How much should I expect to pay for a private chef?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about a private cook?

I'm a pretty good cook. I make a nice variety of dishes. I'm used to accommodating a variety of needs like veganism and food allergies. But I'm just a "mom" cook and not a professional chef.

I would much rather cook than my current job. How much would people pay for someone like me to come in for a few hours and leave with dinner on the table, lunch boxes packed, and something for breakfast the next morning? If you have kids, I'm happy to involve them so they learn to cook too.

I'm talking about regular family food, not restaurant fancy food.

I would pay ~$150 per day I think. Does that seem unreasonable? I have literally no frame of reference for this.

That seems fair to me (the person who posted it) if I wasn't paying for ingredients, and if it was set up so that sometimes I was cooking earlier in the day so I could have multiple clients. Of course, that means your kids could only help on the days you were last.

Maybe this is what I will do when the kids go off to college.

[Anonymous]

We used a chef for a bit. It was about 900-1000/week. Got us thru a very busy time but was not sustainable.

She came on Monday afternoons and Thursday afternoons - grocery shopped, prepped meals, cut up veggies and fruit. Food was amazing.

Then she shifted to making food in a shared kitchen off site and we didn't see much of her. It turned into a very expensive meal delivery service, so we quit.

It was a life saver and made things so much easier (and healthier)
HHI upper 800's

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We used a chef for a bit. It was about 900-1000/week. Got us thru a very busy time but was not sustainable.

She came on Monday afternoons and Thursday afternoons - grocery shopped, prepped meals, cut up veggies and fruit. Food was amazing.

Then she shifted to making food in a shared kitchen off site and we didn't see much of her. It turned into a very expensive meal delivery service, so we quit.

It was a life saver and made things so much easier (and healthier)
HHI upper 800's

This is not a private chef.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We used a chef for a bit. It was about 900-1000/week. Got us thru a very busy time but was not sustainable.

She came on Monday afternoons and Thursday afternoons - grocery shopped, prepped meals, cut up veggies and fruit. Food was amazing.

Then she shifted to making food in a shared kitchen off site and we didn't see much of her. It turned into a very expensive meal delivery service, so we quit.

It was a life saver and made things so much easier (and healthier)
HHI upper 800's

Did that cost include the groceries?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about a private cook?

I'm a pretty good cook. I make a nice variety of dishes. I'm used to accommodating a variety of needs like veganism and food allergies. But I'm just a "mom" cook and not a professional chef.

I would much rather cook than my current job. How much would people pay for someone like me to come in for a few hours and leave with dinner on the table, lunch boxes packed, and something for breakfast the next morning? If you have kids, I'm happy to involve them so they learn to cook too.

I'm talking about regular family food, not restaurant fancy food.

I'd much rather have someone like you cook for us! You should create a userid here for these type of posts in case someone wants to reach out to you in private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about a private cook?

I'm a pretty good cook. I make a nice variety of dishes. I'm used to accommodating a variety of needs like veganism and food allergies. But I'm just a "mom" cook and not a professional chef.

I would much rather cook than my current job. How much would people pay for someone like me to come in for a few hours and leave with dinner on the table, lunch boxes packed, and something for breakfast the next morning? If you have kids, I'm happy to involve them so they learn to cook too.

I'm talking about regular family food, not restaurant fancy food.

I'd much rather have someone like you cook for us! You should create a userid here for these type of posts in case someone wants to reach out to you in private.

I'm a single parent, so I'm not really in a position to quit my job right now, and I don't have time to take on clients, and work, and parent. I could totally see taking on some clients when my kids go off to college though, and then maybe working up from there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about a private cook?

I'm a pretty good cook. I make a nice variety of dishes. I'm used to accommodating a variety of needs like veganism and food allergies. But I'm just a "mom" cook and not a professional chef.

I would much rather cook than my current job. How much would people pay for someone like me to come in for a few hours and leave with dinner on the table, lunch boxes packed, and something for breakfast the next morning? If you have kids, I'm happy to involve them so they learn to cook too.

I'm talking about regular family food, not restaurant fancy food.

I'd much rather have someone like you cook for us! You should create a userid here for these type of posts in case someone wants to reach out to you in private.

I'm a single parent, so I'm not really in a position to quit my job right now, and I don't have time to take on clients, and work, and parent. I could totally see taking on some clients when my kids go off to college though, and then maybe working up from there.

Gosh, I would love to do this too! I actually love grocery shopping and cooking, and I am a very competent home chef who has been cooking almost my entire life. I LOVE meal prep and packing lunches, too.

Something to consider if I ever can go part-time.

[Anonymous]

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that it would be more than getting meal kits, or buying prepared foods at Whole Foods, or getting healthy restaurant takeout delivered. We don't really cook, but I can cook some rice and toss some Trader Joes food and frozen vegetables in the microwave and have a passable meal on the table in 15 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a ton of people who will shop and come over and cook all Monday for you for the week. Usually in the various immigrant communities and its not per hour but per number of dishes you want. Youd still have to reheat things ar dinner time.

NP and this seems like a much better option. Honestly cooking is the easy part, it's the prep (mainly chopping veggies) that takes the most time. Hire someone one day a week to chop up veggies for the week and arrange them in Tupperware boxes in your fridge and you're all set.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a ton of people who will shop and come over and cook all Monday for you for the week. Usually in the various immigrant communities and its not per hour but per number of dishes you want. Youd still have to reheat things ar dinner time.

NP and this seems like a much better option. Honestly cooking is the easy part, it's the prep (mainly chopping veggies) that takes the most time. Hire someone one day a week to chop up veggies for the week and arrange them in Tupperware boxes in your fridge and you're all set.

Or buy precut vegetables at a grocery store. Logistically, that seems a lot easier, even if you don't care about the cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a ton of people who will shop and come over and cook all Monday for you for the week. Usually in the various immigrant communities and its not per hour but per number of dishes you want. Youd still have to reheat things ar dinner time.

NP and this seems like a much better option. Honestly cooking is the easy part, it's the prep (mainly chopping veggies) that takes the most time. Hire someone one day a week to chop up veggies for the week and arrange them in Tupperware boxes in your fridge and you're all set.

Or buy precut vegetables at a grocery store. Logistically, that seems a lot easier, even if you don't care about the cost.

PP here and I guess it depends what veggies you're using, how you need them cut and where you shop. At giant and wegmans I dont see everything we use in a pre-chopped format. Depending on cost and PITA factor I might just adjust what we eat to what is available pre-chopped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that it would be more than getting meal kits, or buying prepared foods at Whole Foods, or getting healthy restaurant takeout delivered. We don't really cook, but I can cook some rice and toss some Trader Joes food and frozen vegetables in the microwave and have a passable meal on the table in 15 minutes.

Yes but we want to eat fresh, homecooked food. What you describe is what I am doing and I'm sick of it. Plus the planning. Ugh. I would love to outsource this entire operation

[Anonymous]

If you want a private chef who only works for you and makes all of your meals from scratch each day, it will be around $100k/year not including the cost of groceries. The cheaper way to do it is what a PP mentioned - get a personal chef who will come to your house to meal prep a few days of meals at a time so that you can just heat and serve through the week. Prices for that vary depending on how many people, how complicated you want your meals to be, etc., but anywhere from $1000-5000 per week would be normal. For an even cheaper option, you could go with a meal delivery service like Factor45 or Cook Unity.

[Anonymous]

A real, trained chef? 150 an hour. 3 hour minimum.

[Anonymous]

I found a person who worked at a high end cooking store. She would come over for four hours on a Sunday. Make two complete meals for two days of dinners plus leftovers. and had to buy ingredients. I paid her $100, but this was 7 years ago.

I imagine people who work at cooking schools might freelance similarly.