The Ultimate Business Toolkit for Personal Chefs
So You Can Focus on Cooking, Not Admin Work
Here’s a question: If you had five more free hours every week, how would you use them?
Would you take on another client? Test new recipes? Actually have a day off?
For most personal chefs, those hours aren’t lost because of cooking - they disappear into client requests, rewriting menus, grocery list mistakes, and last-minute scheduling chaos.
This guide will walk you through the best tools to help you stay organized, save time, and streamline your business. At the end, I’ll show you how to simplify everything even further with one system built just for personal chefs—Cutlet.
1. Keep Client Details in One Place
A client texts you a last-minute request. Another one emails a menu change. A third client has an allergy you forgot about. Keeping track of everything across texts, emails, and handwritten notes is a recipe for mistakes.
Tools That Can Help:
Notion – A flexible workspace for tracking client preferences, cook dates, and meal requests.
Google Forms – Create a simple intake form for new clients to collect important details upfront.
Trello – A visual board to organize client requests, menus, and upcoming cook dates.
How Cutlet Makes This Easier:
Instead of piecing together tools, Cutlet keeps all client details in one place—so you never have to dig through old messages again.
2. Stop Rewriting Menus from Scratch
Every chef has go-to dishes and meal plans, yet many still rewrite new menus from scratch for every client. That’s wasted effort.
Tools That Can Help:
Paprika – A recipe manager that organizes menus and creates grocery lists automatically.
Google Docs Templates – Keep a few standardized meal plans that you can quickly modify instead of starting fresh every time.
Plan to Eat – Stores meal plans, adjusts recipes for dietary needs, and generates grocery lists.
How Cutlet Makes This Easier:
Cutlet stores, customizes, and reuses menus, so you can build meal plans in minutes instead of hours.
3. Get Ahead of Scheduling Headaches
Your calendar is packed, and then a client cancels last-minute. Another one wants to reschedule, but you’re already booked. If your schedule is a mix of texts, emails, and mental notes, things will slip through the cracks.
Tools That Can Help:
Calendly – Lets clients book available time slots without back-and-forth messaging.
Google Calendar + Zapier – Automatically adds bookings and sends reminders.
Acuity Scheduling – Allows you to set cancellation policies and require deposits upfront.
How Cutlet Makes This Easier:
Cutlet has its very own calendar, where you can put all of your bookings. You’ll always know where you need to be - and when.
4. Get Paid Without Chasing Invoices
If you’re still manually tracking payments or sending reminders, you’re wasting time that could be spent cooking or booking new clients.
Tools That Can Help:
Wave – A free invoicing tool that tracks payments and sends reminders.
Square Invoices – Lets clients pay via credit card and set up recurring payments.
HoneyBook – Handles contracts, deposits, and invoicing in one place.
How Cutlet Makes This Easier:
Cutlet simplifies invoices and payment tracking, so you always know who has paid—and who hasn’t—without the extra follow-ups.
5. Grocery Lists That Practically Write Themselves
Every personal chef has made an extra trip to the store because they forgot one small ingredient. If you’re still writing grocery lists manually, you’re adding extra work and extra stress to your week.
Tools That Can Help:
AnyList – A shared grocery list app that categorizes ingredients by store sections.
Paprika – Converts saved recipes into shopping lists automatically.
Out of Milk – Saves multiple lists for different clients and tracks pantry stock.
How Cutlet Makes This Easier:
Cutlet automatically generates grocery lists based on your menus, so you can shop confidently once, and minimize second trips.
The Problem With This Setup
Every tool on this list is great, but the problem is they don’t work together.
If you use Notion for client requests, Plan to Eat for meal planning, Calendly for scheduling, and Wave for invoicing, that’s four separate apps to manage your business. That’s still a lot of manual work.
Instead of linking together all these tools, you need one system built specifically for personal chefs.
That’s why we built Cutlet.
Cutlet is a single platform designed for personal chefs who want to stay organized without juggling multiple tools.
With Cutlet, you can:
Store client details, preferences, and requests in one place
Build and reuse menus instead of starting from scratch
Generate grocery lists automatically
Manage invoices and payments seamlessly
Keep your entire business organized in one system
You don’t need five different apps. You need one system built for how personal chefs actually work.
If you’re ready to simplify your business, save hours every week, and stop wasting time on admin work, sign up for early access to Cutlet today.