Personal Chef.Tastings, menus, and weekly meal plans — packaged.

Personal chef sits in the rare space where a $200K solo business can run out of a working chef's existing knives and a $4,000 traveling kit. The constraint is sales and licensing, not equipment. Below is the launch order.

Decision 1: Which service to lead with

Weekly meal prep: 5–7 days of meals prepped in the client's kitchen once a week. $250–$450 per client visit + groceries. Recurring. The most predictable model — once a client is on weekly, they renew for years.

Dinner parties: in-home dinner for 6–12 guests, cooked and served (or just cooked) by the chef. $145–$285 per guest including food. Higher per-event revenue, lower frequency. Great for building reputation and Instagram.

Small catering: 25–80 guests, dropped off or served. $35–$95 per guest. Higher revenue per event, much higher operational complexity (vehicles, transport bags, staffing). Most personal chefs avoid this until year 2+.

Lead with weekly meal prep for the recurring revenue; add dinner parties for the marketing leverage; consider catering only if a specific client base demands it.

Decision 2: Licensing and kitchen rules

Personal chef is one of the rare food businesses that operates legally in the client's kitchen in most states — because you're cooking for one household at a time, with the client's permission. ServSafe Manager certification ($175) is recommended everywhere and required in many counties. A commercial kitchen rental ($25–$45/hour) is needed only if you do off-site prep — for meal prep cooked in the client's home, you don't need a commercial kitchen at all.

Insurance: chef-specific general liability + product liability ($600–$1,400/year) plus auto coverage if you're hauling equipment in your vehicle. Skip business interruption insurance until year 2.

Decision 3: The travel kit

• 8-inch chef's knife + paring knife + serrated bread knife (Wüsthof Classic Ikon, Shun): $300–$500
• Cutting boards (one meat, one veg, one bread): $80–$160
• Vitamix Vita-Prep 3 or Robot Coupe — clients won't have this: $480–$770
• Anova Precision Cooker Pro (immersion circulator): $196
• Avantco IC18S induction burner — adds a stove without needing gas: $155
• Cambro insulated catering bag for transport: $185–$430
• Vacuum sealer for prep + portion storage (VacMaster VP215 chamber): $399–$1,400
• Insurance, ServSafe, business banking, basic LLC: $1,200–$2,400

All-in: $3,500–$6,500. The most-underrated piece is the chamber vacuum sealer — vacuum-sealing portioned meals turns a 5-day meal-prep service into a 7-day one without quality loss.

The first 30 clients

Three channels. First: Instagram and TikTok — personal chef is one of the rare service businesses where well-lit food photos and short prep videos move actual revenue. 4 posts a week from your client kitchens (with permission) for 90 days books most chef's first 10 clients. Second: Facebook neighborhood groups — 'looking for a personal chef who can do gluten-free meal prep' posts run several times a week in any zip code with $200K+ household income. Third: HiredHippo, PersonalChef.com, Take-A-Chef — directory sites that cost $39–$95/month and provide initial pipeline.

Pricing

Weekly meal prep for a 2-person household: $250–$385/visit + groceries (clients reimburse cost + 10–15% markup). Weekly meal prep for a 4-person household: $385–$550/visit + groceries. Dinner party for 8: $145–$220/guest. Skip per-hour pricing — clients haggle on hours, never on per-meal or per-guest.

Our Personal Chef Toolkit packages the weekly meal prep menu templates, the client intake form (dietary restrictions, equipment in their kitchen, food preferences), the per-visit pricing engine, and the grocery-receipt reconciliation sheet — everything to launch professional from week one.

The single biggest pricing mistake a new personal chef makes is billing by the hour. Below is what to do instead.

Per-hour pricing (avoid)

Billing $45–$75/hr for personal chef work invites the client to optimize against you. They watch the clock, ask whether you can 'work faster next time,' and resent paying for the dishwasher loading at the end. Don't bill hourly except for one-off consults.

Per-meal pricing

The right default. $12–$22 per portion delivered, with a $250–$385 minimum per visit. The client sees their week's worth of meals as a fixed cost, you smooth the hourly variance, and the pricing scales naturally with household size.

Per-event pricing for parties

Dinner parties bill per guest, not per hour. $145–$285 per guest for a 4-course dinner; $85–$165 per guest for a hot-buffet brunch. Food cost runs about 28% of price; labor about 22%. Net margin: ~50%.

Monthly subscription (the upgrade)

Move every weekly client onto a monthly recurring billing arrangement after their first month. Bill on the 1st, cooks on whatever 4 days fit the calendar that month. Average monthly subscription in 2026: $1,400–$2,800/household. Cancellation rate on monthly is 6–10% per year vs. 30–40% on per-visit. The pricing identical; the model retains clients far longer.

Our Personal Chef Toolkit includes the per-meal, per-event, and monthly subscription pricing templates plus the conversion script for moving a per-visit client onto monthly at the end of their first month.

The personal chef who shows up with their own tools is 35–45% faster per visit than the chef who works with whatever the client has. Below is the kit that pays for itself in the first month.

The knife roll

8-inch chef's knife, 6-inch utility, 3-inch paring, 9-inch serrated bread knife, kitchen shears, sharpening steel. Wüsthof Classic Ikon or Shun set is the standard. The client's knives are almost always dull; using yours saves real time on every visit.

Battery-free heat

Bring your own portable induction burner (Avantco IC18S). Adds a second cooking surface to any kitchen and works even when the client's range is broken or unfamiliar to you. Adds maybe 40% capacity to a 4-burner residential range.

Precision cooking

Immersion circulator (Anova Precision Cooker Pro) handles 12 portioned proteins in one container while you build sides on the burners. Vacuum sealer (VacMaster chamber) portions and labels meals — adding the sealer turned what was a 5-day fridge service into a 7-day one.

Transport

Insulated Cambro GoBag or comparable catering bag for moving prepped food between client homes. Reduces dish runs back to your car from 4 to 1 per visit; protects food from temperature swings during multi-client days.

The kit value proposition

Tell prospective clients: 'I bring my own knives, my own induction burner, my own immersion circulator and vacuum sealer. Your kitchen doesn't need to be set up for chef work — I bring the setup with me.' That single line wins clients away from chefs who depend on the client's equipment.

Our Personal Chef Toolkit includes the new-client kitchen intake form (so you know what equipment they actually have before the first visit), the travel-kit packing checklist, and the per-visit prep timeline template.