How Much Does A Private Chef Cost In Sydney?

A Cook Day, with Michele cooking the week ahead in your own kitchen: From $800 + groceries + GST. A dinner party cooked and served at your table: From $110 per guest . Weekly plans delivered instead: From $990.

What You Are Paying For

Every figure on this page is a chef fee. It covers planning the menu around your household, sourcing the produce, the cooking itself, and the kitchen left the way it was found. Two costs sit outside it: the groceries and GST.

A Week Of Meals, Cooked In Your Kitchen

The main service. Michele comes to you one day a week, cooks the meals for the days ahead, and portions and labels everything before he leaves. Two levels, depending on how much of the week you want covered.

Weekly In-Home Chef

From $800 + groceries + GST

Signature Weekly Chef

From $1,100 + groceries + GST

One Evening, Cooked And Served

A dinner party at your own table: a multi-course menu built around the occasion, cooked in your kitchen and paced through the evening. Priced per guest rather than per evening, so a table of four and a table of ten are charged for what each actually takes.

Intimate Dinner

From $110 per guest

Signature Tasting

From $250 per guest

Delivered Instead Of Cooked In Your Kitchen

If you would rather not have a chef in the house, the same cooking arrives portioned and ready to heat, on a weekly plan. Priced by how many meals you take.

20 Meals

From $990

28 Meals

From $1,590

What Moves The Number

Three things, roughly in order of weight: how many people are eating, how much of the week you want covered, and how much the menu changes from one week to the next. A household of two on a repeating menu sits at the bottom of the range; a family wanting breakfast through dinner with the menu rewritten weekly sits at the top.

Why Groceries Are Billed Separately

Because they are yours. Michele buys what your menu needs and passes on what it cost, so a week built on fish and a week built on slow-cooked cuts are not charged as though they were the same week. Folding groceries into a flat fee would mean charging every household for the most expensive one.

Is It Cheaper Than Eating Out?

It depends on what it replaces. A Cook Day is usually weighed against a week of takeaway and restaurant meals rather than against a supermarket shop, because it takes away the planning, the shopping and the cooking as well as the food.

Questions About Cost

Get A Price For Your Household

Tell Michele how many people he is cooking for and how much of the week you want covered, and he will come back with a figure.

Questions About Cost

Is a personal chef the same as a private chef?

In Australia the two words are used for the same thing: a chef who cooks for one household rather than for a restaurant. Whether you call it a personal chef or a private chef, the service and the price are the same ones on this page. The distinction people usually mean is a different one — whether the chef is employed full time by a family, which Michele is not, or booked for a Cook Day or an evening, which is what this is.

How much does a private chef cost per month?

There is no monthly rate: a Cook Day is booked and billed by the week, so a month is simply four of them, plus the groceries for each. A week starts at From $800 + groceries + GST. Booking every week is also the cheaper way to work, because the menu planning carries over instead of starting again each time.

Do I pay for the groceries as well?

Yes. The chef fee and the groceries are charged separately, and the groceries are passed on at what they cost. GST applies on top of the chef fee.

What does the chef fee include?

Menu planning around your household, sourcing the ingredients, the cooking itself, and the kitchen cleaned down before Michele leaves. On a Cook Day it also covers portioning and labelling the meals for the days ahead.

Is a dinner party priced per guest or per evening?

Per guest. A three- to four-course evening for a small table and a five-course tasting for a larger one are different amounts of work, and pricing per guest is what keeps a small dinner from carrying the cost of a large one.

Is a Cook Day dearer than having meals delivered?

They are priced on different things — one on the day Michele spends in your kitchen, the other on how many meals you take that week. The figures above sit side by side so you can compare them against what your household actually eats.

How do I get an exact price?

Tell Michele how many people he is cooking for and how much of the week you want covered. Those two answers move the number more than anything else, and he can quote from them.