the honest answer

Why work for a company when you could go independent?

Plenty of great chefs try it. Some make it work. Most discover the cooking was never the hard part. It's everything wrapped around the cooking. Here's exactly what we take off your plate, and what you get in return.

On your own
✕No vacation coverage. You either work or you lose the client
✕No set hours. You're on call nights and weekends, whenever a client needs you.
✕One bad season and there's no floor underneath you
✕Late payments you have to chase yourself
✕You're the marketer, biller and bookkeeper before you're the chef
✕Health insurance out of pocket, at individual-market rates
With Tiny Spoon
✓A market team that covers you when you're out, plus paid time off so it doesn't cost you income
✓Monday through Friday, 8am to 6pm, evenings and weekends free
✓A steady paycheck and paid prep time, every week
✓Billing, scheduling, and client care handled for you
✓Clients found, vetted and matched to your style
✓W-2 status with benefits for full-time chefs
your tools, in one place

The TSC Chef Portal

Schedule, hours, expenses and pay all live in one login on your phone. The admin side of the job is handled, so your off-hours stay off-hours.

Log in to the Chef Portal → Already a Tiny Spoon chef? Pick up where you left off.
Chef checking the Tiny Spoon chef portal on a phone outdoors
This week, handled
Paycheck deposited Friday
Grocery receipts reimbursed
32.5 hours logged
Next week's schedule set
more than the day job

Culture & community

We cook for our neighbors, not just our clients. Chefs opt into the work that means something to them.

Green onions and leafy vegetables growing in a raised garden bed
Harlem Grown

Chefs volunteer with urban farm programs teaching kids where real food comes from.

Waves rolling onto a sandy beach
Ocean cleanups

Seasonal shoreline cleanups in our coastal markets. Sourcing responsibly starts upstream.

Smiling chef in a Tiny Spoon Chef T-shirt in a home kitchen
Food bank cooking

Team cook days turning donated ingredients into thousands of real, warm meals.

Founder Janice holding her small dog in front of a wall of tiny spoons
a note from Janice
"Tiny spoons force you to slow down, savor, and taste what's in front of you. I named the company after mine in 2013, and I've spent every year since trying to build a place where chefs get to cook that way too."

Janice, founder · collecting tiny spoons since she was twenty, 200 and counting

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