Chefs Life launched at a moment when professional chefs were suddenly removed from restaurants and thrust into virtual spaces. During the 2020 shutdowns, Malarkey hosted hundreds of online cooking classes, many tied to charitable fundraising. Through those sessions, he repeatedly observed home cooks using oils incorrectly, most often relying on extra virgin olive oil for high-heat cooking where it burns easily and alters flavor. That disconnect between professional kitchens and home habits became the foundation for Chefs Life.
The brand was designed to remove guesswork from the oil aisle by offering three task-specific blends: Cooking Oil for high-heat applications like frying and searing, Blending Oil for baking and dressings, and Finishing Oil for drizzling and flavor enhancement. Each product was formulated to match a specific stage of cooking rather than asking consumers to decode smoke points and oil chemistry on their own.
Chefs Life officially launched in August 2021 and quickly expanded its footprint. The oils were sold online as a three-bottle set and individually at approximately 1,800 grocery stores nationwide, including major chains such as Kroger, Ralphs, Food 4 Less, Fry’s, and QFC. Retail pricing generally ranged from $7.99 to $9.99 per bottle, with each SKU packaged in squeezable 16.9-ounce bottles designed for speed and control, mirroring restaurant kitchen workflows.
The blends themselves were globally sourced, incorporating oils from regions including Spain, Italy, Tunisia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and the United States. The Cooking Oil combined avocado, olive, sunflower, and grapeseed oils for neutral flavor and high smoke points. The Blending Oil paired extra virgin olive oil with avocado and grapeseed oils for emulsification and baking. The Finishing Oil relied solely on extra virgin olive oil intended for flavor-forward applications like drizzling and dipping.
Chefs Life also positioned itself as a values-driven brand, partnering with Golden Rule Charity, a national nonprofit that supports restaurant and hospitality workers in need, and committing a portion of proceeds back to industry relief efforts.
Despite early momentum and Malarkey’s national profile, the brand ultimately struggled to sustain itself in an increasingly crowded and volatile specialty grocery market. Rising costs, tight retail margins, and shifting consumer behavior have weighed heavily on many direct-to-consumer and celebrity-backed food brands that flourished during the pandemic but later faced harsher economic realities.
Malarkey recently announced the closure in a message thanking customers, retail partners, logistics teams, content creators, and store employees who helped bring Chefs Life to market. He framed the shutdown as the end of a meaningful chapter rather than a repudiation of the product itself, encouraging customers to enjoy remaining inventory while it lasts.
The timing of the closure coincides with a period of heightened personal and professional strain for Malarkey. In late 2025, the San Diego chef publicly detailed a serious health scare while traveling in Italy, describing a sudden collapse, convulsions, and a near-death experience later attributed by doctors to a stress-related seizure. The incident came amid an already intense workload spanning multiple restaurants, television commitments, a podcast, and ongoing personal challenges.
Chefs Life had previously influenced other business decisions. In 2025, Malarkey withdrew from a planned mini food hall concept at San Diego International Airport’s redeveloped Terminal 1, citing the need to focus on the cooking oil brand. That pivot now appears to have been part of a broader attempt to balance an expanding portfolio during an unsustainable stretch.
The closure does not signal a broader retreat from Malarkey’s culinary empire. He continues to operate several high-profile restaurants in San Diego and beyond, remains a regular presence on Food Network programming, and maintains a significant footprint in the city’s dining scene. Instead, Chefs Life stands as a snapshot of a specific pandemic-era experiment, one shaped by necessity, innovation, and the shifting realities of consumer food businesses.
For San Diego, the end of Chefs Life marks the quiet exit of a locally headquartered brand that briefly reached kitchens nationwide, reflecting both the ambition and fragility of chef-driven consumer products in a post-pandemic market.
Originally published on January 7, 2026.