diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9b40738e6..ba8470c49 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ BUG FIXES:
     failure during `up` from suspended. [GH-2479]
   - provisioners/chef: Chef client encrypted data bag secrets are now
     uploaded to the provisioning path to avoid perm issues. [GH-1246]
+  - provisioners/chef: Create/chown the cache and backup folders. [GH-2281]
   - provisioners/chef: Verify environment paths exist in config
     validation step. [GH-2381]
   - provisioners/salt: Bootstrap on FreeBSD systems work. [GH-2525]
diff --git a/plugins/provisioners/chef/provisioner/base.rb b/plugins/provisioners/chef/provisioner/base.rb
index 18c8da5fc..9f41a0e95 100644
--- a/plugins/provisioners/chef/provisioner/base.rb
+++ b/plugins/provisioners/chef/provisioner/base.rb
@@ -40,9 +40,15 @@ module VagrantPlugins
         end
 
         def chown_provisioning_folder
+          paths = [@config.provisioning_path,
+                   @config.file_backup_pach,
+                   @config.file_cache_path]
+
           @machine.communicate.tap do |comm|
-            comm.sudo("mkdir -p #{@config.provisioning_path}")
-            comm.sudo("chown #{@machine.ssh_info[:username]} #{@config.provisioning_path}")
+            paths.each do |path|
+              comm.sudo("mkdir -p #{path}")
+              comm.sudo("chown #{@machine.ssh_info[:username]} #{path}")
+            end
           end
         end