personal chefs

“Fresh healthy meals that exactly fit our tastes and dietary needs – sounds perfect. But I’m sure we can’t afford a personal chef.” We hear this all the time, yet many of our clients tells us what a tremendous value their personal chef provides. Quality, professional fresh meals exactly tailored to your family’s lifestyle, preferences, and individual dietary needs – that’s what personal chefs specialize in.

Why do people expect a personal chef to be really expensive? Many have a confusion between a personal and a private chef.  A personal chef is a culinary professional hired by several clients to prepare in-home meals or drop off service, based on the specific dietary needs and food preferences.  Although this is not a new industry, having been developed more than 25 years ago, it’s gaining popularity all across America.  Personal chefs are providing a lot of value to their clients by saving them time, customizing their menu, or simply preparing delicious meals that are ready to eat when you are!

On the other hand, a private chef typically works for one family preparing their daily meals.  Clients are generally more affluent such as professional athletes, corporate officers, or celebrities.  A private chef can cost $60,000 and well upwards, not including the cost of groceries.  The fees for a personal chef appear to be more affordable for a more modest income.

What Can You Expect For Your Money With A Personal Chef Service?

1.)  Meal Planning:  Your personal chef will plan a unique menu for you based on your preferences, dietary concerns, and addressing any potential food allergies.  Many personal chefs will collaborate with the client in the process.

2.)  Food Shopping:  Your chef will shop for the freshest, best ingredients from local grocery stores, farmer’s market, or other food vendor prior to arriving at your home.  Often, a chef is willing to pick up extra items you may need from the store like milk and eggs which is a real time saver.

3.)  In-home Meal Preparation:  Some personal chefs like to bring their own equipment like pots and pans but others prefer to use those of their clients.  The hours in the kitchen can range from 2 – 5 hours depending on the menu and number of servings .  Some chefs serve two families in one day offering a half day rate for preparing a lighter service.

4.)  Food Storage:  Once the cooking has been completed, the chef will package the meals in the preferred container (glass, plastic, or aluminum) with a label that is easily read and store in the refrigerator or the freezer for when you are ready to eat!  Chefs typically leave a list of instructions for re-heating or include them in the label.

5.)  Clean Up:  You can count on your personal chef to leave your kitchen sparkling clean as they finish their day in your home.  Food production can be messy and many clients are surprised to see the kitchen so clean after hours of cooking.

6.)  Planning Next Service:   Some personal chefs will plan their next menu with the client at the end of the day while others prefer to communicate via phone or e-mail.

Most clients have their personal chef into their home weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.  Many personal chefs offer more services than meal preparation including special event catering, cooking classes, and healthy lifestyle support and coaching which are all priced separately.  In my area for instance, a dinner party for 10 can be billed at $80 – $100 per person.  Many chefs have a minimum so you might not expect that a personal dinner for two could be had for $160.00 necessarily.  Pricing is as individual as the service provided.  Travel time, planning, shopping, and preparation offsite are the behind the scene elements of a successful event and those hours are chargeable.  Be sure to communicate your expectations and you will be sure to have a relaxing, delicious event where you are able to enjoy your guests and the celebration while leaving the details to your personal chef.

What Does A Personal Chef Cost?

As you might imagine, there are lots of variables when determining rates charged by a personal chef.  Some charge an hourly rate that can range widely across the nation from $20.00 – $110.00.  Others charge a fixed rate that includes the cost of groceries.  The most common pricing structure is a fixed rate based on the number of meals prepared plus the cost of groceries and this is how we do it at Dining in by Dawn.

Let’s look at the average price for 12 meals which is the average number of meals/servings in a typical day of cooking.  You may want to ask your chef to prepare more servings of  each meal and that will increase the cost of the service (time and talent) but will reduce the cost per meal (stretching the ingredients).

Dozens of personal chef services across America have been surveyed revealing the average cost for preparing 12 meals (typically 4 – 6 different entrees) ranges from $100 – $400 which does not include the cost of groceries.  These fees are much higher in certain areas like LA, New York, and Miami.  In my local California Bay Area location, personal chefs earn approx. $45 – $50,000 annually. That cost for a personal chef breaks down to $300 – $450.00 for a service or $60 – $80 per hour based on data from Thumbtack.

Research shows that the lower cost personal chef services in the $100 – $150 price range may be affiliated with a larger organization, franchise network, or have a team of chefs working for one business so they can “benefit from economies of scale” according to Nathan Allman with chefsforseniors.com.  Individual owner/chefs, or sole proprietors typically charge the higher end prices yet sometimes have challenges attracting and retaining clients over the long haul.  While some clients view a personal chef as a luxury, others who rely on us to provide convenient, healthy, custom meals consider the benefits as well worth the expense.

Grocery costs for your service are basically controlled by the choices you make as a client regarding menu choices, number of servings, etc.  For the average client they can range from $75.00 to $125.00 for the 12 meals we’ve been discussing but for the client interested in organic, kosher, or high end ingredients, you can expect to pay more.

Other Easy Meal Prep Options

There are many choices now when it comes to dinner time.  Long gone are the hours of planning, budgeting, shopping, coupon clipping, time spent standing in line at the grocery store…and that’s before you get home to sort, store, and in some cases prep the groceries for the week, and then oh right, actually cooking the dinner.  Frequently the groceries go uneaten because of unplanned pizza nights, or an unexpected dinner invitation so that counts as a loss of the cost of that beautiful food.

For some people the answer could be the meal kits like Home Chef (top ranked), Hello Fresh, Sun Basket, Blue Apron, and Plated where the ingredients and recipes show up at your door and you can cook the meals yourself.  Sun Basket offers many different plans but a basic one includes 4 meals for 4 people at the cost of $145.00.  There are discounts and enticements to try the various kit companies, but in many cases, the ingredients are unfamiliar, and the recipes too complicated to be helpful for a busy family on a weeknight.  In fact, I acquired a client who was a Sun Basket client.  She wanted the kits to accommodate herself and one of her 3 children’s need for anti-inflammatory, gluten-free meals.  She told me the boxes arrived and the clock started ticking…long, complicated cooking techniques, ingredients that didn’t appeal to her children, and too much food for their needs.  She abandoned the box for ready to eat meals professionally prepared to her family’s specifics in just the right portions.  For them, a personal chef was the ideal solution.

Recently added to the at home dining experience include fully prepared meal drop off services like Freshly and Thistle that cater to several eating regimens like Paleo, vegetarian, and vegan.  I find their menus to be innovative and appealing and they do provide a solution for those whose lifestyle fits that model.  Most clients who choose to hire a personal chef have specific goals they’re attempting such as healthier eating, avoidance of food allergens, and/or the desire to spend more valuable time out of the kitchen with family and projects.  They simply prefer to pay a highly-qualified, trained, professional to provide delicious personalized meals for their family.  Some clients are caring for elderly parents and appreciate the help with meals suited to their tastes, and any medically necessary dietary restrictions.  This frees them to spend more quality time together with their loved ones.

When hiring a personal chef there’s a lot more than prepared meals that come with a service such as mine where I offer nutritional assessment, goal setting, with coaching and support towards optimal wellness through diet changes.  There’s also peace of mind when you know your elderly parents are eating well and enjoying their meals.  Many chefs have unique expertise and work with athletes, seniors, occupationally challenged, chronic disease such as diabetes and CKD as well as other specific dietary requirements or restrictions.  Personal chef services are all about customized menus and personalized attention to client needs and requests that make them a valuable member of a support team and that, for some….is priceless.

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, a phone call with a personal chef can give you an idea if it’s a fit for you very quickly. We’ll discuss your goals, schedule, family situation, dietary needs and I’ll let you know how I can help and what it will cost. If another personal chef would be a better fit, I’ll give you a referral. You can call us at 415-574-0192.

To find a personal chef anywhere in the U.S., visit the United States Personal Chef Association website: https://www.uspca.com; their chef locator is at hireachef.com.  The USPCA provides certification and training guides for standards of excellence for their chef members across the United States and Canada.

Does this scenario sound like you? You’re a working professional with 2 kids and not much time to think about putting healthy meals on the table. You’re dealing with the hectic daily activities of getting the kids fed and out the door. You had good intentions of creating a meal plan and shopping list during your lunch break for dinner that evening. Then your boss calls you into an emergency lunch meeting. The next thing you know you’re putting out fires all day and get stuck in the evening commute with no time left to shop. So, what do you do? You’re forced to order take-out once again. Who knows what the ingredients are? And you’re pretty sure the grind will repeat the next day.

You’ve often dreamed about hiring a Personal Chef but told yourself that you can’t afford it…That’s not an option you think… Or is it?

Think of Personal Chefs As Problem Solvers

Hiring a Personal Chef is easier and more affordable than you think. When you consider the numerous problems they solve, the benefits far outweigh the cost. Consider this… How valuable is your time? If you’re stressed now with a full-time job and 2 kids, do you really have the time to manage the meal planning, food shopping, and preparation of fresh food each day? Most likely not!

As Personal Chefs, we understand the “What’s for Dinner Dilemma” you face every day. We’ve worked with individuals, families, busy professionals, people on special diets and seniors who simply don’t have the time nor interest in meal planning or cooking. And who wants to bother with the clean up? Often times our clients spend over $200 a week on groceries ($800 a month or more) only to find the fresh food spoiled in their fridge as they never had the time to prepare the meals.

The bottom line:  What are the benefits of hiring a Personal Chef?

Benefits to Hiring a Personal Chef

#1 Convenience

One of the top reasons to hire a Personal Chef is for the convenience they offer when it comes to meal planning. Chefs eliminate the hassle of having to plan and prepare quick healthy meals like breakfast, lunch and dinner and it’s invaluable for today’s busy life styles. Plus, there’s no clean up. This is how many of our clients cost-justify hiring a Personal Chef Service because it saves time and saves money.

#2 Save Time and Money

Hiring a Personal Chef saves time and money. We can help you serve fresh healthy meals quickly because we take the stress out of the entire process which is very time consuming. You will no longer be bogged down with the meal planning, food shopping, cooking, and clean up night after night. And it’s much more cost effective than dining out where you’re spending money on parking, travel time to the restaurant and baby sitter fees. In San Francisco, a night out could easily cost $100 for a healthy meal for 2 and that doesn’t include the tip, parking or the baby sitter fees! A Personal Chef on the other hand could feed a family of 4 in the comfort of their home for half that price. It all adds up when you put off hiring a Personal Chef!

Here’s an example:

San Francisco baby sitter rate per hour $18.87 x 3/hr = $56.61

Evening parking per hour $4.50 x 3/hr = $13.50

20% tip on $100 = $20

Total on extras is $90.11

Dinner cost:                 $100

Total for 2:                  $190.11

The average cost of a Personal Chef prepared dinner meal is $15 to $20, multiplied by a family of 4 totals to about $80. So, you do the math. Make sense?

#3 Highly Customized Meal Planning

Personal Chefs create highly customized meal planning options that are dialed into your specific needs and schedules. They will take care of everything from learning about your food preferences to customizing each dish to meet everyone’s taste. So, if you like enchiladas with cheese but your kids don’t like onions and your husband prefers the enchilada sauce on the side, a Personal chef can solve that problem in a flash through their attention to detail. You are #1 when it comes to a Personal Chef Service. It’s all about you! No meal delivery service or restaurant can compete with that amount of customization!

#4 Get Involved – Learn New Techniques from a Personal Chef

How great would it be to learn a new cooking tip or trick from your very own Personal Chef? Even though you might be a busy professional, wouldn’t it be fun to learn a new cooking technique that could save time in the meal prep process for those rare occasions when you do cook? When you hire a Personal Chef you can observe and engage in dialogue with them. Maybe they could help you improve your knife skills or teach you how to dice an onion without your eyes tearing up. Or maybe you want to learn more about nutrition or food safety?

Because Personal Chefs prepare fresh healthy meals in your home, you have the opportunity to get hands on learning. Naturally, you hired the Personal Chef to cook for you but there is certainly some satisfaction in learning new methods and recipes too!

#5 Introduce New Cuisines to Your Family

We can all get into a boring pattern of serving the same chicken or meatloaf dish over and over. Let’s face it. It gets old! When you hire a Personal Chef, they can introduce new cuisines that you may have never tried before. A Personal Chef has the training and experience to create quick healthy meals that you heat and eat. How about trying a new exotic Indian or Thai curry or a Mediterranean style seafood stew? A Chef can do that in a snap. Plus, a chef can put a new spin on old family favorites. Why not broaden your culinary palate?

#6 Hiring a Personal Chef Service Makes a Very Special Gift

How many times have you thought about giving that perfect gift to a family or friend who is recovering from surgery and unable to cook? Or perhaps your neighbor just had a baby? How about a special wedding gift? A “gift certificate” for a Personal Chef Service is a unique and valuable gift that keeps on giving!

#7 Host a Dinner Party by Hiring A Personal Chef

The very thought of hosting a dinner party can be intimidating and you rarely get to spend time with your guests because you’re too busy slaving in the kitchen. The thought of all the preparation and planning is downright daunting. Perhaps hiring a Personal Chef full time is not what you need. Rather, their service can help you plan an elegant dinner party effortlessly. Instead of spending countless hours over the stove days before your event, you can hand off everything to your Personal Chef and enjoy a lively evening in your home with your friends.  What’s not to love about that?

#8 Handpicked Quality Ingredients with Each Meal

Ever wonder what’s in your food? We all want fresh food with quality ingredients in our meals, right? Whether you dine out or order in, there’s no way of knowing what the exact ingredients are and that can be scary. Especially if you have food allergies! No meal delivery service, restaurant or meal prep package can compete with the customization of hand-picked quality ingredients that a Personal Chef can offer you.

When you hire a Personal Chef, they are highly skilled at selecting quality organic fresh food that matches your dietary values. If you want fresh Salmon on Monday and Persian Lamb Meatballs on Tuesday, a Personal Chef can meet your every desire because you are number #1 and you can control what goes into your meals at every level. Does it get any better than that?

#9 Quick Healthy Meals Tailored to Your Schedule

A Personal Chef can cook for you weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. It all depends on your schedule. Some Personal Chefs prepare 1 week’s worth of fresh food that is stored in the fridge for you to enjoy during the week. Other Chefs will prepare 2 week’s worth of frozen meals to be consumed at a later time. So if you’re a busy professional who travels a lot, this might be a good option so you can quickly heat and eat healthy meals at a time that works with your busy schedule. Like magic, there are no more worries about what’s for dinner when you get home because you solved the problem long ago.

#10  Lose Weight – Track those Carbs!

Have you ever tried to lose weight on your own? It takes discipline and mechanics when it comes to tracking the nutritional values like fat, protein and carbs. What if you could have your very own Personal Chef who would take the hassle out of carb counting?

Our Chefs are trained professionals that have meal planning apps which can be tailored specifically to your dietary needs to help you calculate and track exactly how many grams of net-carbs, fat and protein you are consuming per serving. This is huge and can be done in a snap when you hire a Personal Chef to help you lose weight!

We’ve had success with helping some of our clients lose over 60 pounds in 2 months on the ketogenic diet with careful meal planning. It can work for you too! We have chefs who can cook for a variety of special diets: paleo, anti-cancer, vegan, gluten-free and more – whether you’re trying to lose weight or just eating healthier.

Create a Healthier Life Style With A Personal Chef

You can take control of your life, health and family’s well-being when you hire a Personal Chef. How? By freeing up to 15 hours a week when it comes to putting quick healthy meals on the dinner table. You’ll look like a hero when it comes to creating a more relaxed environment around the house because our Chefs can work closely with you to help eliminate the stress associated with meal planning.

Plus, they will help you monitor the nutritional aspects of your daily meals. Our Chefs can educate you on the choices you make when choosing which foods to consume and which foods to avoid.

Best of all, you can turn dinner time into a learning experience as many of our clients have kids who enjoy watching the Chef work in their kitchen making the dinner hour a fun experience for the whole family! We’re happy to offer that experience with a special family class option – just ask one of our chefs how to do that.

Alternative Options – Meal Prep Packages

If you enjoy cooking on occasion you might consider popular packaged meal prep options like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh. With these services you will spend close to 30 minutes or more preparing the meals but you are still faced with clean up afterwards. If you’re a working Mom, you will get the (guilt-free) satisfaction of cooking the family dinner yourself as it’s traditionally been done in the past. Go Super Mom!

While these services deliver the experience of a home cooked meal, can they truly save time or save money? Maybe a restaurant would be easier because there’s no time wasted with cooking and clean up but it can be expensive.  And can a packaged meal prep or restaurant alternative really offer you the customization of exactly what you’re craving that day?

Let’s not forget about the added cost to the environment of all the packaging that comes with meal prep services.  Finally, what about the ingredients? Are you clear where they’re coming from and if the sources are healthy and reputable? Especially important when you’re doing this to eat healthier or follow a particular diet for a condition you have.

A Personal Chef Can Be Your Life Coach in the Kitchen

As Personal Chefs we understand the challenges of a busy life and getting meals on the table. Because our services are so customizable we can create a plan that fits in with your life style. When you hire a Personal Chef we’re not just business partners, we can be your Life Coach. We can help you manage your time more effectively by helping you make the right choices when it comes to creating healthy meals that match your dietary philosophy. We’ll take care of everything. All you do is sit back, relax and know that you’ve solved the daunting “What’s for Dinner” dilemma cost effectively. And the whole family will love you for it!

Getting to YES When it Comes to Hiring a Personal Chef

Our collective of Personal Chefs are here to help. We are culinary pros and can help you find the right chef to eliminate the daily drudgery of meal planning. Yes, you heard that right. Contact us now and we’ll connect you with the right chef that fits your life style. Our job is to understand your challenges and help you hire a Personal Chef to solve them!  Our ultimate “value proposition” is bringing you and your loved ones back to the dinner table where you can once again share some of life’s greatest moments over a wonderful healthy meal!