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Elite Personal Chefs
Techstars '20Techstars '20Chicago, US · Founded 2020 · Delaware corporation · 12 employees on LinkedIn · 2 known investors
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Elite Personal Chefs provides restaurant-quality meal preparation and catering services delivered in clients' homes by professional chefs. The company serves families and businesses nationwide, handling shopping, cooking, serving, and cleanup for private events.
Also known as Elite Personal Chefs, Inc · EPC
Founders & leadership
Elite Personal Chefs was founded in 2020 by Austin Yancey, Jean Tomaro, and Lee Turman.
Investors · 2
How we know: the Techstars portfolio · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · Not right? Tell us
Reported raises · per SEC filings
Form D private placements$327.5K disclosed across 2 rounds · 2020–2021
▶$87.5KraisedFeb 2021 · 3 investors · OtherRule 506(b)
- Austin YanceyExecutive Officer, Director
- Offering amount
- $250K
- Amount sold
- $87.5K
- Minimum investment
- $5K
- First sale
- Jan 2021
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2020
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$240KraisedFeb 2020 · 2 investors · OtherRule 506(b)
- Austin YanceyExecutive Officer, Director
- Offering amount
- $240K
- Amount sold
- $240K
- Minimum investment
- $20K
- First sale
- Feb 2020
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2020
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.
Company profile
researched Sep 2026Elite Personal Chefs (EPC) is a personal chef, diet consulting and private events company that connects clients with culinary professionals who cook in the client's own kitchen. Core offerings include private dinner parties and events, weekly meal prep prepared fresh in the home or delivered, corporate catering, and private cooking classes. The booking flow is intake-driven: clients submit event details, guest count and dietary requirements through a web form and receive an instant estimate, then a personalized menu and pricing proposal; the assigned chef shops, cooks, serves and cleans up on site.
Beyond consumer bookings, the company sells services to hospitality businesses and organizations, including food and beverage consulting, sanitation and licensing training for hospitality teams, trade show and product representation, beverage and service professionals for events, and a food and beverage purveyor channel for proteins, produce and beverages. It also recruits event venues to host working chefs and their clients. The marketplace roster extends past chefs to service team members, beverage professionals, musicians, DJs, event planners, dietitians and nutritionists, beauty providers, house cleaners and elderly care, plus brand concepts such as live kitchens and pop-ups, restaurants, catering operations, storefronts, art studios and artisans. The site also operates an EPC Shop and a searchable chef directory with grid and map views filterable by name, city, state, zip and availability date.
Founding story
The company was created by Chef Austin Yancey to offer high-end culinary services in clients' homes. Before founding it, Yancey worked as a chef at the three-Michelin-star restaurant Alinea in Chicago and taught as a culinary instructor at Le Cordon Bleu, Kendall College and the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts; he has also competed in cooking competitions.
Business model
EPC intermediates between clients and independent culinary and event professionals: customers request a quote, receive a custom menu and price proposal, and the booked professional delivers the service in the client's home or at an event venue. The chef directory describes the platform as a contractor-owned co-op, with bookings positioned as supporting contractors alongside the company. A parallel B2B line sells consulting, sanitation and licensing training, trade show representation, staffing of beverage and service professionals, and purveyor supply to foodservice businesses.
Revenue is generated from per-event and recurring service bookings priced via custom proposals (private events, weekly meal prep, corporate catering, cooking classes), business services such as food and beverage consulting and sanitation/licensing training, staffing of beverage and service professionals, venue and purveyor programs, and an online EPC Shop.
Traction
The company's site reports more than 1,000 events served, over 100 chefs nationwide and a 5.0 average rating from more than 100 Google and Yelp reviews. A third-party business data page estimates annual revenue of about $500,000 and lists 11-20 employees, while a Techstars job board profile lists 1-10 employees and pre-seed stage.
Latest developments
The website now markets a chef and professional directory spanning chefs, service staff, beverage professionals, musicians, DJs, event planners, dietitians, beauty, house cleaning and elderly care, along with brand concepts including live kitchens and pop-ups, restaurants, catering, storefronts and art studios. It also promotes an EPC Event Venue partner program, a food and beverage purveyor line, and an EPC Shop, and describes the network as a contractor-owned cooperative.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Positions itself as a nationwide network of vetted, high-credential culinary professionals delivering restaurant-standard dining in the home rather than a food-delivery service. Listed profiles include chefs trained at the Culinary Institute of America and the California Culinary Academy with experience at Michelin-starred restaurants including The French Laundry, Chez Panisse and Ad Hoc, and a Food Network Chopped winner. Third-party listings classify the company in the hospitality industry at pre-seed stage.
The platform describes itself as the first contractor-owned co-op of its kind, with bookings framed as building contractor careers. It combines a curated roster of credentialed chefs with an unusually broad ancillary marketplace (beverage professionals, musicians, DJs, planners, dietitians, house cleaners, elderly care, brand concepts) and adds business-facing services such as sanitation and licensing training and purveyor supply that consumer-only chef booking services typically do not offer.
Technology
A web platform providing a quote-request and proposal workflow with instant estimates, client accounts (log in / join), and a searchable, filterable chef and professional directory with grid and map views. A third-party technology profile lists tools including Squarespace Commerce, Stimulus, Modernizr, reCAPTCHA, HSTS, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, Heap, HubSpot Analytics, Adobe Fonts and Google Workspace.
Go-to-market
Inbound web lead capture via free-quote and get-started forms with a stated response within 24 hours and an instant estimate in under five minutes, supported by a public chef directory that lets clients search and filter professionals by location and date. Social proof is drawn from Google and Yelp reviews. The company also recruits supply through a Join flow for chefs and other professionals and a venue partner program.
Households and individuals booking dinner parties, birthdays, family dinners and weekly meal prep; corporate clients needing catering, trade show product representation and event food and beverage teams; and hospitality businesses seeking consulting, licensing and sanitation training, staffing and ingredient supply. Client reviews reference engagements in Chicago and Naperville, Illinois, San Francisco, and Cassopolis, Michigan.
Geography
Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with listed locations in the Illinois Medical District, North Chicago and Chicago. Chefs are described as operating nationwide across the United States, and customer reviews cite services delivered in Chicago and Naperville, Illinois; San Francisco, California; and Cassopolis, Michigan.
History
Third-party profiles list a founding year of 2011 and pre-seed stage. In an August 2021 podcast interview, founder and CEO Austin Yancey described the company as a personal chef and culinary company and discussed the pandemic's effect on the hospitality business over the preceding 18 months. The current platform has since expanded from private chef and diet consulting services into a broader marketplace covering event staffing, venues, purveyors, live kitchens and pop-ups, and an online shop.
Risks & controversies
Public data on the company is inconsistent: third-party sources list the founding year as 2011 while internal records indicate 2020, and employee-count and funding figures differ across listings (11-20 versus 1-10 employees). Revenue and valuation figures on aggregator pages are stated as estimates derived from industry averages rather than reported results. In a 2021 interview the founder described severe pandemic-related pressure on restaurant and hospitality operations, including staffing and capacity constraints.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Related companies · 2
Companies working in the same space as Elite Personal Chefs.
Timeline · 1
launches, deals, and filingsCEO and founder Austin Yancey appeared on the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts podcast (Episode 11, 38 minutes) discussing Elite Personal Chefs as a platform for high-level culinary professionals, his time at three-Michelin-star Alinea, culinary teaching, and pandemic impacts on the industry.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
Legal entities · 1
corporate structure▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Elite Personal Chefselitepersonalchefs.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Elite Personal Chefs do?
- Elite Personal Chefs is a Chicago-based platform booking private chefs for in-home dining, weekly meal prep and corporate catering.
- Who founded Elite Personal Chefs?
- Elite Personal Chefs was founded by Austin Yancey, Jean Tomaro, Lee Turman in 2020.
- Who are Elite Personal Chefs's investors?
- Elite Personal Chefs's investors include Argos Wityu, Techstars.
- How much funding has Elite Personal Chefs raised?
- Elite Personal Chefs has disclosed $327.5K raised across 2 rounds.
- Where is Elite Personal Chefs headquartered?
- Elite Personal Chefs is headquartered in Chicago, US.