Private Chef Rates and Margins (UK)
What to charge for your hours, and how to tell whether the rate is actually paying you.
The short answer
Set your hourly rate first, apply it to every hour of the booking including shopping and travel, then take a margin on top of the whole cost. Many UK private chefs work to £16 to £25 an hour with a 35 to 45 percent margin on the booking, and the test of whether the rate works is the effective hourly figure once travel is counted.
Step by step
- Pick an hourly rate you would accept. Not the one you think a client will accept. If the two differ, the problem is the size or distance of the booking.
- Apply it to every hour. Shopping, driving, cooking, plating, clearing. Chefs routinely apply it only to the hours in the kitchen.
- Add a margin on the whole cost. The margin covers your overheads and your risk: insurance, equipment, unbilled admin and the bookings that cancel.
- Check the effective hourly rate. Divide what you kept by the hours you actually gave the booking, door to door. That is the number that tells you whether the rate works.
What a £315 plan really pays per hour
The twenty portion booking, door to door, including the drive.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Quoted to the client | £315.00 |
| Shop and containers | £81.00 |
| Left for time and margin | £234.00 |
| Hours, door to door | 6.0 |
| Effective hourly rate | £39.00 |
| The same plan at twelve portions | £246.00 quoted |
| Left for time and margin | £197.40 |
| Hours, door to door | 5.2 |
| Effective hourly rate | £37.96 |
Both look healthy, but the twelve portion plan gives up over a pound an hour for a booking that fills most of the same day. Repeated weekly, that is the difference between a viable round and a busy one.
Why it matters
Private cheffing hides its economics in the drive and the shop, so a rate that looks generous per hour in the kitchen can be ordinary per hour of your actual day. Measuring door to door is the only honest test.