"Some want you to be a butler and put slippers by the door," said one private chef who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. From the NDAs to the high-flying perks and special diets, some of Silicon Valley's private chefs share their experiences. When he turned to private cooking several years ago, he stepped into a different and sometimes surreal world. His business is built on a core tenet of the private-chef world, which is that people who hire private chefs often have more money than they have time. Besides their cooking skills, the most important skill in the world of private chefs is discretion.

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