Guides
Direct hire versus the network.
You can find a chef on your own. Here is what the network adds, what it costs, and where a direct hire still makes sense — said plainly, because the honest version sells us better than the glossy one.
What the network adds
- Vetted chefs — verified experience, insurance, and health-permit posture
- Published prices, honored — the same card you read here
- The written quote as the confirmed total
- Backup coverage if your chef gets sick the morning of
- Itemized fee stack — 20% service and GET on their own lines
Where direct hire wins
If you already have a chef you trust, keep them — a standing relationship with a good cook is worth more than a marketplace. Where direct hire fails is the gap cases: the vacation week, the event too big for one cook, the Thursday your guy is booked. That is when the roster matters.
Keep reading
- guide Chef versus restaurant: the honest math.
- guide Private versus personal: which one you need.
- guide The guides.
- guide How it works.
- guide How to hire a private chef.
- guide The kitchen question.
- guide The COI and the freight elevator.
- guide Signature dinners: food in the band. Stay Chef: groceries at cost.
Get a written quote
The button is not “Book now.” You tell us the table; we send a written quote — and that quote is the confirmed total.