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

[Anonymous]

Hire a housekeeper who cooks. That way she can do daily cleaning, dishes, laundry, errands (like getting groceries…) and cook. She won’t be trained as a chef but many of the best cooks aren’t!

We have a daily housekeeper who works 30 hours a week, costs us 60K a year. Ours does not cook but when we were hiring we encountered several who do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot cheaper to just get married to the right woman.

How sexist of you. Men can cook too you know. In fact there are many famous men chefs. My husband cooks and my nephew is the cook in his family. Welcome to the 21st century!

I think PP meant to say to find a woman who is willing to stay home and cook. It is going to be her choice and there are plenty of women like that.

[Anonymous]

Have you looked into a meal delivery service like Mighty Meals?
A local chef prepares your food fresh and delivers it to your door 4 times a week. Cost is about $15-20 per person.

[Anonymous]

OP. I just talked to private chef! Well, an aspiring private chef. She has another career right now but looking to transition to being a chef full time. She works for a couple of families cooking on the weekend.

Here is what she told me.

Her rate is $50/hour + the cost of groceries. She proposed coming to my home one day a week to cook from 9-5, and would also charge for an extra hour for meal planning and grocery planning. She estimated groceries would cost $250-$400/week. So, I'm looking at $700-$850/week. For this, I get 3 dinners for our family of 5 (one of which would be hot and ready on the stove the day she cooked; the other would be prepped for us to either just put in the oven or throw together and fry up on the stove), healthy snacks like cut up fruits and vegetables, other kid-friendly snacks like muffins and energy bites, and 3 salads/sandwiches/other stuff for lunches for the adults for work.

Sounds like kind of a dream to me. Also quite expensive, but man we do spend a ton on groceries and take out and eating out anyway. And like a pp (snottily) said, we're at seven figures and not doing very well making sure our kids are getting balanced meals. So maybe this'll be money well spent.

We do Green Chef for two nights a week right now, and that's not cheap and it's soul sucking to me to have to get it cooked. Hate it - hate the experience, the mess, the time I have to spend when I'd rather be doing something else. We throw away a lot of food I buy thinking I'll cook it and never do. So I'm really considering this. It's not exactly the fantasy I had, which was, like, someone coming in every day at 3:00 to have a delicious hot dinner ready for me - but that's probably not in my budget, anyway.

[Anonymous]

My parents are middle class and have someone that cooks meals for special family dinners. I don’t think it’s expensive at all. It’s a side hustle for so many older people that love to cook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. I just talked to private chef! Well, an aspiring private chef. She has another career right now but looking to transition to being a chef full time. She works for a couple of families cooking on the weekend.

Here is what she told me.

Her rate is $50/hour + the cost of groceries. She proposed coming to my home one day a week to cook from 9-5, and would also charge for an extra hour for meal planning and grocery planning. She estimated groceries would cost $250-$400/week. So, I'm looking at $700-$850/week. For this, I get 3 dinners for our family of 5 (one of which would be hot and ready on the stove the day she cooked; the other would be prepped for us to either just put in the oven or throw together and fry up on the stove), healthy snacks like cut up fruits and vegetables, other kid-friendly snacks like muffins and energy bites, and 3 salads/sandwiches/other stuff for lunches for the adults for work.

Sounds like kind of a dream to me. Also quite expensive, but man we do spend a ton on groceries and take out and eating out anyway. And like a pp (snottily) said, we're at seven figures and not doing very well making sure our kids are getting balanced meals. So maybe this'll be money well spent.

We do Green Chef for two nights a week right now, and that's not cheap and it's soul sucking to me to have to get it cooked. Hate it - hate the experience, the mess, the time I have to spend when I'd rather be doing something else. We throw away a lot of food I buy thinking I'll cook it and never do. So I'm really considering this. It's not exactly the fantasy I had, which was, like, someone coming in every day at 3:00 to have a delicious hot dinner ready for me - but that's probably not in my budget, anyway.

Keep us updated, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has always been one of those "if I ever hit the lottery" goals, but lately, I've been thinking more seriously about hiring a chef. We get home from work, and then we're usually running to kids sports, dance, music lessons. It's fast food or mac and cheese or ham sandwiches or some other crap and I am just so sick of it. I'm starting to think it may be well worth it to have someone have a healthy dinner on the table every night at 5:15 so we can all eat well. Anyone do this? I'm curious about these things:

1. How much did it cost?
2. What is your HHI? And at what HHI did it start to make financial sense?
3. Worth it to you? What's it like?

Thanks.

I've recently hired a household manager/personal cook for two days a week, four hours a day. I pay her $40/hour. She also drives kids to the early sports practices when I am still working. She did go to culinary school and does exclusively cooking for other families but was willing to help me with the kids' activities too. We are LOVING having her help. I tried meal delivery services, kits, and just about everything out there for meal options while juggling work and travel sport practice schedules and it still didn't really work for my family. She grocery shops, makes delicious meals in our home that we select, cleans, and packages leftovers. My family has never been so well fed and our kitchen has never been so spotless and well organized. Having her help is magical and well worth the money. I also co-parent 50/50 so it is just me at home with my two kids with no additional help to juggle things. I am not making 7 figures, but this is worth my sanity and fits into my overall budget with other adjustments.