2 Solo Chefs Use AI to Run Operations Without Extra Staff

How are solo operators actually using AI to replace back-office staff?

Two solo chefs are doing it without a team. Meenu Bhasin and Melanie Underwood, both running independent cooking businesses, use generative AI to handle the operational work that would otherwise require hiring: menu planning, client communication, event coordination, and logistics. They are not using AI as a novelty. They are using it as infrastructure.

This matters for any SMB operator because the chefs' situation mirrors what a lot of small service businesses face: too much cognitive overhead, not enough hours, and no budget to hire a full-time operations person. Their solution is worth breaking down.

What specific tasks are these chefs using AI for?

Based on their reported workflows, the use cases fall into three categories.

Menu development and iteration. Bhasin uses AI to generate menu options based on client dietary restrictions, seasonal ingredients, and event themes. Instead of starting from scratch each time, she feeds constraints into a language model and gets a working draft she can refine. This cuts the initial menu-building time significantly and lets her focus on the culinary judgment calls rather than the blank-page problem.

Client proposals and communication. Writing professional proposals, follow-up emails, and event summaries takes time that does not directly generate revenue. Both chefs use AI to draft these documents, then edit for tone and specifics. The result is faster turnaround and more consistent client communication without hiring a coordinator.

Event logistics. Coordinating vendors, timelines, and day-of schedules is the kind of structured planning work that AI handles well. When you can describe an event in plain language and get back a draft timeline or a vendor checklist, you are compressing hours of planning into minutes.

Why does this model work for solo and small-team operators?

The chefs' approach works because generative AI is particularly effective at the tasks that drain solo operators: first drafts, structured lists, template-based communication, and option generation. These are not creative breakthroughs. They are repetitive cognitive tasks that have to happen but do not require expert judgment at every step.

The leverage point is not AI doing the expert work. It is AI doing the surrounding work so the expert can focus.

A chef's expertise is in food and client relationships. A consultant's expertise is in strategy. A contractor's expertise is in the build. In every case, a significant portion of their week goes to tasks that are adjacent to their expertise but not the expertise itself. AI compresses that surrounding work.

For context, McKinsey's 2024 research on generative AI found that across industries, AI has the potential to automate 60 to 70 percent of employee time spent on tasks that are repetitive and structured. Solo operators feel this more acutely because they have no one to delegate to in the first place.

What tools are these chefs actually using?

The Business Insider reporting does not specify a single tool by name for every task, but the workflows described align with standard generative AI tools available to any operator.

| Use Case | Likely Tool Category | Entry-Level Cost | |---|---|---| | Menu drafting and iteration | ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini | $0–$20/month | | Client proposal writing | Same, or Notion AI | $10–$20/month | | Event timeline and logistics | ChatGPT, Claude with structured prompts | $0–$20/month | | Dietary restriction mapping | Custom GPT or standard prompt templates | Included in above |

The tools are not exotic. The discipline is in the prompting and the workflow design, not in finding some specialized platform.

Is this approach transferable to other service businesses?

Yes, with one condition: the operator has to be willing to build and iterate on their prompts rather than expecting AI to work perfectly out of the box.

Bhasin and Underwood are not using AI passively. They are feeding it specific constraints, reviewing outputs, and refining. That is an active workflow, not a set-and-forget system. For any service business, the same pattern applies:

1. Identify the repetitive cognitive tasks that surround your core expertise.
2. Build prompt templates for those tasks.
3. Review, refine, and send. Do not try to automate the judgment layer.

A catering company, an event planner, a solo consultant, a boutique agency: all of them have a version of the same problem these chefs solved. The menu is different. The workflow logic is the same.

What are the real limits of running operations this way?

This model has a ceiling. When volume scales past what one person can manage even with AI assistance, you need human systems and eventually human help. AI compresses labor; it does not eliminate the need for it at scale.

There are also quality control considerations. AI-generated proposals and menus need human review before they go to clients. The chefs are editing, not forwarding. That distinction matters. An operator who sends AI output without review will eventually send something wrong, and in a relationship-driven service business, that is expensive.

Finally, data privacy applies even in small operations. If you are feeding client dietary restrictions, event details, or personal preferences into a commercial AI tool, you need to know what that tool's data policy is. Most major providers offer clear terms, but it is worth reading them.

What we'd actually do

• Map your surrounding work first. Before touching any AI tool, list every task in your week that is not your core expertise. Proposals, scheduling, follow-ups, checklists. That list is your AI roadmap.
• Build three prompt templates this week. Pick the three most repetitive tasks from your list and write a reusable prompt for each. Test it five times with real scenarios. Refine until the output needs only light editing.
• Join the community to see how other operators are building these workflows. At skool.com/aiforbusiness, operators across industries are sharing the exact prompts and systems they use. The chefs figured this out on their own. You do not have to.