Hi! I am so glad I found this great website! So here is my situation... I have am a professionally trained chef who is now a Stay-At-Home Mom. I have been considering starting a Personal Chef business of my own. Well as luck would have it, I have a potential customer but I'm not exactly ready. Cooking, that's the easy part. My question is how do I charge? My guess would be food costs, labor plus a delivery charge. OR do you just charge a flat rate per meal/per/person? Right now I'm not sure if I will be cooking in her home or in mine, hence a delivery charge. I think until I become more comfortable, I would rather cook in my home and transport the food. I am looking for some feedback. In the meantime, I plan on joining APCA and getting the training materials.
To do the cooking in your own home you will need a licience from the state for either an inhome kitchen or a commerical kitchen. Your home would have to be inspected by your local health department first before doing any business. That puts you technically speaking into the catering frame of things. Personal Chefs do the job in the home of the clients and is concidered a service business so at this time there is less regulation and red tape. If you take a look at the forum archives you will see two different chargeing formats one being a flat fee and the other being a fee plus groceries. Both have their advatages. For more compleate answers give Candy Wallace a call on the 800 number and she will be happy to answer all of your questions about start up. Brian
Welcome Nancy! Brian (hi there chef!) pretty much summed it up in that cooking at home you'll need a commercial kitchen that the state/health dept. must approve of. In most (if not nearly all) states - the guidelines for a commercial kitchen are quite strict and can be very expensive (separate entrance to kitchen, even separate kitchen from the one you & your family use, separate hand/dish washing sinks & specific ventilation/refrigeration equipment to name just a few. That is why PCing is so appealing to us small business owners - no rent expense, no hassles with health dept/inspections, no special licenses...I actually enjoy cooking in other people's kitchens - my client's have a lot more space than I do and they even insist I use all their equipment/gadgets that they never use! Plus, I mess up their kitchen (I do leave it spotless!) not mine! I hope this has answered both your questions you posted. As for pricing: as Brian stated - check out the archives and definately give Candy a call for more info. Pricing is an individual decision based on such factors as your area/market, demographics & your own financial goals. Good luck!
------------------ Vunay Sawyer Tastefully Yours, Personal Chef Service vunaycooks@aol.com
