33-year-old left fine dining to become a private chef. Now she works up to 25 hours a week and makes 'the same income'—'I really enjoy the freedom'

Before moving to New York City in 2013, Cintia Diaz didn’t have any professional culinary experience on her resume. At home in the Dominican Republic, she’d cooked for her family, but she was a stranger to the restaurant business.

In New York, that quickly changed. Diaz took on various restaurant roles over the years, from server and bartender to maître d’ and host.

“I wanted to learn more about every single role in the industry,” she tells CNBC Make It.

Today, the 33-year-old has experience from two more roles under her belt; she’s now a private chef and culinary educator.

In 2025, she made roughly $66,220 in gross income.