---
title: "Personal Chef: The Weekly Meal Prep Program for Selected Chefs"
description: "Learn how Personal Chef works for invited chefs in selected countries: weekly clients, hours, pricing and payments."
---
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# Personal Chef: The Weekly Meal Prep Program for Selected Chefs
## Learn how Personal Chef works for invited chefs in selected countries: weekly clients, hours, pricing and payments.
Personal Chef is an invitation-only program. It is available only in selected countries and destinations, and only to chefs that Take a Chef has selected to take part. If you have not received an invitation email for Personal Chef, the program is not available to you yet.
### What is Personal Chef?
Personal Chef connects you with weekly clients in your area: the same client, the same day, every week, in their home. You cook practical, home-style meals for the week, tailored to each person's goal, tastes and restrictions. It is not an event or fine dining service. Clients are validated by Take a Chef before they reach you.
Most clients book Monday to Thursday mornings, so you can combine Personal Chef with your usual events, evenings and weekends. One client is usually one session a week, about four sessions a month. Two sessions a week is the maximum, and every two weeks is possible if your calendar allows. We cannot promise a number of clients: it depends on demand in your area and your free days.
### How to get started (selected chefs only)
1. Do the onboarding call with our voice agent, using the button in your invitation email. If it won't start, try another browser or your phone. If you prefer not to talk to a voice agent, we can call you.
2. Confirm anything still pending from the follow-up email we send after the call, such as your commitment to keep your calendar up to date.
3. Create your Personal Chef menu in Private Chef Manager: go to Gastronomic proposal, then Dishes, and click "Add dish" for each dish. Then go to Gastronomic proposal, then Menus, click "New menu" and name it exactly "Personal Chef Weekly Meal Prep". Add at least 5 practical meal prep dishes, with options for vegetarian, gluten-free, high-protein and allergy clients. Price, timings and guests in the editor are not used, and starter, main and dessert don't matter.
4. Check the location and radius on your Take a Chef profile. This is the area your clients come from.
### How a client reaches you
1. Take a Chef checks your calendar and sends the client a proposal with your rate, your two fixed fees and your Personal Chef menu. You don't write the quote.
2. When the client chooses you, the request appears in your Private Chef Manager inbox, and we send you the client's phone number and two call slots within the next 72 hours (8:00 to 21:00 local time).
3. Choose a slot and confirm it to the client in the inbox chat.
4. Call the client at that time to get to know them and agree the menu and details.
5. Send the Request Money from Private Chef Manager. The session is confirmed only when the client pays. Don't shop or plan before that.
The system offers you only on the free days in your usual Take a Chef calendar, so keep it up to date. If you get a client on a day you can't do, contact us straight away. An unjustified cancellation carries a penalty.
### Your rate, hours and commission
You set your hourly rate within your destination's range, and it is the same for all your clients. It covers menu planning and all time at the client's home: cooking, portioning, storing and cleaning. Transport and shopping time are two fixed fees per session added on top. Ingredients are not included.
Session hours come from a fixed table based on meals per week and number of people, from 3 to 8 hours (most are 4 to 6). Menu complexity doesn't change the hours; your menu adapts to them. Don't charge extra hours yourself. If a session keeps running over, contact us and we will review it.
Take a Chef's commission is 20% of what the client pays and always sits on top of your price. To calculate the amount to request: your price (hourly rate × hours + transport fee + shopping fee) divided by 0.8. For example, a price of 200 means a Request Money of 250, and you receive 200.
### How to send the weekly Request Money
1. In your Private Chef Manager inbox, open the chat with the client.
2. Click the three dots and choose "Request money".
3. Enter the amount the client pays, commission included.
4. In the note, write the session date as year-month-day followed by "Personal Chef", for example: 2026-11-12 · Personal Chef.
5. Click Next to send it.
Send one Request Money per session, every week, in the same chat. When the client pays you receive an email; block that day in your calendar. We pay you 48 hours after each session. Using another note format delays your payment.
### Ingredients and the service day
- The client pays for ingredients at cost: you shop, share the receipts, and the client pays you directly. This is the only payment made outside Take a Chef.
- You cook in the client's kitchen, never in your own. The client provides containers; if they have none, add them to the grocery receipt.
- Leave every meal portioned and labelled with storage and reheating instructions, and leave the kitchen clean.
- Use a modular menu: a few bases (proteins, sides, vegetables, sauces) combined into different meals, adapted to each person in the home.
### Skipped weeks and changes
- If the client travels, cancels or there's a holiday, first try another day that same week. If that isn't possible, skip the week and don't send a Request Money.
- If you can't make it one week, tell your client as soon as possible and try to move the session within the week.
- Going on holiday: block the days in your calendar and tell your clients in advance.
- Cancelling a paid session follows the standard Take a Chef cancellation policy, and refunds are handled by Take a Chef.
### When to contact us
Reply to the Take a Chef team's email if you want to change your hourly rate, the client wants to change their weekly day, a session keeps running over time, you and a client aren't a good fit, the client has a complaint or asks for a refund, or you have questions about taxes or contracts.
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