Skip to content
Chef Joseph Goldman
Private Chef · Author · Consultant

More than 30 years in kitchens, around tables & behind the scenes making hospitality work.

Private chef in Nashville & Middle Tennessee. Happy to travel for events.

Private chef experiences, restaurant consulting, cooking classes and books. I have spent my life cooking, leading teams, building menus and creating experiences around food.

Book a Private Chef Experience Read My Story
★★★★★Five-star reviews

Chef Joseph Goldman

Chef Joseph Goldman in a black chef coat with red trim, arms crossed, in a kitchen
Featured in NewsChannel 5 NashvilleAs seen on Let Me Help, Oct 2026 Simply RecipesExpert advice, Sept 2026 Food Fire + KnivesPrivate chef platform NRA Show 2027Session proposal submitted
Chef Joe’s journey

The Story

Young Joe with his grandmother in her kitchen
With my grandmother, in the kitchen where it started

From my grandmother’s kitchen to yours

It started in my grandmother’s kitchen. A place filled with patience, laughter and the comforting aroma of something simmering on the stove.

She didn’t just teach me recipes, she taught me about care, comfort and connection. By fifteen I was working in restaurants. Years later my daughter and then my son learned the rhythm of the kitchen beside me. Food isn’t just what we serve. It’s what we share.

Chapter 02

Growth

By the time I was fifteen, I was already working in restaurants and knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life.

Read more
Chapter 03

The Professional

Those early years were all about the craft. The dinner rush, the late-night closings, the long hours that blurred one shift into the next.

Read more
Chapter 04

The Legacy

My daughter started working with me at an early age when I was running an Italian restaurant.

Read more
Chapter 05

The Healer

I didn’t set out to work in a recovery kitchen. It just happened by chance or fate. What I found there changed everything.

Read more
Chapter 07

The Author

A few years ago I started putting my knowledge and stories into books. Each one carries a piece of my kitchen and my life.

Read more
Chapter 06

The Founder

Apex Concepts · Private chef · Classes · Consulting

Apex Concepts LLC is where all of it comes together: the hospitality concepts, the knowledge, the execution and the years.

Read more
Read my full story
Ready when you are

Book Chef Joe

Ask a question Book Chef Joe
Plated dessert with a chocolate lattice garnish and caramel swirls on a white plate
Filet mignon plates with twice-baked potatoes and asparagus lined up for service
Beef crostini plated on gold-rimmed china
Loaded wedge salads plated on vintage china, lined up for service
Private dining

Tell me your vision.I’ll bring it to life.

Dinners, brunches, hibachi nights and celebrations, cooked in your home or venue. Every menu can be tweaked for your guests.

★★★★★

“I met with Chef Joe for a tasting for my vision. I needed someone who would provide great food, but also work within my vision, to give input as well as take charge. He did that. Dinner was great, details met and I didn’t have to clean up. Great experience. My Haunted dinner was perfect.”

Jennifer P. · Haunted dinner
Book on Food Fire Knives See the Menus
Reviews

In their words

Live video review

“Hands down, the best meal, the best service. The best meal we’ve ever had.”

A couple’s live review at the end of their anniversary dinner, their first time with a private chef. Press play to hear it in their own words.

Book Your Dinner
★★★★★

“I haven’t worked with a chef before & Chef Joe made the whole process easy from beginning to end. He curated an amazing southern inspired menu for my husband’s 60th birthday. One guest was pescatarian. Another guest followed a low FODMAP diet & Chef Joe accommodated everyone’s needs. The food was incredible! …”

KristenSouthern Comfort menu · 60th birthday
★★★★★

“This is the first time we have ever hired a private chef, but have enjoyed fine dining often; and we have to say that Chef Joe set the bar for this experience! He created a six course meal for us to celebrate 30th birthdays and every course was delectable! …”

DanetteChoose Your Adventure menu · 30th birthdays
Read All Reviews
Chef Joe at the grill on a deck with a hillside view, from his grill video

How booking a private chef works

Choose your menu, make it yours, and enjoy your guests. We shop, we cook, we clean. You have fun and enjoy your experience.

Booking Details
Chef Joe in his whites prepping vegetables on a cutting board in a home kitchen
Cooking classes

Cook alongside Chef Joe

Let’s Cook Chinese, Italian, Greek and more, in person or virtually on Zoom. Fun, hands-on themed classes for couples, friends, families and teams. No experience required.

See the Classes
Books for people who love food

Chef Joseph Goldman, Author

Recipes, technique and kitchen stories from three decades behind the stove.

Every book I write comes from the same place: a kitchen where people learn something, have some fun, and end up a little closer than when they walked in. Healing With Food is the heavier side of that coin, born from three years of cooking three meals a day in a recovery house, where a simple, comforting plate could mean more than anyone expected. The Kitchen Kink series is the lighter side, loud and playful and a little cheeky, built for fire, friends, and new experiences around the table. Pick the one that fits your night, because either way the point is the same: good food brings people together.

Explore the Books
Restaurant consulting setup: menu-planning notebook, laptop with charts and cost sheets on a table in a warmly lit dining room
Apex Concepts · Consulting

Consulting, Training & Support

Menus, food cost, kitchen operations, team training and hospitality standards, built on more than 30 years of hands-on restaurant experience.

See how I can strengthen your operation
Upcoming

Events, classes & speaking

An education session proposal for the National Restaurant Association Show 2027 is submitted, private chef dates are booking now, and classes are scheduled by request.

See Speaking & Events
Get in touch

Let’s Start the Conversation

Classes, consulting, press, books or anything else: send a message.

Booking a private chef? Book on Food Fire Knives.

Book Chef Joe

Prefer email? Joe@ChefJosephGoldman.com

General questions & non-booking inquiries

Book Chef Joe Ask a question