How often do personal chefs get sued?

You need business insurance, but it would depend on if the personal chef damaged property, caused food poisoning, or just didn't show up for an event and broke a contract.

Those instances would be rare and if you can avoid them or make sure you have the right insurance coverage you should be fine.

The lady sued McDonald's - the big corporation - not the individual clerk that brewed the coffee. It was McDonald's own policy of keeping the coffee at a temperature that is scalding, that got them sued.

When you work for a restaurant there are many layers between you and the possibility of getting sued as an individual.

No. 1 - The source of the food poisoning outbreak usually comes back to contaminated food. In most cases it was brought into the restaurant and actually is the fault of a supplier or grower first and after that it is a problem with the correct storage temperature of cooked food that causes the second most outbreaks. Cooking the food is seldom the reason but incorrect storage and contaminated ingredients.

No. 2 - A lawyer will not waste his time and energy to sue you, the individual, because you don't have any real money. But your employer does and they go for the Corporation simply because there is more in money for them (the lawyers)...

No. 3 - Unless you are grossly negligent you can't be held responsible anyway. Because you are employed and the entity that is responsible for your actions is your employer.

If they let a chef work that isn't qualified and doesn't prepare food to the food handlers standards... then they need to be sued because you should have been fired a long time ago.