12 Best Side Hustles for Chefs

Earning potential: $15–$20 per hour

What it is and how it works: You can make extra cash by providing catering services to private clients, preparing food for parties, corporate events, and other gatherings.

You can focus on whatever types of events you like, although in the beginning, it might make sense to start small—providing hors d’oeuvres for small gatherings and working your way up to modest-sized weddings, for instance. If your catering business takes off, you can hire extra help and tackle larger events.

Why you should do it: This can be an exciting and varied job, and it will certainly teach you a lot of valuable skills.

What’s more, the profit margins for catering can be substantial, particularly in the corporate world. In contrast to operating a restaurant, you don’t need to provide or maintain a dining space, which will cut down on your expenses. All you have to provide is the food.

How to get started: Before doing anything else, you need to decide what kind of catering you want to offer:

• Full service: With this, you’ll handle every dining-related aspect of the event, including serving the food and cleaning it up afterward.
• Drop-off: This type of catering is less involved. You’ll produce meals and deliver them to your clients, but your involvement will end there.

In the beginning, unless you’re setting up your catering side hustle with other partners or you have the budget to hire other staff, it’s probably better to opt for drop-off catering. It isn’t practical to provide full-service catering on your own.

To find clients, reach out to local venues that host private events and ask them to pass your name around. Also, consider putting up flyers or leaving them with venue managers, and create a website and advertise your services on social media.

Earning potential: Varies

What it is and how it works: You almost certainly know what these are already. A food truck is a mobile restaurant that you run out of a truck or van, and a pop-up is a temporary restaurant that you operate from an unconventional location.

Why you should do it: Food trucks and pop-up restaurants are trendy right now, and it’s easy to see why. Opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant requires a substantial investment and has a lot of ongoing overhead expenses. In contrast, food trucks and pop-ups offer a way to strip dining down to its absolute basics.

Running a side hustle like this has several perks:

• Freedom: You can take your business anywhere. If you don’t like your current spot, you can pick another one and relocate.
• Scale: Outfits like this require much smaller teams than traditional kitchens. If you prefer, you can run your business by yourself, as a solo operation.
• Control: Food trucks and pop-ups usually feature small, focused menus, which means you can cook what you like (and only what you like).

How to get started: Let’s start with the obvious: you’ll need to get a truck or transportable kitchen equipment. Luckily, there are websites, such as Roaming Hunger, that connect food truck buyers and sellers. You can also rent kitchen equipment from catering companies.

Before you start cooking, get your documents in order. You’ll need to acquire insurance, business or vendor licenses, and food safety certificates. Contact your city or state’s Chamber of Commerce, health department, and Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to find out exactly what the requirements are in your jurisdiction.

Earning potential: $20–$40 per hour

What it is and how it works: “Meal prep” refers to making pre-made food for customers to heat up in their homes, sparing them the time and effort of cooking from scratch. Many people who are into meal prep are health-conscious, and they may have particular dietary restrictions you’ll have to follow.

Why you should do it: This is another side hustle that will give you the chance to flex your culinary skills and develop new ones. It also has low startup costs—you can cook from your own kitchen with your own equipment, so your main expenses will be ingredients and packaging. You can operate locally within your community, which means you can build your reputation.

How to get started: Working from your own kitchen still requires permits and licenses. Here again, you can contact your city or state government for more information on exactly what hoops you have to jump through.

Once you’ve filled out all the required paperwork, you need to find clients. Think about who’s likely to be into meal prep in your area and where to find them (gyms and fitness centers are great places to advertise). It may also be worth trying to partner up with a local business to supply their workforce with meals.

Earning potential: $25–$40 per hour

What it is and how it works: A private chef is someone who prepares personalized meals for their clients, who may be individuals, families, or businesses.

As a private chef, you’ll be expected to plan menus, shop for groceries, and, of course, do the actual cooking, which may be on site (i.e., in your client’s home) or in an external kitchen. If it’s the latter, you’ll need to rent a commercial kitchen—doing all the work this side hustle requires in your own kitchen isn’t realistic.

Why you should do it: This is another rewarding job for people who love to cook, and it’s generally less demanding and stressful than conventional kitchen jobs. This is also a great way to build your reputation in your neighborhood. You never know—if you dream of opening a restaurant someday, one of your clients might be a potential future investor.

That said, this isn’t the easiest gig to get, since people who are in the market for private chefs tend to be choosier than average. If you’re relatively early in your career, you might want to start as a caterer or meal prepper and try to transition to this after a few years.

How to get started: Jobs boards are your friend here. Search for openings on sites like Indeed. There are also several agencies that connect clients with private chefs, including:

• Cozymeal
• Table at Home
• Chef on Call

Earning potential: Varies

What it is and how it works: You can make your own food at home, package it, and sell it on the internet. There are two ways to do this: through your own website or an established online marketplace.

Why you should do it: If you love preparing food but need a break from the high-stress environment of a commercial kitchen, this is for you. You can work when you like, either making your product in advance or when orders come in, and you can devote yourself to whatever type of food you’re most interested in. If you’re successful, you may be able to scale your operation up into a real business.

How to get started: Etsy is a great place to begin. Although it’s mainly known as a site for DIY crafts, many users also sell baked goods, sauces, and spices.

eBay and Amazon also both allow you to sell food (with certain restrictions). Alternatively, you can create your own store with an e-commerce platform like Shopify.

Earning potential: Varies

What it is and how it works: You’ve probably been to a farmers’ market before. These are spaces where local farmers and artisans can sell their products to consumers.

As a chef, you can make and sell a wide range of foods at farmers’ markets. Baked goods, jams, marinades, and spice mixes are particularly popular at these events.

Why you should do it: This side hustle has low startup costs, since you don’t need a commercial kitchen to make your products; you can do it from home. It also has fairly high profit margins. Farmers’ markets often emphasize healthy, fresh, and organic food, and as such, consumers generally expect to pay a premium for prepared food they buy there.

This side hustle also has intangible benefits. You get to support your local economy, meet with other chefs and bakers, and be part of an enthusiastic community.

How to get started: Survey your neighborhood and find a market you want to set up shop at, then apply for a space. The market’s organizers will ask about your goods (probably including how they’re made and how you source the ingredients) and will walk you through the process of setting up your stall.

Before you begin, you’ll probably need to acquire a license to sell prepared food (if you don’t already have one).

Earning potential: Varies

What it is and how it works: If you want a culinary side hustle that will give you a break from actual commercial cooking, you can create a digital cookbook with original recipes. In the past, this would have required submitting your work to a publisher, but these days, you can self-publish and sell your book through an e-book platform.

Why you should do it: This side hustle costs absolutely nothing to set up. The only investment it requires is time. This gives you the opportunity to express yourself and explore your culinary style, and if your book does particularly well, it might even get noticed by a large publisher.

How to get started: First, figure out what kinds of recipes you want to focus on, then actually write them out. This may require a certain amount of tinkering in the kitchen.

They don’t all need to be new dishes—you can share your takes on the classics—but when you actually write up the recipes, ensure you’re putting your own spin on everything.

Once you’re done, figure out where to publish your book. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing is the most recognizable platform in this space, but be aware that Amazon will take a 30% cut of your profits.

Earning potential: Varies, often $15–$40 per hour

What it is and how it works: Making food look its absolute best is an important skill for chefs. You can lean on this expertise to become a food photographer, producing high-quality images of food for a variety of contexts, including restaurant menus and advertisements, cookbooks, and magazines.

Why you should do it: For obvious reasons, this is an ideal side hustle for chefs who are also into photography. Getting good at this will have side benefits for your primary career; you’ll get great at plating and presenting all types of dishes, and you’ll be able to draw on your photography skills if you ever need to do your own marketing for another side hustle or job.

How to get started: To do this, you’ll need a high-quality camera. There are several types of clients you can work for, ranging from the publishers of cookbooks to food-focused magazines to restaurants. Ask around and put out feelers on your personal network to find jobs. While you wait for lucrative gigs to show up, you can earn a little extra cash (and realistically, it will be just a little) by selling stock photos of food on websites like Unsplash and Shutterstock.

Earning potential: Varies depending on the popularity of your content

What it is and how it works: There are plenty of people out there who would love to learn how to cook despite currently not knowing a blancmange from a flan. There’s a lot of money to be made by teaching them how to blend, whisk and bake, and you can do it without ever leaving your own kitchen.

Why you should do it: Teaching can be enormously rewarding, and it’s relatively easy to do online. Aside from your kitchen equipment, all you need is a camera and an internet connection.

How to get started: Pick an aspect of cooking that you consider yourself particularly skilled at, then sit down and create a curriculum. It will help to do a little market research beforehand to make sure you’re not duplicating other popular courses.

There are several websites that you can use to host your virtual cooking class once you create it. The biggest name in the market is Skillshare, but you should also look into Teachable and Udemy.

Earning potential: Often $20–$30 per hour

What it is and how it works: Yes, this is a real job. A recipe developer creates and perfects new recipes for cookbooks, restaurants, food publications, and other clients. After all, someone needs to write all the new recipes that pop up every season.

Why you should do it: This is a good side hustle for the adventurous. If your favorite part of being a chef is experimenting with new ingredients and flavors, this is for you.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t usually a solo job; in many cases, recipe developers work on teams to refine their concoctions, so this is also a good gig for collaborative chefs who work well with other people.

How to get started: This is a niche role, and it won’t be the easiest of gigs to get. To get started, look for recipe testing jobs or internships on sites like Indeed and LinkedIn. Once you have a little experience under your belt, you can move into recipe development.

Your colleagues will hopefully be able to help you take your next steps. Ask around—they might know about opportunities with publications that feature food sections—and network as much as possible during your internship.

Earning potential: $15–$30 per hour

What it is and how it works: A food critic visits restaurants, eats a representative selection of their dishes, and provides a considered, reflective review of their visit.

Food critics don’t just evaluate the food; they review the entire restaurant experience, including the decor, service, and ambience. You will need an excellent palate and a deep knowledge of the restaurant scene to be able to give a genuinely useful review.

Why you should do it: Getting paid to eat out—what could be better? This is a job that allows foodies to engage in what they love most.

Moreover, your experience as a critic will make you a better chef. Doing a stint on the other side of the counter will give you an idea of what to watch out for if you ever want to run your own restaurant.

How to get started: The most important thing is to just sit down and write. If you can, write for a local publication, like your city’s newspaper or even a local zine. If there are no opportunities like that in your area, then start a blog.

The goal is to get your voice out there, improve your writing, and establish a reputation as someone who knows what they’re talking about when it comes to food. Once you’ve built up a name for yourself, you can pitch yourself to more prestigious publications.

Earning potential: Varies depending on the popularity of your content

What it is and how it works: As we just mentioned, blogging can be a stepping stone toward another side hustle, but it can also be a decent gig in and of itself. If the idea of writing about food and cooking appeals to you, why not start a food blog?

There are plenty of topics you can write about. For instance, you could:

• Post cooking tips and recipes
• Review restaurants (regardless of whether you want to become a professional critic)
• Profile local chefs, restaurant and food truck owners, and other culinary professionals
• Share stories about food-related traveling you’ve done

Why you should do it: This is one of the most flexible side hustles out there. There are no deadlines other than the ones you set for yourself. In fact, there are no rules at all—you can create whatever food-related content inspires you.

Blogging about food is a great way to show off your passion and engage with the foodie community. If your writing motivates you to improve your own cooking skills and experiment more in the kitchen, that’s even better.

Realistically, your blog probably won’t generate all that much money, but every little bit helps, and it’s hard to argue with any amount of cash from something that’s so low-stress and easy to get into.

How to get started: These days, it’s relatively simple to set up a blog. You can host it on a platform like WordPress.com, Squarespace, or Wix, all of which are user-friendly and will handle a lot of the nitty gritty web development work for you.

Once your blog is up and running, start posting. Again, you can write whatever you like, although you should feel free to check out other popular blogs in this space to get ideas.

Eventually, the time will come to monetize your blog. You can learn how to do this by exploring the links below. However, that isn’t something you need to worry about in the beginning. It will take a long time to be able to earn much money from ads or sponsorships. Plan on spending at least 6–12 months laying the groundwork and building an audience first.