33-year-old left the restaurant business to become a private chef
Before moving to New York in 2013, Cintia Diaz did not have any professional culinary experience on her resume. He was cooking for his family at home in the Dominican Republic, but was unfamiliar with the restaurant business.
This changed rapidly in New York. Diaz has held a variety of restaurant roles over the years, from waiter to bartender to waitress to waitress.
“I wanted to learn more about every role in the industry,” he told CNBC Make It.
Today, the 33-year-old actor has experience in two more different roles; he is now a private chef and culinary instructor.
New York-based private chef Cintia Diaz offers meal preparation and private dinner services.
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It generated gross income of roughly $66,220 in 2025.
“My business is in a great place right now and I’m happy with how it’s going,” he says.
From fine dining to home kitchens
After a series of restaurant jobs during his first few years in New York, Diaz turned to fine dining around 2017 and then earned a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management.
His goal at that time was to one day become a leader and a restaurant manager. But after several years in the restaurant business, he wanted a healthier work-life balance and felt that being a private chef would offer him that. To become one of them, she went back to school to earn an associate’s degree in culinary arts for hands-on training in the kitchen.
“Being a chef allows you to discover what balanced meals are, how to eat healthier, how to share knowledge with others,” says Diaz. “I’ve always been very curious about how the body responds to different foods and how we nourish the body. Food is medicine.”
Cintia Diaz left the restaurant industry to become a private chef, and she says it gave her a better work-life balance.
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Diaz started working as a private chef in 2021. In addition to private dinners, it also offers meal preparation services. Today, he says he gets an average of four to five meal prep clients a week and two to three private dinners a month. It gets its customers from referrals and booking platforms such as Solette and Take a Chef.
In addition to being a private chef, Diaz also teaches cooking classes to children at local schools through a culinary education organization. He states that this comes naturally to him because both of his parents are teachers.
“I love working with kids; I love teaching,” he says. “I grew up around it and it’s something I really enjoy.”
In addition to being a private chef, Cintia Diaz also gives culinary lessons for children.
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‘I really enjoy freedom’
For a meal-preparing client, Diaz typically prepares four to five days’ worth of food at a time. She works with each client to create a menu and decide how many and which meals of the day to prepare.
“My focus is based on the customer’s needs, requirements, preferences, culture and lifestyle,” he says. “Different customers have different preferences and needs regarding their families.”
Before going to a customer’s home, Diaz either orders groceries online or goes to the supermarket before cooking. After preparing, labeling and storing the meals, she cleans the kitchen and stays in touch with them until the next service.
Cintia Diaz either goes grocery shopping before service at a customer’s home or orders groceries delivered before her visit.
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Diaz says one advantage of being a private chef is “more direct contact with the person I’m cooking for.” Another is flexibility: She was juggling two or three jobs on top of college classes while working in restaurants; He estimates that back then, school and work combined took 50 to 60 hours a week. Today, Diaz says he works 20 to 25 hours a week.
“I really enjoy the freedom of being able to create my own lifestyle, my own schedule, and be creative at work,” she says. “There are weeks or months when I decide to do an easier schedule. There are other times when I decide to work a little harder.”
But being a private chef can be a “lack of consistency.”
“Sometimes there are weeks where you can have a full week, but maybe the next week is a little slower,” Diaz says.
‘The same income I could make working in a restaurant’
Diaz’s meal prep prices range from $250 to $450 per serving, not including food, depending on how much food he’s preparing, how many people he’s preparing it for, and how labor-intensive the menu is. He charges between $110 and $300 for private dinners. Diaz earns between $90 and $275 per cooking class.
Since she mainly uses her customers’ kitchen supplies, her main operating expenses are a $56 monthly phone bill and a $34 weekly public transportation pass.
“I think you can live comfortably in New York with the money I earn as a private chef,” he says.
Cintia Diaz says she makes “the same income” as she would working at a restaurant, working about 20 to 25 hours a week, much less.
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Diaz lives with her boyfriend and says splitting living expenses helps stretch her money even further.
“I don’t think working as a restaurant chef is in my plans,” he says. “I have flexibility in my schedule and the freedom to work the hours I want, the slots I want, for the same income I could make working in a restaurant.”
At home, in her own kitchen, Diaz still cooks on weekends and prepares meals for herself and her boyfriend, usually Dominican food. Doing it for work didn’t take away his love of cooking.
“It’s like my mini science project, where I can change things, create things, and if it doesn’t work, I try again until it does,” he says. “It’s great to create something with your own hands, and the results are something you can really enjoy.”
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