Meet Cidney Wilcox | Celebrity Private Chef- Culinary Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cidney Wilcox and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cidney, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor, to me, behind the success of my brand is relevancy. Over the last 4.5 years I’ve had one main client. The bread and butter, if you will. But if I just put my eggs in that one basket and didn’t do events, or dinner parties, or social media than I would be irrelevant to the people who are looking for services or have things to provide, like opportunities, or features.

Another important factor is knowing my worth. I have turned down opportunities for “exposure” for trade and jobs offering less than I was asking because it’s important to have a bottom line and stick to it. People will pay for what they want and the people who want it will be delighted by the services. “Set you price, and live your life” is the motto.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My wheelhouse is high end luxury dinner parties. When people ask me my specialty I always say, it’s things I haven’t done, ingredients I haven’t used, techniques I have yet to master. That’s what tickles my fancy. When I do these dinner parties, I am able to stretch my creativity and my abilities as an artist. It’s the most fun pulling off events like this.

I started out working in restaurants but I knew private cheffing was where I wanted to be. I wrote in a paper when I was 12 that I was going to be Oprah’s personal chef, and I’m well on my way. I worked my way up the restaurant world from mass cooking retirement community, to sushi chef, to executive chef of a wine bar. However most of these places it was other peoples recipes, it was other peoples names I was promoting. The personality of it was lacking. So I joined a personal chef group in Atlanta and learned the ins and outs. Shortly after, I tore my Achilles and had to move back home to San Antonio. At this point it was fight or flight. I started up my business and started reaching out and promoting myself. I landed a private chef gig with a NBA player and the rest is history after traveling all over the world with this family. I then had my son and it made it harder and more expensive to do the moving around. Truly blessed to have had the opportunities I have had, and now I’m onto newer things I am completely blessed and excited to have. Coming full circle and cooking for an old high school mate of mine is truly heart warming. As I continue to work on my creativity and brand awareness, I have the support of everyone around me to make great things happen.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If it’s second Saturday, we are going to 1906 for second Saturday art walk where different artist pop up and sell their art, good music, and even better vibrations.
I’d have to take them to my new found love Dashi Szechuan restaurant. The building is spectacular and the food is outstanding. I have to support my woman owned spaces, and this is hands down top 5 favorite.
We would have to take my son somewhere, so we are for sure going to the doseum, it’s an interactive museum that Kai and I love to go to, so of course we would have to show auntie.
Lastly I would certainly have to take them to my fathers house for San Antonio’s best bbq.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would be no where with out the support of my family and friends. When I have big events and my friends step up and help me lift things or set up, or even watch my son so I can make events happen. But I always have to bring it back to the basics to my initial attraction to cooking which came from my sister Latrice when I was 12. If it wasn’t for her I would still be trying to be a WNBA star. In addition, my dad who supported my dreams and helped me get into Johnson & Wales Culinary Program and always let me come back home if I was in between. Everyone in my life regardless of how long they stayed had played major roles in my success. And I am immensely filled with gratitude for every last one of them.

Website: Chefcidney.com

Instagram: Therealchefcidtastic

Youtube: Cooking with Cid and the kid

Image Credits
The one photo with me carrying my son and the flying veggies goes to Michael Cirlos / Centro San Antonio And the rest are to Regan Perez