How to Price Your First Private Chef Event

A dinner that lasts four hours at the table is rarely less than a full working day. Count the whole booking before you touch a price.

Multiply the total by the hourly rate you need to earn, not the rate you were paid as an employee. As a self-employed chef you also carry unpaid admin, quiet weeks, taxes and your own equipment.

Write the menu, then cost each dish by portion: proteins, produce, dairy, pantry items, garnishes, oils, seasoning and anything for testing. Add consumables — napkins, foil, containers, gas, cleaning products — and a wastage allowance, because you will buy more than the exact grams a recipe needs.

A percentage guess hides the expensive dishes. For a first event, cost the real basket once and you will know your true food cost for every future quote of the same style.

Charge travel time at your working rate and fuel or transport as a direct expense. If the property lacks equipment, add the cost of hire or the wear on your own. If the guest count needs a second pair of hands, the assistant is a cost of the event, not a favour you absorb.

Insurance, hygiene certification, accounting, a phone, a website, knives and equipment replacement, payment fees and taxes exist whether or not you cook this weekend. Estimate your yearly business costs, divide by the number of events you realistically expect, and add that figure to every booking. Take local tax advice for your own situation.

Paying yourself for hours worked is a wage, not a business. A margin of ten to twenty per cent creates room for a cancelled booking, a mistake you fix at your own expense, new equipment and growth. Add it deliberately, before you send the quote.

An illustrative first dinner for six guests. These figures show the method, not a recommended rate for your market.

If that number feels too high for the client you have in mind, change the offer rather than the arithmetic: a simpler menu, fewer courses, a smaller shopping list or a different service format. Deleting real hours from the calculation only moves the loss onto you.

Pricing to win the job rather than to run the business sets a rate you will have to defend later. Offering a "friends and family discount" without saying it is a one-off makes the next quote awkward. Quoting before you know the guest count, kitchen and dietary requirements almost always costs you money.

Send the price with a short list of what is included and what would be charged separately. Clarity protects the relationship far better than a low number does.

For pricing models beyond a single event — hourly, per person, fixed and minimum bookings — read the full private chef pricing guide. To find the booking this price applies to, read how to get your first private chef client and how to get private chef clients. The complete overview lives in the guide to becoming a private chef.

Inside the Private Chef System, the pricing step turns exactly this calculation into a reusable tool: enter your hours, rate, ingredients, travel and margin, and get a total and a price per guest you can send with confidence.