Chef Mateo Birts

Private Chef

Los Angeles, CA

Chef Mateo Birts is a Los Angeles based private chef whose craft was forged at the intersection of high-pressure kitchens and high-stakes military service. Raised cooking for his siblings, he formalized his training at the Institute of Culinary Education (Pasadena) and went on to serve in the U.S. Army as a general’s aide: essentially a private chef to high-ranking military officers. He was deployed to the Philippines, South Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Overseas, he regularly stepped into local kitchens after hours, building true muscle memory in global techniques and dishes. After returning home, he worked through every station, line,, pastry, sous, kitchen manager, and executive sous: most notably as Executive Sous Chef at the prestigious Maybourne Beverly Hills, before becoming a sought-after private chef for A-list clients including Channing Tatu, Kid Cudi, Christina Aguilera, and the Smith family.

He’s also a certified ServSafe Proctor and food-safety instructor, with experience inspecting and grading kitchens under the military’s “health management” system. It is the equivalent of civilian restaurant sanitation grading, giving him a uniquely precise eye for standards and compliance.

Mateo has real-world, undercover experience. His military background required him to do exactly that, blend in, observe, and adapt under pressure. On multiple occasions, he was sent into high-risk areas undercover to gather intelligence or safely source food and supplies for his unit. These experiences sharpened his instincts, emotional control, and ability to stay calm and confident in unpredictable environments. Half African American and half Puerto Rican, his look often defies easy classification, allowing him to pass comfortably in a wide range of kitchens and cultures. It doesn’t hurt that he also speaks some Korean, Japanese and Spanish! Mateo can convincingly inhabit any kitchen role, modulating his knife work, pace, and communication to fit his assigned persona. He can identify cross-contamination, poor prep systems, and inefficiencies within minutes, while inspiring confidence among staff and owners alike.