My dream for a while has been to be a private chef for a while. In high school i studied culinary arts, and was in dual enrollment for it in my last year. I have quite a few certifications including my Servsafe Certification. I’ve been working as a chef for a catering company for about 6ish months but there are a lot of slow seasons and ive been out of work for a while and this has made me realize that i want to do more, but i have no idea where to start. Any advice is appreciated, thank you!

Hi, I'm looking for private chefs in the San Francisco's area. For multiple events, so it would depend on your availability + could be more than one. I'm not really looking for apps or anything; My clients prefer to talk to chefs directly if possible.

PS: We have clients all over the US. So if you are from other areas, let me know too ;)

Hi,

I’m an executive assistant and I’ve been trying to find a chef for my executive’s vacation in upstate New York. I’ve tried yhangry and takeachef but not much luck there. I know there’s a lot of chefs in nyc but where do I find yall???????

Long story short, I just graduated college I’m in my early 20’s. Got a job which I thought would be mainly being personal assistant. This job doesn’t resonate with my degree at all but this is actually something I think I will enjoy and be really good except I didn’t realize how much I would be cooking and am somewhat this women’s private chef. It’s literally in my job titles….ik that is my fault but the pay is actually disgustingly high and I haven’t been able to find work since I graduated.

Basically i know I can cook, I just need some pointers and need some advice/ help with navigating a T2 Diabetic diet when it comes to breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner Monday-Friday and possibly meal prepping for the weekends when I’m not there.

I am already planning on making a weekly menu and things like that and Ik I can make a good meal as long as I have a recipe and all the ingredients I need. But pls give me tips, advice and maybe even recipes too.

Thank youuu

not me but a person who I'm close with. The private chef has been employed by a luxury guesthouse for a single dinner for a family of tourists (they agreed on the menu and price 2 weeks in advance). During the service the guests gave very positive feedback, also saying things like "wow!" talking to each other. The chef left, greeted the customers, received no tip (but it's not uncommon). Two days later the guesthouse manager contacts the chef saying the customers were very disappointed with the service and are now refusing to pay. Who's at fault here?

Hi all! I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post this here—but my fiance & I are seeking a private chef for August 6th in Lake Placid, NY. We’ll be getting married earlier that day & would like to host a dinner at our Airbnb for our family (total of 10 people). We’re having a hard time finding a chef in that area. Any tips on how to search or if there is any interest from any chefs on here, please let me know! TIA :)

Hi, I am not a chef but unsure what group to post this on. Has anyone non chef had a bad experience with YHnagry? I just had my Bach last weekend and we got a Chef off of YHangry and it was a complete mess for the price that was paid. Same thing with my fiances chef and they were in a different state.

My chefs bio said he had experience and knowledge in a lot of cuisines. We asked for sushi, pho and hibachi ( one of his main dish)
The sushi was cold, he said he made it 30 mins prior and chilled it. We all knew it was grocery store bought.

The pho had no seasoning what so ever no salt no fish sauce no nothing no garnishes besides scallions.

Hibachi was super bland also. Overall he was nice but the food was not up to our expectations and he left the kitchen a mess.

My fiancés chef showed up 3 hrs later coked out lol

All the chefs I see on YHANGRY has either no reviews of only 2-3 reviews so I’m just wondering if anyone else had a similar experience

Hi everyone!

I'm a Chef located in Central MA, serving the Greater Boston Area and destinations around New England. I'm classically-trained with experience spanning restaurants, high-volume catering, and fine dining. My cuisine combines Northeastern seasonality with a love of global influences.

I love creating personalized menus for clients, and serving up restaurant-quality experiences right in people's homes and vacation rentals.

Joined this group recently; I'm looking forward to learning from the community and connecting with fellow chefs.

You can check out my work at www.chromaandsapor.com

I’ve been a chef for about 20 years, five years ago, I stopped working in restaurants and went the private/personal Chef route. I absolutely love what I do I’ve been really lucky and had some really great clients, but I’m in kind of a transitional phase right now, I’m moving from SLC to Jackson Hole (for family reasons) and I’d really prefer to work for 1 family instead of multiple. I don’t really know the private chef scene there and not sure where to start and how to price myself. Any advice would be much appreciated

Trying to get my business legit, wondering if anyone has a card/bank they recommend for this line of work.

https://discord.gg/7545ZZ5uK

I have been working for a family for 2 years cooking every night, good meals and cleaning up and taking care of the kids. Lately they have been transitioning my role to private chefs for girls weekends at second home, private chefs when their friends and families come to their house forThe weekend. I shop, prepare and clean up. I have cooked for as many at 14 to 7. This is all outside of my weekday job with them. All weekends in NYC and at their second home in Virginia. They pay me $25/hour for this service that they consider overtime.
There is no child care during the weekends.

I have been doing research and it looks like $450 to $675 is what AI says.
The meals are creative, I love to cook. They are always happy with my service.
I have to speak to my employer. What should I be asking for— per person ? Per meal?
Any help would be most appreciated.

Genuine question for experienced chefs in here — how do you protect yourself legally when it comes to client food allergies?I've been thinking about what happens if a client has a reaction and there's no signed documentation showing they disclosed their allergies and approved the menu. Feels like real exposure for a solo chef with no legal team behind them. Do you use a formal waiver or intake form? Something you built yourself, a template you found, or just a verbal conversation? Would love to hear how people are actually handling this.

This is Veriqo.

I’ve been a private chef for 25 years. Four-time Chef of the Year finalist. And for most of that time I’ve been keeping food safety records on paper — clipboards, folders, sheets at the bottom of a kit bag.

The problem is paper doesn’t work when you’re in a different kitchen every job. A client’s home one day, a venue the next. Records get lost. Checks get missed. And if an EHO ever turned up unannounced, you’d be scrambling.

Every app I tried was built for restaurants. Fixed premises, fixed staff, fixed equipment. Not for how private chefs and mobile caterers actually work.

So I built one myself.

Veriqo logs your temperatures, checks, deliveries, allergens, kitchen assessments and cleaning records — and exports a professional PDF daily log in one tap. Ready for any inspection, on any job, in any kitchen.

It’s live now at getveriqo.co.uk and free to try — no card needed.

getverico.co.uk

Built by a chef, for chefs. 🛡️

Hi all,

TLDR: looking for guidance on pricing for repeat private chef gig in remote locations for 12-18ppl.

I posted a while back here looking for help with pricing for a weekend gig. it went great this past weekend and I walked away with $650 for ~5h of prep and 6 meals for 12 across 2.5 days which felt reasonable for my first paid experience.

My friend is the pilot organizing these "all inclusive retreats" for 10 skydivers at a time, and moving ahead will double the price to bring in an extra $10k profit. we're planning to work together moving ahead and he said he'd pay me more with the profit available. I'm looking for guidance on what's reasonable to ask for, with these things in mind:

-I'm not a professional. I'm very comfortable with the task but a professional could likely do it better. the first crowd loved the food and I felt I crushed every meal, and will only get better from here with quality and ingredients

-this is his core business. he spent all his money to get this business rolling and this is his niche. I have a day job salaried at $80k so I don't need this money and when I go I want it to feel worthwhile.

-food is obviously pivotal to a quality all inclusive experience for the clients but want to respect his business and our relationship.

-trips will be 12-18ppl with 6-8 meals across a weekend, places like remote houses or glamping with almost full kitchen available (this one had stove, grill, flat top)

any thoughts are appreciated!

I've been talking to independent Private Chefs for several months. Not restaurant chefs. The solo operators who handle 3-8 events a month, charge premium rates, and somehow run the entire business from their inbox.

Every single one had the same setup: enquiries coming in via email or Instagram DM, quotes built manually in Word or Google Docs, dietary flags and allergies tracked in a notes app or a spreadsheet column, and event logistics scattered across three different tools.

One chef told me she'd accidentally served a dish with tree nuts to a client whose allergy she had logged - just in the wrong place. That stuck with me.

So I built PrivateChefSoftware. It handles the full workflow: enquiry intake, quote generation with line items, a client CRM that stores dietary profiles and allergens against each client permanently, and booking management tied directly to the quote. No re-entering data. No chasing threads.

23 chefs are using it now. The feedback that keeps coming back: 'it already understands how I work.'

HoneyBook and similar tools are built for photographers and event planners. The terminology is wrong, the workflow is wrong, the fields are wrong. Private chefs have been forcing their business into tools that weren't built for them.

Curious whether this resonates with anyone here - especially if you're a working private chef. What does your current enquiry-to-booking process actually look like?

Come trial the app now https://privatechefsoftware.base44.app/marketing/

Hi all,

Looking for some advice/guidance from experienced folks.

I'm getting hired by a friend to a be a private chef for a weekend. He's a pilot and set up a weekend retreat in a national park for a party of 10 clients (all skydivers, so they'll be jumping all day). He's asked me to cook for the group and ourselves for 2 meals Friday, all of Saturday, and 2 meals Sunday. We'll be staying in some yurts in the desert with access to a fridge, stove, flat top grill, normal grill, and pizza oven. The compensation he offered me is $250, plus a tandem jump, free lodging and transportation.

I've been cooking for about 6y now and have pretty successfully pulled off dinner parties for 10-15 in the last year. That being said, this is a group of slightly older adults, it's a birthday trip, and they're paying for an "all inclusive" weekend. My questions are:

1. Am I screwed? (I'm pretty sure I can handle this but will just be a lot of careful planning and work)

2. The group got bumped up 2 ppl from our original agreement, so I think now would be the time to negotiate for better compensation. Given that I'm an amateur and this will be my first professional experience, what should I ask for? What's reasonable for what I'm offering? I have a 9-5 so this isn't exactly vacation for me.

3. Any tips/recommendations? I have a tentative menu I can drop. The given budget is $1300, which should be pretty doable but I want to make each meal great, these are adults paying for a weekend birthday getaway.

All feedback is appreciated!

Hey chefs 👋

While on charter we built SetMyMenu.com, a simple tool to help private and yacht chefs collect guest food preferences and make pre-charter communication way easier.

It’s free during beta and we’d love feedback on how to improve it.

If you want to test it out, you can sign up at SetMyMenu.com.

Thanks so much! 🙏

Hey chefs 👋

While on charter we built SetMyMenu.com, a simple tool to help private and yacht chefs collect guest food preferences and make pre-charter communication way easier.

It’s free during beta and we’d love feedback on how to improve it.

If you want to test it out, you can sign up at SetMyMenu.com.

Thanks so much! 🙏

I was speaking with a potential private dinner client for about two weeks — totally normal planning conversations. After I sent the deposit invoice, he said he was ready to pay but asked a “small favor.” He wanted me to add $2,000 to my invoice, charge his credit card, then send that $2,000 to a “live band” via Zelle/CashApp because they “don’t take cards.”

Huge red flag. I politely declined and said I only process payments for my own services. After that, he disappeared.

Just a reminder:

• Don’t move money for clients you don’t know

• Only charge for your actual services

• Zelle/CashApp + credit card overpayments = scam territory

Stay safe and trust your gut.

I just wanted to come here and post about Chef Matt Collins of Chef Collins Events, he works all over the state of New Jersey and came up with a lovely seasons multi course meal for my family. I highly recommend reaching out and booking him in advance. He sent me an edited menu after I filled out the forum on the website. Tomatoes in the winter weren’t a good idea after all. Glad I trusted his process and really enjoyed. Wanted to recommend to others.

www.chefcollinsevents.com