Entrepreneur and CEO Kelly Lyles cracked the code to hosting stress-free dinners. Her new online tool, Chef2Nite, connects at-home diners with chefs for a customizable experience that lets them have an unforgettable dining event in the comfort of their own home or wherever they choose. Through her work in the real estate industry, Kelly saw the opportunity to create Chef2Nite as a niche company specializing in chefs while making private dining accessible to everyone. Attending many high-profile parties, Kelly wanted to bring that feeling of luxury to a wider audience. Through a few easy clicks, hosts can make private dining simple by going to the brand’s website and choosing from highly rated chefs. The chef matching feature allows them to connect various options using filters such as cuisine type, number of guests, and date. From there, hosts work with the chefs to curate a menu, and the brand even takes care of cleanup.
After spending years in development, Kelly launched Chef2Nite this summer, already amassing a network of 500 chefs nationwide, including major cities such as LA and New York. Their reach has even expanded to Hawaii. Hosting is a natural part of Kelly’s life, making Chef2Nite an organic business move for the CEO. Kelly stated that one of the things that makes her company unique is that it allows the host to just be the host.
“You just get to be the host, and you get to enjoy and be treated as well as you’re treating your guests.”
Moving forward, Kelly’s mission is to continue expanding the business, making Chef2Nite the go-to hub for a one-of-a-kind culinary experience that will surpass its peers and give customers a taste of luxury.
Her Agenda: What inspired you to create Chef2Nite?
Kelly Lyles: Chef2Nite was created from me being in the real estate industry and owning a short-term rental business and the need for my customers who would always come in and ask me if I had a chef for a bachelor party or a cookout, or any sort of celebration. I found that the need to find qualified chefs to fit people’s budgets and needs, and food requirements, was difficult. Although I had a few chefs, I needed more variety of chefs, and that’s how I recognized the need for the platform, and I started creating it based on that.
Her Agenda: What range of cuisines does Chef2Nite offer the customers? I know you have a lot of different types of chefs, but is it just a wide variety of what they can do?
Kelly Lyles: We have 26 cuisines that we offer. We offer pastries, if someone just wants to order a cake or have a dessert option for their dinner. We have kid-friendly chefs for kids’ birthday parties and things like that. We have omakase, we have kosher, we have vegan, we have pescatarian, we have the full gamut.
Her Agenda: When did you officially launch the company?
Kelly Lyles: We formally launched in late May, beginning of June of this year. The project has been in the works for several years, just trying to get it right, working with different developers. That proved to be a bit of a challenge initially. Trying to get to the market because sometimes people overpromise and underdeliver. It took me a while to build the platform with the right developer. I had a few false starts in the beginning, but now we’re up and ready and booking. Becoming a household name is our goal.
Her Agenda: It has only been a short time, but what type of growth have you seen since launching Chef2Nite?
Kelly Lyles: Since we started, we’ve been gaining a lot of traction. We have at least eight to ten chefs who come to the platform per day on average, signing up. We now have over 500 chefs on the platform. As far as people booking, we’ve started making revenue now. We do get inquiries, and sometimes it doesn’t always pan out as far as pricing for some people, or they may choose a busy chef to book that week. All in all, seen really good positive growth in the market so far.
Her Agenda: If someone wants to go and book with you guys for a private event, how do they go about doing that?
Kelly Lyles:You go onto the platform, and you can choose a chef. You plug in your date, your location, the cuisine that you like, and the number of people. Then, chefs in your area will populate. You can choose the chef that fits your budget and your needs. From there, you can message the chef of your choice or chefs of your choice, and the chef will then reach back out to you and create a custom proposal for you. From there, you can book the chef and it’s a win-win situation for chefs and it’s a win-win situation for hosts. For chefs, they get to expand their territory and focus on cooking, versus the marketing, because we handle all of that. It’s no fee to sign up for either the host or the chef. It makes the process simple and easy.
Her Agenda: In your opinion, what’s the most unique thing about your company?
Kelly Lyles: What makes Chef2Nite unique is that it gives the chefs a storefront to handle and promote their business, like Instagram, for instance. You know, they’re in charge of their pictures. They’re in charge of their bio. They’re in charge of their pricing. They get to be their own business owner, and they’re in control of what it is they want to do. It’s inclusive. So again, people can go on and find the chef that fits their budget and needs, which makes the process easier. We don’t control anything on the platform except for accepting payments and marketing. That just gives people the freedom to work with whom they want to work with, and the chefs the freedom to handle their business. If they’re gone, they can block out their calendar so that they don’t show up in certain searches and things like that. It’s a win-win for both the customer and the chef.
The other cool thing about Chef2Nite is that you don’t have to be celebrating a special occasion to use the platform. Say, for instance, you just want to have a girl’s night or you want to just plan something, a nice dinner for your boyfriend or a significant other. Chef2Nite allows you to have the freedom to do that, versus slaving in the kitchen and not being able to interact with your guests. Nowadays, people like intimacy. They like conversations. They like to entertain at home or while traveling. For instance, if you’re in New York or you’re here in Miami and you want to get a chef, and you don’t know of a chef, our site can help. You can read the chef’s reviews. You can look at their pictures. You can interact with them. You can tell them what you’re looking for in a menu versus going to a busy, noisy restaurant and having the waiter interrupt you every two minutes, especially when you’re in the heat of a conversation, you know, the juicy part. That’s one of the great things about Chef2Nite. You can curate it, from start to finish.
Her Agenda: What has Chef2Nite taught you about entrepreneurship?
Kelly Lyles: We all want something that will benefit our lives, that thing that will just hit. Being an entrepreneur is big. It’s difficult because you go through tears sometimes, frustration sometimes, uncertainty sometimes, but you keep going. If you keep going because you believe in it, then I think the reward will come. So that’s it: patience and tenacity.
Her Agenda: Growing up, did your family host a lot of events? If so, how did that impact you?
Kelly Lyles: I can remember as a kid, my mom putting together parties for celebrations. She would go to the store. She had a list like she always did, and it’s weird, but she always would do this. She’d do wings, and then she’d do a shrimp tray, and then she’d make this cream cheese with pastrami, ball. There was always entertainment going on throughout the house, and the music would be playing. When I was a kid, they would say ‘stay upstairs, don’t come downstairs.’ Still, I would always peek around the corner and see her and her friends having a good time, and I would say ‘wow, I can’t wait to get bigger so that I can do that.’ Then I started hosting champagne parties and gatherings. It’s always a joy to get people together to celebrate.
Her Agenda: How would you like to expand the company within the next five years, and are there more services you would like to add?
Kelly Lyles: Yes, during the next five years, we have an expansion plan. We’re going to add more AI and other features to the platform to be the go-to for everything party, everything culinary, and a one-stop shop for all of these things.
[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
