To ask how much you would pay for a private chef (London and outskirts)

[mouche202]

Hi, I'm a long time lurker but this is my first post. I would really appreciate if any of you who live in London or the outskirts (up to 30 miles away) could help me with some initial market research.

How much would you pay (per head) for the following service:
A professional chef plans a menu based on you (and your guests) likes, dislikes, allergies, dietary preferences, then comes to your house on the day and prepares the meal in your kitchen. The chef serves the meal, answers any questions, does the washing up and leaves the kitchen clean and tidy.

The food is of the standard you'd get in a high end restaurant. You'd provide your own alcohol though the chef can suggest good pairings for the food.

Basically a restaurant experience in your own home with no need for babysitters, taxis etc. A good way to celebrate with your support bubble or older, vulnerable guests. Or a nice way to treat a new mum.

For the voting:
YABU - no one wants to pay for this!
YANBU - I'd use this

But really I'm looking for is what you'd pay for this.

Thank you.

I don’t think this would work in my tiny kitchen but I do think it’s a nice idea! A similar but obviously less good comparator might be the restaurant “reheat at home” boxes which seem to be c£35-40 per head with no alcohol. I would expect your proposition to be a fair amount more - perhaps £100 per head? However that would probably be out of my budget sadly!

Ok so I’m in London and I just got a “restaurant box” from a very famous restaurant in London. It was two steaks, chips, veg, dessert and wine and cocktails for £125 BUT I had to cook clean after. So for a chef in my house I’d say I’d pay 40-60 per head. Depending on what I ordered.

I'd say £45-55 per head. I'd absolutely love to have this service.

Wouldn’t expect to pay per head. Would expect a day’s skilled labour. Maybe £250 -300. Chef to specify limits of numbers and numbers of dishes.
Extra for anything at all supplied.

I’d prefer to pay for the service plus food/drink costs on top.
I’ve in central london and so would be unlikely to use this service as am surrounded by restaurants and eat kit a lot. Also don’t have space for big dinner parties at home.
If I would use this type of service I would expect maybe to pay £150-£200 for the chef’s services with food drink costs on top. For a group or around 6-8.
???

When we lived in London we did this as a one off for a special group of friends and it was £80pp w/o but was 6 courses. We provided our own alcohol as my DP thinks of himself as a bit of a cocktail connoisseur (he’s not but let him think it!).

£100 per head. Difficulty is getting a chef, sommelier, waiter and housekeeper rolled into one.

I wouldn’t do it all per head. A base charge for say 2or 4 people, which covers the travel etc etc, and then any numbers over and above the base would be charged on a per head basis

I’ve been to a few dinner parties (remember those?) where a private chef/caterer did the catering.

Are you doing it to supplement an income, or replace one? You’d only be able to do two or perhaps three meals a week so the price you’d need to charge would need to provide a living wage as well as pay for your ingredients, insurance etc.

You could sign up with a private staff company and be a cook for a single household and earn around £30k pa.

My DH is a chef. It really depends how good a chef you want, and if you want a higher end one you will prob need a KP as well to prep and wash up. It won't be per head.

We have this in my area in the Midlands

5 courses £80 a head minimum 2

7 courses £100 a head minimum 4 I believe?

I enquired about a similar service for a special occasion about 25 years ago, home counties. There was a minimum charge of £250. If I recall correctly there was a guest limit with an additional charge for extra guests. Can't recall who would supply the food but it did not include alcohol. I think it's a great idea.

I'd probably pay no more than £40 a head - for more you'd need to really give me a bespoke service and show me the quality of your ingredients. There's actually a relatively big market for private chefs - I did a quick Google and picked a menu with my own choice of dishes that came out at about £35 a head in London. I appreciate that it may not be high end dining quality but neither is my living room, part of the restaurant experience that you pay for is ambiance so I wouldn't consider paying comparable prices just on food alone.

I think a service where you can bring your own utensils and serveware as necessary would be good too.

I have considered this a few times but every time the food has been too fancy. I'm happy with the price but a little less sea foam or bigger portions would be great.

We had this in the North of England and it was brilliant. The best thing was the tidy kitchen afterwards! Cost around £80 a head for 3 courses.

Thank you all so much, that's really useful.

My DH does this currently but is looking to grow the business. So we're trying to figure out what pricing model people would like, whether people would like wine included or not, why people would hesitate to book (for example, if you have a small kitchen, he'd do most of the prep at home - council certified 5* kitchen - and finish off in your kitchen) - basically how to appeal to the maximum number of people. So all this feedback is invaluable. Please keep it coming.

Agree with @crumpet there should be a base charge for minimum 2 people perhaps £120 and then an additional £40 pp afterwards? I wouldn’t pay more than that if wine isn’t included I don’t think. Depends how many courses though and whether you’re talking ingredients like steak or whether the menu is more eg pasta, curry etc.

Also I would offer various pricing options, as long as it didn’t get tooooo complicated, eg give a price with or without wine, 3 courses or 5 courses. You could do maybe bronze/silver/gold/platinum or some other structure and give different pricing levels for different quality eg bronze = no wine, standard ingredients, silver = includes wine OR upgrade to 5 courses gold = both or whatever.

I would say £100 fee plus £50/£60 per head.

I would expect a per head charge to cover food and then a separate charge for the service - something like £150 for the evening plus £50 - £70 per head.

I on other hand really would not want a ‘per head’ charge. I’d maybe have invited eg vegetarians or might want something really expensive etc. I’d like to pay the chef his professional rate, provide my own alcohol unless he had special suggestion and pay all food costs on top.
If it’s my treat fine.
If a group of us have decided to do this on a split cost basis I’d expect to be able to give all a close per head costing and then invoice would clarify.

I did chef's table private dining for six of us for a special birthday. £80pp for four courses and I chose the menu with head chef. Alcohol was on top of the food bill and it was a fantastic night.

OP, not based in the UK (US) but my OH is a private chef and does this for a living. He charges per hour - half rate for menu plan, shop, prep and travel, full rate for on-site prep/cook.
He does the majority of prep off-site, he has a commercial kitchen he rents and usually gets to the clients house a couple of hours prior to dinner to set up and cook. He cleans up/does dishes after the event. Depending on how many guests he sometimes takes his nephew or me to help with serving/cleaning.
The amount he charges varies as it's per hour but he budgets his time well. A 3 course dinner for 2ppl will probably be around $300-$400, 6ppl closer to $1,000.
My OH has trained under a michelen star chef and cam pretty much cook any cuisine.

We bought a Harvey Nichols private dining experience at a charity auction a few years back, it was either £500 or £600 for 6 of us. Wine and food all included, chef plus Maitre D....it was amazing. When we told them what we'd paid they said we'd got a bargain, they would've just about broke even. I'd do it again, it really was fantastic.

Definitely agree that I’d prefer an overall charge. Say £300 for max 6 guests and 3 courses basic charge and chefs own menu. More for extras.
Would seem good value to add a teenager to do serving and clearing. Plenty would be happy to do this for £30-40 a night. Get him or her a nice black outfit and apron.