I’m a Private Chef for A-List Stars. Inside My Elaborate Menus, from Meghan Markle's Banana Bread to $2K Pizzas (Exclusive)

• Brooke Baevsky, widely known as Chef Bae, is a private-celebrity chef for VIP clients such as Adam Sandler, Meghan Markle and Mindy Kaling, among other prominent names across Hollywood and the world.
• She tells PEOPLE exclusively about her untraditional rise to culinary success, from experimenting with health-focused recipes for her family before college to unique food-related opportunities after graduation.
• Baevsky, who doubles as a content creator, takes viewers inside her celebrity clients' homes while documenting her meal preps and cooking processes in videos shared on social media.

One day you're concocting homemade almond milk for your brother, and the next you're whipping up gluten-free, dairy-free and refined sugar-free banana bread for Meghan Markle. In short, that's exactly what Brooke Baevsky did as a then business-minded student turned private-celebrity chef.

While a typical day might consist of crafting a five-step drink regimen that includes 19 superfoods and 11 supplements for Adam Sandler's family or creating a $2K pizza with caviar and organic Manuka honey shipped from New Zealand, she didn't always have an "emergency truffle" man on speed dial.

Meanwhile, you don't even have to be a V.I.P. client of Baevsky's to get a taste of her culinary masterpieces because she also caters to her near-million followers across Instagram and TikTok with mouthwatering content shot from inside the stars' homes. Famously, she's known as "Chef Bae."

Baevsky's recipe for success, however, isn't what you would think.

"How I got into cooking definitely wasn't traditional," she tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview about her culinary rise to becoming a sought-after celebrity chef.

At the core of her elaborate menus are health-conscious recipes personalized to each of her clients' dietary needs, a culinary niche — or rather, "creative outlet" — she's perfected since practicing on her family while growing up in her native Massachusetts, in a town just outside of Springfield.

"My family has nine dietary needs and restrictions among the five of us, which is crazy," Baevsky tells PEOPLE exclusively. "Gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, peanut-free, tree-nut-free, legume, everything."

It's hard to imagine a world when nut, seed, legume, grain and even vegetable milks weren't popular — but the dairy-free milk alternatives only became hot-selling items in recent years, along with other health-conscious options appealing to those with lactose intolerance, vegan diets, among others.

"I was in the late '90s making almond milk and trying to figure out this weird store that sold nutritional yeast to make gluten-free, dairy-free mac and cheese," she recalls of the early days. "My parents definitely tried some disgusting things... but with that came really, really good recipes."

Proudly, Baevsky touts that her then-experimental mac and cheese is the same, go-to recipe she uses for her celebrity clients' kids today! "Food wasn't what it is now," she says of the health-conscious, diet-sensitive foodscape that she helped pioneer since her college days.

Her studies as a business, product development and food science student at Syracuse University led her to a content-creation stint with BuzzFeed. Post-grad opportunities allowed her a hand in the development of "some of the healthiest food products for the largest companies in the world."

Eventually, Baevsky led a team of her own, influencing her to enroll in a health-supportive culinary arts program with an emphasis on nutrition. The education dialed in on eating for wellness, going as far as "analyzing blood work to heal ailments and illnesses" with food choices.

"I wanted to control everything from where the ingredients come from to the finished product," she says. "Once I graduated this program... I was quickly approached by trainers in the NBA and the NFL," she continues, citing in-depth analyses of athletes to create custom meal plans for each.

Her top-tier clientele "snowballed" from there, Baevsky says. She had an edge.

Science-backed recipes aside, the tech-savvy cook had a skilled eye on short-form video content — but while it seems impossible to scroll without seeing a 15-second cooking demo from creators on TikTok today, how many clips do you see filmed alongside Mindy Kaling or Paris Hilton?

"I was in this really interesting spot that both gave me really high-end clientele and then I also knew how to do content and be in front of the camera," Baevsky explains. "I was in this really interesting niche that exploded."

With clients that range from royal families all over the world to the biggest actors and musicians in Hollywood, bringing a camera inside may seem invasive for something as intimate as personal food prep and meal time. But for Baevsky, it's a crucial element of her brand.

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"Typically with private chefs, you would go in, you would sign a contract, you would sign an NDA and then you would go in as a private chef or whoever this famous person may be," Baevsky points out. "I've never done that... I built up a platform."

She explains, "Then my celebrity clients or their kids followed me on TikTok or Instagram and were like, 'Can you cook for us? Can we be on your TikTok? Can you cook for my dad?' And I'm like, 'Who's your dad?' And they're like, 'Adam Sandler.' I'm like, 'All right. Yeah, I'll cook for your dad.'"

Baevsky has her signature staples (like grain-free chicken tenders and her famed carrot cake with cashew cream cheese frosting) — but after years of working with her core circle of clients, she has their go-to recipes down to a science. To be clear, the celebrities are fans of her work.

"Sarah Michelle Gellar loves my chicken burgers," she says. "Her family fights over them. She says they're the best that she's ever had. She has them every single week now."

"LL Cool J loves Italian food. He loves my lasagna," she continues.

"I've made banana bread for Meghan Markle, which was really fun. That was gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free when she was in LA for her podcast... and she loved it!" shares the chef.

Familiar with the Erewhon Hailey Bieber Smoothie that circled the internet for being a bank-breaking $20? Well, the Sandler family "loves" Baevsky's take on the overpriced drink: the "Hailey Baeber Smoothie."

Plus, everyone in the Sandler family (sans the Sandman) "has a very strict drink regimen," she shares. "It's like hot water with lemon, celery juice, a detox smoothie, wild blueberry juice and coconut water. I just posted all the details of that really recently in a Reel!"

DJ Diplo, meanwhile, has a menu item named after him: the "Diplorrito," a breakfast burrito with roasted sweet potatoes, grass-fed beef, scrambled eggs, caramelized onions, cheddar and spinach. (she also notes that he's a "high-protein, low-carb" kind of guy.)

"A lot of my clients are gluten-free, dairy-free... and I like breaking that stigma that healthy dietary- friendly food is boring," Baevsky makes known. "So I still try to keep it indulgent and sexy and satisfying and healthy and better for you, but food they really want to eat and is sustainable."

She emphasizes, "I'm not going to put anyone on a sole celery cleanse because then they're going to be starving! So [I'm] always prioritizing protein, custom supplement routines."

As for the royals, specifically the Middle Eastern royals, Baevsky recalls it being the "biggest" Erewhon trip she's "ever done" in her life. "They wanted what the American celebrities eat... They were like, 'Does Brad Pitt eat this pasta?'" she says with a laugh.

Some of her top celebrity clients request recipes that you wouldn't believe, including $500 grilled cheeses and $200 peanut butter and jellies. But let's talk about her $2K pizza appetizer, shall we?

Here's the pizza ingredient breakdown: organic figs, adaptogenic mushroom powders, organic almonds, sprouted gluten-free flour blends, beauty powder, collagen powder, Fulvic Mineral Drops, nutritional yeast, microgreens, almond milk ricotta, tomatoes, two of the $30 Erewhon waters, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, 100% extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, organic arugula, organic Manuka honey shipped from New Zealand, caviar and 24-karat gold flakes.

Why, you ask? "Some people like a $1,000 bottle of wine. This person wanted a $2,000 pizza, to make a statement, to have a fun thing to talk about," Baevsky reasons.

The bigger question, though, should be about its taste. Right?

"It tasted really good," Baevsky reveals of the pizza. "But personally, I would say not worth it."

While those gluttonous requests aren't on the daily, Baevsky's grocery bills reflect totals in that pricey pizza's range and beyond. On average, she says she spends "at least" $1,000 on items at go-to grocers like Erewhon and Whole Foods (of which she could make upwards of three trips a day).

"Last October I spent about $30,000 in one month, which is crazy, for a client that was visiting and renting out a house and had a ton of company and a big team," she shares of her grocery receipts. "They can range from $300 to $5,000."

One time, Baevsky desperately needed "emergency truffles" when cooking for a Middle Eastern royal family. Fortunately in Los Angeles, there's a service for that!

"There's this literal guy who rides a bike and charges a crazy, insane amount for truffles — but will deliver truffles," she says of Monaco Truffle Co. "Literally a professional biker who goes up and down the hills in Beverly Hills charging you like an arm and a leg for emergency truffles."

Baevsky remembers paying a "crazy amount" for those three or four last-minute white truffles, approximating their cost to be $1,500 when they "should have been like $300." Of her clients' requests, she's learned: "You never say no."

If there's another thing she's learned (aside from the fact that Diplo "doesn't like raw onions"), it's that hard work pays off — but there's still so much more she wants to add to her plate.

"I worked very hard with my career, so I'm very lucky to be able to say that I'm truly living my dream, which is amazing," says Baevsky, who also makes volunteer work a priority between celebrity bookings.

She "dropped everything" to help those affected by the Los Angeles wildfires, raised $260,000 and made thousands of meals. She also started several nonprofit initiatives across the country as part of after-school cooking programs for inner city children and families.

Baevsky says her job is "all encompassing," emphasizing, "I very much see the dichotomy of cooking for the wealthiest, famous, most successful people on the planet, and then people who can't put food on their table."

"But there's so much more to go," she tells PEOPLE, hungry for more. "I have a lot of goals."

She says, "I want to do more in the food TV space, have my own show, continue to work on my cookbook and really become more of an international brand-name. I want to inspire and reach as many people as possible with my recipes and continue to expand my silly Chef Bae self online."

To conclude, that would be her cherry on top.