Personal Chefs

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Even people without families to feed are finding the service indispensable. Richard Rodriguez, 40 and single, got tired of subsisting on fast food. Last summer he hired a chef who cooks 10 meals for him about every two weeks for $280. "I used to think a chef was too ritzy for a middle-class guy like me," he says. "But I was wrong."

Personal chefs tend to view their work as being as much about stress reduction as about food preparation. "Eating out gets fatiguing," says San Francisco-area chef Olivia Wu. "People want to be healthier. They want to go home, de-stress, cocoon and be comfortable." And some chefs are determined to improve kids' nutrition. "Some children don't even know what mashed potatoes taste like until I get there," says chef Hayward. "It kills me that French fries are their idea of what potatoes are." Still, old habits can die hard. Says Rodriguez: "Every once in a while I still succumb to a Big Mac attack."