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Celebrity chef Brooke Baevsky has been around the block when it comes to cooking for A-listers, making food for everyone from Emma Roberts to Adam SandlerAs the holiday season approaches — a time that Baevsky refers to as her “Olympics” when it comes to all things cheffing — the work only ramps upSpeaking with PEOPLE, the award-winning chef opens up about just what goes into this busy time of year, and how she manages to enjoy her own holidays when it comes to the hubbub
With the holidays right around the corner, it’s just about time to start cooking.
At least that’s the mantra of celebrity chef to the stars, Brooke Baevsky, whose lead-up to the holidays probably looks a little bit different than the average home cook’s.
The chef, who is known online as Chef Bae, has accumulated nearly 1 million followers for her cooking content across her TikTok and her Instagram pages.
She’s known for her health-conscious meals and recipes that cater to a wide variety of dietary restrictions (she grew up in a family with nine food allergies among five people — so it comes with the territory), but also her roster of VIP clients that range from everyone to the Barker family to the Sandlers.
Emma Roberts and Sarah Michelle Gellar are frequent stars in Baevsky’s videos, and yes, they’re always on camera raving about her food.
“That’s insane,” Gellar called Baevsky’s “emergency” version of Erewhon’s infamous Hailey Bieber smoothie that Baevsky casually whipped up in one recent video.
Brooke Baevsky.
Ben Smith
Throughout the year, Baevsky’s days might consist of whipping up superfood-packed drink regimens or over-the-top expensive pizza dishes (she once made one with ingredients costing over $2K) for her famous clients, but come holiday time, it’s a whole new ballgame.
As Thanksgiving in particular draws near, Baevsky tells PEOPLE, her days can consist of anything from cheffing up brand dinners in conjunction with hotels, partnering with health food brands for events or putting together plates at influencer parties and client dinners to helping her clients have the best set table at their elaborate holiday parties, Friendsgivings and beyond.
“I would say in years past, when I was really celebrity private cheffing way more, all of my holidays were taken up by clients,” she says.
With Halloween behind her, she already has one successful holiday party under her belt: a spook-tacular buffet of Halloween foods for Travis Baker and Kourtney Kardashian, featuring everything from individually carved bell peppers made to look like jack-o-lanterns to cauldrons of black bean hummus and syringes filled with raspberry coulis made to look like blood.
She’s become so close with her clients, like the Barkers, and she reveals that celebrity kids often play a key role in connecting her to new clients.
“The kids find me on social media, which is really cute,” she gushes.
“They’ll pitch me to their parents. These A-list celebs come into the kitchen — the parents — and they’re like, you don’t even understand our daughter sent us an email pitching you to us and your TikToks for months and months that we just couldn’t say no.”
Brooke Baevsky.
Mariel Weinand
With her roster of events lined up well in advance throughout the holiday season — she tells PEOPLE that she’s usually booked out months before — preparation is key to make sure she is able to enjoy her own holidays.
That’s why her No. 1 tip for the holidays is: “Make as much in advance as you possibly can,” she tells PEOPLE.
“Chop your vegetables, chop your crudité, make your dips, make your sauces, marinate your meats, have all of your sides done,” she recites, as if it’s muscle memory at this point.
“So you just have to put some vegetables in the oven, have your grains,” she continues. “You just have to boil your grains, put your veggies in the oven, reheat things, have your desserts completely done, have your salads prepped and you just have to dress them. Have your soups done. Put out the platters of crackers or charcuterie, whatever it may be. Cover it and put it in the fridge — because the day of, things just add up.”
“At a client’s house, usually I’ll start prepping a couple days ahead of time,” she says. “If I cook for myself or I know I’m hosting something for my family, I’ll strategically meal plan throughout that month to know what recipes I’m making. Holiday cooking can totally start a month out.”
The freezer is your best friend, she advises, saying that cooking in small batches “over 30 days” can seriously shave off chunks of time when it comes to the big day.
Food delivery services are her biggest asset, as she says there is “lots and lots of online ordering” when it comes to day-of prep.
“I order like five times throughout the day for delivery,” she reveals.
Baevsky usually brings along a sous chef or a kitchen assistant and sometimes servers to help when traveling to client locations. Usually, she says, clients’ staff will help with table settings, as well as provide Baevsky with an inventory of what is in her celebrity clients’ kitchens.
“I’ll also ask for service-ware inventory, and they’ll just send me a video of their kitchen and show me what they have,” she explains. “I do everything. I plan the menu, send it over, write that out, usually print it. Then I do anything food. So we do the plating, the prep, the service.”
Brooke Baevsky.
Owen Kolasinski
Another thing that comes with the celebrity cheffing territory is her expert management of her clients’ dietary restrictions, which, for her VIP clients, seems to know no bounds.
“The holidays are like my Olympics in terms of dietary restrictions,” she says, giving some insight into what a typical party might look like on her end this time of year.
“There’s always the peepers, the ones that peer over to my staff or the servers and they’ll say, ‘You know, I am, I’m refined sugar free, or I’m vegan, or I’m dairy free, or I’m gluten free,'” she laughs.
As a result, when it comes to Thanksgiving foods, she is by no means a traditionalist, going as far as to call some Thanksgiving foods “bland” and “beige.”
“I really like putting my own spin on holiday food,” she says.
Turkey becomes a turkey meatball with cranberry glaze, cranberry sauce gets jugged up with some pomegranate and she adds acorn squash soup to the mix as well.
This year, she’s excited to revisit things like her gingerbread cookies, and she shares that as part of her holiday gifts to celebrity clients, she’ll often send them a jar of one of her homemade snack mixes (think homemade, healthy Cheez-Its) or a box of said cookies.
Baevsky has a background in food science, holistic health and nutrition, which she says helps her to bridge the gap between crafting delicious, indulgent holiday food that is perfectly catered to dietary restrictions.
She’s even gone as far as to analyze her client’s blood work and saliva and come up with custom-curated diets, she says.
“The dietary list is — I’m just like, bring it on,” she laughs — especially when it comes to hosting a meal for a large slate of celebrities with conflicting requests and restrictions.
“They always have their cravings or I’ll look in their pantry and I’ll be like, you know, maybe I could reinvent this and have a Chef Bae version of this cookie or this cracker that you have in your pantry,” she explains, of how she gets crafty in the kitchen.
“I never make the same thing twice really,” she says. “There’s always new requests and it just keeps it so fun and exciting. That’s why I’ll never be sick of cooking for people.”
Dining and Cooking