastasia Riva
Right. Just don't give up. Every setback is a leap forward. Yeah. But it takes that effort and faith at the same time.

Hannes Hetji
Like, you, you gotta kind of, you gotta have the goal in mind some degree. Like, yeah, I will, I will work for a client. I don't know what that exact client. You gotta clarify it for yourself and then you just gotta put a lot of effort behind it. And, like, I think people are kind of delusional about the timeline that it might happen in.

They, maybe they want to come from the commercial kitchen and go into private, and I think it just happens within two to four weeks. And the reality is most interview processes are not like that. Like, and, oh, you're saying most people will think that that process can be two to four weeks before. Yeah. They for themselves think that because they haven't really considered that this might be a six to twelve months transition for them.

Anastasia Riva
It is. I mean, I remember my thing was all word of mouth. Yeah. So when I had to actually actively try, I was like, oh, my gosh, it's six months. Like, I don't have income coming in for six months.

Whereas my partner was like, um, do you know that's normal? Like, it's normal. I'm like, it is. Yes. It could take anywhere three to six, nine months.

I mean, for you to find the right match. Like, you have to put your, you. He goes, this, he supported me. In a lot of ways. Yeah.

Have to put yourself out there. Yep. Get uncomfortable. Get on the calls. Get on there.

You have to put yourself out there. How else are you gonna get out there? Yeah. And the reality is you won't. Like if you sit at home and you don't put yourself out there in one way or another, it's not going to happen.

Yeah. Keep on pushing. You never know how your story is going to end up. Well, thank you so much. Where can people connect with you?

Hannes Hetji
Find out more about your journey or. Just, well, you can connect with me at eat wellbewellchef.com and I think that's it. Have anything more? That's a good place to start? Well, you do have a LinkedIn account.

Anastasia Riva
Yes, that's right. Which you rarely use. Yeah, I do have my LinkedIn account. This has been very well rounded and interesting. And then I love, again, this is a non traditional way.

Hannes Hetji
You know, I like to emphasize that not everybody comes out of a Michelin Stark. Not everybody. There is so many different angles into this industry, but one that I've seen kind of being very consistent is somebody with deep passion who cares for something, can definitely get the foot in the door and through the sheer amount of involvement and passion, thrive. Yeah, I'm a testament you can do it. Thank you for joining us at the private chef podcast.

If you know any highly skilled chefs that want to take their life to to the next level, make sure to share this podcast with them. And if you enjoyed this episode, click subscribe and check out our upcoming episodes. Thank you for listening.

Anastasia Riva
You our.