Chef Reilly Meehan has been a private chef in the Hamptons for ten years. He began posting content on TikTok during Covid, which gained rapid popularity as he shared behind-the-scenes looks at his work.
His friendly demeanor, refined techniques, and inventive recipes have built him a large online audience. He spends summers with clients in the Hamptons and lives in Phoenix with his husband and their dog.
Meehan released his debut cookbook, “A Little Bit Extra: 100 Recipes That Serve Up Something Special,” in March. The 256-page book features 100 original recipes inspired by his signature elevated yet approachable style as a private chef.
What inspired you to become a chef, and how did you find your passion for cooking?
I grew up in Santa Cruz, California. The Central Coast of California has access to some of the best ingredients, so I felt like I was around food a lot. My dad owned a brewery that was very successful and had a total cult following. They had a really cool space and kitchen there. So I grew up cooking in his kitchen. I’d say my first shift was totally illegal, when I was 13 or 14. I enjoyed it and wanted to learn the ropes. Pretty consistently, I’d work there on weekends and during the summers. That taught me and showed me the underbelly of the kitchen and cooking, which I just loved and nurtured.
I went to culinary school right out of high school. I was enrolled in the UC Davis Food Science Program. A couple of weeks before I graduated, my mom handed me a pamphlet for a cooking competition for a culinary school that was about a 45-minute commute away from where I was living. I entered, and I got second place. So I got a really great scholarship. I jumped in feet first and did the culinary school thing.
How did you start working privately, and what brought you to the Hamptons?
I ended up at a family Christmas party, and I sat next to the wife. After the Christmas party, she came up to me and said: “We’re out in the Hamptons in the summer and we’d love to have you.” At the time, I was living in San Francisco and working at a country club that shut down for the month of August. So I would usually take some time off and travel. I told her, “If you want me to come out in August, I could do a couple of weeks.” And so that’s what we did. That was 10 years ago. I stayed at their house, cooked for three weeks, and then went home to San Francisco.
And then Covid hit, and they moved to Arizona, and realized they wanted somebody full-time. They reached out to me about it, and I just couldn’t say no. It was very serendipitous.
Your social media — when did you realize your accounts were taking off at the level they have?
The first summer I came out with them full-time, I think that was the summer I posted my first recipe video. I came from working at the Country Club, where we were feeding like 600 people a night. I had a team that I managed. I was second in command there. I worked 12-hour days and just had no downtime, really. I went from that to here in the Hamptons, cooking for two to eight people, breakfast and dinner, so I found myself with a lot of downtime. I just needed to spark my creativity a little more, so I started posting what I was cooking.
During Covid, I had a bunch of friends reaching out about recipes, so I started this little Google Doc that I’d send to friends. If they requested a recipe, I’d try to develop one for them if I didn’t have one, so it just seemed natural. I’d say within a month, my TikTok really took off. And then it probably took about a year before I was like, “Whoa, this is becoming a thing.” I just leaned in. My mantra with it has been to bring good food to as many people as possible.
Can you talk a bit about the concept and inspiration for your cookbook, “A Little Bit Extra”?
Oh my gosh, it’s such a cool process. A lot of people don’t know how much work goes into it. It was amazing. I got introduced to a book agent through my social media management team, Amanda Bernardi.
Four summers ago, we put together the concept for what we wanted to pitch. It was basically a mini cookbook, including how we wanted to market it and who we thought would buy it. And it had like 12 original recipes and photos I took. We pitched that to a bunch of publishers that we thought would be interested. We ended up in a bidding war and ended up going with Union Square.
The process itself was crazy. You kind of, to a certain extent, get left to the wolves a little. It’s like “that’s the concept we want, now here are six months to deliver us a manuscript.” I got to work. I hired a bunch of my friends to test recipes. I wanted to make sure the recipes were developed in such a way that people who are home cooks could navigate them. Then it was a lot of back-and-forth with the publisher.
Last January, I did the photo shoot in Berkeley with my photographer (Erin Scott) and food stylist (Jillian Knox), who I can truly not say enough good words about. It felt like food summer camp — insanely talented, so fun. We went crazy — bright, vibrant, super colorful.
Tell us about the book tour. Has it been difficult to balance being a full-time private chef, posting on social media, and touring with a cookbook?
It’s a lot. I’m very lucky that my clients are my number one advocates. They’re so proud of what I’m doing and so supportive of what I’m doing. I work for them full time, so I took a month off to do the tour. It was such a wild pinch-me moment. Crate & Barrel was a sponsor of the tour, so I got to go to their stores and do talks with them, and giveaways. And when I went to Seattle, there was a gal who got there an hour and a half early with her eight-year-old daughter, who was also named Reilly, and they drove three and a half hours to come see me from central Washington, and I seriously broke down in tears when I heard that. The fact that people are that invested and that interested and that I can give them special attention and hang out with them and chat was just mind-blowing to me.
Everything I do is so online, so actually being able to meet people and talk to them — another lady in New York showed up with a printout of DMs we’d sent back and forth years ago where she was like, “You need to write a cookbook,” and I said, “I’d love to one day, that would be so fun,” and she had me sign it. To have little moments like that is really special.
Do you have any Hamptons summer go-to recipes?
There are a ton. In the cookbook, there is a broiled tomato Caesar salad, which sounds a little odd, but it’s an interesting riff on a Caesar salad, which I think everybody loves. And then also, in the book, there are these grilled pork chops with peach mostarda that are out of control. I find myself making those a lot. Any salad with little gem lettuce — I’m such a sucker for that crisp green.
Do you have any favorite markets to shop?
Green Thumb is my go-to. And my friends at Citarella — I’ve truly become buddies with the entire team at Citarella — the guys behind the fish counter, the gals at the cheese counter — I feel like I’m on a first-name basis with all of them, and I love it.
What are you looking forward to enjoying in your downtime this summer?
This is the first summer I’ve had my dog with me. We have been hitting the beach almost every morning, and it’s so lovely. Having the dog here makes me go to the beach. It’s something I look forward to every morning and will continue to for the summer.
I loved how you turned a home into Kiko’s, a restaurant. Can you tell us how you came up with this concept?
I work really closely with an event producer, Tasmia Khan. She does high-end events in Phoenix. She and I met through an event, and we just clicked really well. I’m trying to get her out to the Hamptons to do something. I was looking for a way to be more creative and meet more people in the community, too. I have such a great online community, and bringing that in person and meeting people and getting other people to meet. We want community to be built and creativity to be fostered.
