Dining at Home with a Private Top Level Chef. Thoughts?
 

I'm curious to get everyone's opinion about something. Let's say their was a service where a normal person could rent one of the Bay Area's best chefs to come and cook dinner for you and a group of your friends. For as little as $25 up to $300 a person, the chef would come to your home, buy the ingredients, cook and serve the meal and then clean up.

This service could be a really great alternative to dining out. It would allow a group to enjoy a high quality prepared meal in their own home. Also, it could sidestep some of the problems one encounters when going out to eat: long wait times, crowded noisy restaurants, bad service, over priced wine, etc. This service could also be a really great way to plan and participate in an unforgettable dinner party, the kind your friends would talk about forever.

What I'm curious to find out is if their are any factors, whatsoever, that would make someone not use this service in lue of dining out. Meaning, what are the tangible and intangible apprehensions that anyone has to allowing for and choosing this type of dining experience?

The people who do this are called "personal chefs" and they are abundant.

Right, but I'm wondering what would stop someone from using a personal chef for an evening as an alternative to dining out?

cost prohibitive for most people. Most chefs aren't going to charge $25 for buying, driving, making a meal. Furthermore, dining out is an "outing". Staying at home is well just staying at home. I personally don't even like the idea.

Sometimes I like the atmosphere of a restaurant--we choose ones that aren't noisy, have good service, don't have long wait timnes, ewtc.

Usually, when we go out to dinner, it's just DH and me, not a group, to a moderately priced ethnic restaurant; the personal chef option would probably be too expensive for us.

Would a personal chef serve the same meal to all guests? I wouldn't want everyone to be limited to the same food.

A couple of issues -

I don;t cook and our kitchen is not that well-equipped - certainly not everything a top level chef would need. Do I then expect the bring his/her own equipment?

Other than that the main issue would be cost. We spend about $80 to $90 for a regular dinner out in the neighborhood, including a glass of w ine each, coffe, tax and tip. I can;t imagine that you could get a top quality chef - plus ingredients - for anything close to that amount.

Plus we LIKE going out to dinner most of the time. If we don;t feel like it - we order in.

And how would you know that a "private" chef is really any good?

I can see circumstances in which a chef/caterer would do this for a special event - but not for the prices you're talking about - unless $300 per couple.

"Right, but I'm wondering what would stop someone from using a personal chef for an evening as an alternative to dining out?"

Most like going OUT to eat.

I live in New York, where I can eat a top restaurant for $300 a person, with wine. With plenty of cash left over for the tip! So I doubt if you will get any takers if your pricing is anything near that level, unless restaurants in your area are far more expensive than they are in my city. A meal for 10 would cost $3,000! I can take a group to almost any restaurant here for that price. Even if you charge $200 a person, I don't think it represents a good value. .Maybe this would work in a place devoid of good eating places. Then, too, there is your claim of one of the Bay area's "best" chefs. By whose standards?

Maybe you could do this by offering ingredients that are hard to come by/ very expensive/ hard to prepare/ intimidating, to many people. For example, advertise that you will prepare a white truffle feast in season. Truffles command huge prices in restaurants and you could probably even make a profit if you have access to wholesale sources.

Or do it for New Year's Eve or Valentine's Day when restaurants are known for gouging and less than first rate food.

People hire "private chefs" for intimate dinners (say 4 to 8 people) all the time. We've done it on numerous very special occasions but for the "normal person" (your words) it's not something one would do very often.

WHY??? - If you are truly hiring a "best chef" than the cost per person is not going to be anywhere near $25/person (perhaps you had a typo and meant $250) but more likely closer to the $300/person range you gave. Most "normal people" don't have the intimate settings in their home that would justify repeated meals at that price. They would rather spend the same amount an dine in a private room like a wine seller or chef's table at an upscale restaurant where you get not only atmosphere but exceptional service. Ask yourself, how many times do you want to have a fancy dinner in your own kitchen or dining room vs. going out to someplace new and unique???

So is the service you are proposing a viable business plan? Possibly, but don't count on a lot of repeat business - at least not on a regular basis. It seems to me that for a "normal person" it's something they might consider once a year, or so.

Sounds like you are working on a business plan and perhaps should google "Private Chefs San Francisco" and see the 4440 results that came up within .17 seconds.

I cannot imagine any chef doing this for $25 pp, let along a top level one.

I want to thank everyone for the great responses. I want to assure everyone that what I'm talking about is viable and affordable. (RoamsAround - $25 was not a typo). It seems the general theme here is the cost per person of the meal. But thanks for all the great input.

Abram - Let's say the chef worked with the host to plan the meal for all the guest, taking into account tastes, preferences and dietary restrictions.

I frequent a cooking board where there are at least two personal chefs. They seem to do very well. Many times I think they are cooking for couples who both work and want meals done. I think the "turn off" here is the use of "top level". If you are talking about the chef at the Slanted Door, then, no $25 isn't gonna get it. If you are talking about working with colinthedude for a meal, I'm sure it "can" be done.
We went to a lovely birthday party weekend for a friend and they hired a personal chef to come in and do the birthday dinner for 18. Tables delivered, with linens and silver. Chef arrived and cooked appetizers, dinner and dessert. Delicious.

Meant to add, I think these men have regular clients, in addition to other dinners for folks.

With the right chef and the right group of guests, it could be a wonderful experience...but not in my 1000sqft apartment and not as a substitute for going to restaurants generally.

Kayd, why couldn't it be a substitue for going to restaurants?

When we go out to eat, I almost always order shrimp or crab, which DH doesn't eat--so right there, it's impossible to plan a menu that will please us both.

A friend of mine is a personal chef and has done many house parties. Including people who have rented vacation homes and wanted a special meal in the place they've rented.

There certainly are many reasons people hire my friend. Some to have their home stocked with healthy meals, others have dietary restrictions and don't want all the salt and butter that restaurants pile into food.

One reason for not doing personal chef frequently: Going to a restaurant does not involve cleaning the whole house, as having guests at home does. The cooking and serving is only a portion of the work that needs to be done when guests come.

Does the $25 per person include food and a fee for the chef or is that just the chefs fee?

I think the biggest issue is that a lot of people LIKE going out to dinner. Trying a new place, new food and a new chef.

I understand that dome people (famous) might want a full time personal checf to guard their privacy. And a cateredparty once in a while makes sense. But not 7 - or even 2 or 3 - nights per week.

And I have a whole lot of confidence that a $25 per person meal for 2 wouldn;t make me really happy.