How to Price Your Private Chef Services

A three-hour dinner is rarely three hours of work. Before you price anything, list every hour the job takes:

• Menu planning and messages with the client
• Shopping, often across more than one supplier
• Preparation at home or in a prep kitchen
• Travel to and from the venue
• Setting up, cooking and serving
• Cleaning down and packing up

For a typical dinner for eight, this often comes to 9–12 hours, not three. If your price only covers the time at the stove, you are working most of the job for free.

• Ingredients: cost each menu per person, then add 10–15% for waste, testing and price changes.
• Labour: every hour above, at an hourly rate that reflects your skill and your local market. Include any staff you bring.
• Travel: fuel, tolls, parking or public transport, plus the time spent travelling.
• Overheads: insurance, equipment, phone, software, marketing and accounting, spread across the jobs you expect to do.
• Margin: profit on top of all costs, so the business can absorb slow months, invest and grow. A margin of 15–25% is a sensible starting point.

Overheads are the part most people forget. If you spend 3,000 a year on insurance, kit, website and accounting and expect to do 60 jobs, each job needs to carry 50 of overhead.

The figures below are illustrative, not a benchmark. Replace every number with your own costs and rates. Currency is left neutral so you can read it in your own.

Look at the result from two directions. Does the price per guest make sense to your ideal client? And, just as important: what would happen at four guests? Ingredients halve, but labour, travel and overheads barely move. That is why you need a minimum booking value.

Your minimum is the lowest total at which a job still pays for your time and fixed costs. In the example above, labour, travel and overheads come to 430 before a single ingredient is bought. A minimum of around 550–600 would keep a small dinner worthwhile.

Present it plainly: "Dinners start from 600 for up to six guests, then 95 per additional guest." A minimum is the cost of delivering the service, not a penalty.

Many chefs combine models: a per-person price with a minimum for dinners, and a day rate plus ingredients for villa weeks. Whatever you choose, calculate it the same way underneath.

When you have no track record, it is tempting to discount heavily. A modest introductory price is fine, but keep it close to your calculated price and say what it is: "This is my introductory rate for the first few bookings." That way the next client does not expect the same number forever.

After the event, compare your estimate with reality: actual hours, actual ingredient spend, actual travel. The first few jobs almost always take longer than planned. Adjust your calculation, not just the next quote. How to run that review is covered in Guide 5.

• Counting only cooking time and ignoring shopping, prep, travel and cleaning.
• Giving one price for every guest count with no minimum.
• Absorbing premium ingredient requests without changing the quote.
• Leaving extras such as staff, rentals and late finishes unpriced.
• Copying a competitor's number without knowing their costs.

Once your price is ready, the next step is putting it in front of the right people. Continue with Guide 3: How to Find Private Chef Clients.