Prep sheet 001 — private chef · cooking lesson at home · Plymouth
A professional chef comes to your kitchen for an evening: part private chef, part cooking lesson. You cook together, you eat what you make, and the technique stays in your hands long after they’ve gone home. Plymouth only, for now — six chefs, one city.
No cheffy nonsense. No 40-ingredient recipes. No foam. No franchise.
Learn to cook
Anyone can follow a recipe badly. You’ll learn heat, seasoning, timing and knife work — the four things that separate a decent cook from someone reading their phone over a pan. Then presentation — how to get it onto a plate so it looks like somebody meant it.
Great food
Every session ends at your table with a meal you’d happily pay for. Chefs build the menu around what you actually want to eat on a Wednesday, not what photographs well.
Personal
Same chef every time if you want them. They’ll learn your oven’s hot corner, your blunt knives and the fact that you don’t like coriander, and they’ll work around all three.
How it runs
A standard Full Service, 7pm start. Times shift to suit you — plenty of people cook at 4pm with kids underfoot.
19:00
Shopping already done and paid for at cost. They’ll look at your knives and say something kind about them.
19:15
Everything prepped before anything gets hot. This is the bit home cooks skip and it’s the reason weeknight dinner feels like a panic attack.
19:45
Hot pan, dry protein, don’t move it. Where most home cooking quietly goes wrong, and where one evening changes the most.
20:45
The last five minutes decide how the food lands. Hot plates, dry rims, sauce spooned rather than squirted, nothing crowded to the edge. Costs nothing and changes everything.
21:00
At your table, with your people. Your chef will join you if you ask and clear off if you’d rather they didn’t.
22:15
Washing up done. A hand-written card on the counter with the three things worth remembering. That card is the whole point.
The chefs
Six of them, all cooking in other people’s kitchens across the city. Every one holds a Basic DBS check and Level 2 Food Safety, is registered as a food business with the council, and cooked a trial service for us before they saw a customer. We would rather turn a booking down than send someone who is not ready.
Three more people come with them rather than cook: a sommelier, a front of house and, on The Week Ahead only, a nutritionist. Anyone who comes into your home holds a Basic DBS check, cooking or not.
All six spent years in restaurant kitchens and wanted their evenings back. Between them they cover bread, day-boat fish and the Sunday roast, spice and dosa, pasta, the grill and its sauces, and the wok. They drive to you with knives, kit and the shopping already done — the cooking happens at yours, at your hob, on your timings. They keep their own diary, we keep them booked, and you can ask for the same one every time. Most people do. What each one is like in the room is their own description of themselves, not our assessment of them — we don’t rank them, and if the company doesn’t sound like yours, ask for someone else.
PL4 · Mutley
Nine years on hot sections in the city, the last four as a sous. Transitioned partway through, and says the rota was the only thing that had to change. Teaches bread more than anything else now.
In the roomQuiet, and unhurried to the point of stubbornness. There are long gaps while things prove and she is entirely comfortable in them, even when you are not.
Signature dish
Milk buns, torn straight off the tray
Tangzhong, a cooked flour paste that sounds like a faff and keeps them soft for three days. Ten minutes of kneading past the point you are sure it is done.
“Your oven is lying to you by about 20 degrees. Buy a £6 thermometer before you buy anything else.”
PL12 · Saltash
Ex-gastropub head chef. Day-boat fish, game off the Tamar Valley, and anything that needs a hot pan and a cold nerve.
In the roomSays very little and gets on with it. If you would rather hand the kitchen over and go back to your guests, he is the one to ask for.
Signature dish
Whole brill, roasted on the bone
Off the boat that morning, 220°C fan, brown butter and capers. He will have you take it off the bone yourself, badly, and then show you.
“You’re not searing anything, you’re steaming it. The pan’s too cold and the meat’s too wet.”
PL6 · Derriford
Grew up in her family’s catering kitchen, trained professionally at 30. Spice, dosa, and the long slow base.
In the roomWarm and argumentative. She will ask what you normally do, tell you it is wrong, and then explain why at some length.
Signature dish
Dosa, three days fermented
Rice and urad dal soaked, ground and left to sour on the counter. The batter is the dish. The filling is an afterthought she will happily argue about.
“The onions aren’t done. They’re never done when you think they are. Give them ten more minutes.”
PL1 · Barbican
Twelve years in kitchens, three of them running a pasta bar, and a childhood being corrected by his grandmother outside Bologna. Walks down to the fish quay most mornings, and teaches nervous cooks better than anyone we have.
In the roomTalks the entire way through, mostly to keep you calm, and it works. You will not get a silent hob with Gio in the kitchen.
Signature dish
Tortellini in brodo
Folded one at a time, sixty between you, in a broth started the day before. He folds four to your one and has the grace to pretend not to notice.
“Nobody’s ever ruined dinner by tasting it too often. Spoon in the pot. Now.”
PL3 · Stoke
Fifteen years on grills and sauce stations, the last six over charcoal in the Basque country. Dry-ageing, resting times, the argument about when to salt, and a plancha he refuses to travel without.
In the roomPrecise, and a bit stern about it. Every step arrives with the reason for it, whether or not you asked for the reason.
Signature dish
Côte de boeuf over charcoal
Forty days aged, salted an hour ahead, twenty minutes on the grill and twenty minutes resting. He times the rest on his phone and will not be hurried.
“You’re not resting it long enough. Whatever you think is enough, double it, and stop poking it.”
PL9 · Plymstock
Two years cooking her way round Bangkok’s night markets, then eight on a wok station in London. Pounds every paste from scratch and will not be talked out of it.
In the roomFast and loud. Everything is prepped before anything is lit, and then it is twelve minutes of shouting over the extractor.
Signature dish
Khao soi
Northern curry noodles: paste pounded from nothing, coconut cracked until the oil splits, and a nest of noodles fried hard for the top. Eat the crisp ones first.
“The wok isn’t hot. It’s never hot. Get it smoking, then give it another minute.”
PL1 · Barbican
Eleven years on restaurant floors, the last five of them running a list. Spends more time talking people out of expensive bottles than into them.
In the roomDirect about what she thinks and entirely unbothered when you disagree. She will talk you through what is in the glass if you want that, and pour and leave you to your evening if you don’t.
Sommelier
Working out what is already in your rack
She asks what you have in before she arrives and builds the evening around it. If something is worth buying she will tell you what and roughly what to spend — you buy it. We never sell you a bottle, never source one and never put one on your bill.
“The bottle you’re saving for a special occasion is getting worse, not better. Most wine was never built to wait.”
PL3 · Stoke
Fourteen years front of house, most of it in rooms of forty covers. Now spends her evenings in kitchens of eight, which she says is harder.
In the roomClose to invisible when it is going well, which is the point. She reads a room quickly and will talk to your guests all evening or barely at all, whichever the evening turns out to want.
Front of house
Keeping the chef at the hob
Plates go out, glasses stay filled and the table is cleared between courses, so nobody cooking has to stop and do it. The washing up is included at every level anyway, chef on their own included — what she buys you is that the person at the hob never leaves it.
“If you’re up from the table more than twice, I’ve done it wrong.”
PL4 · Mutley
Nine years planning menus for a school kitchen and then a rowing club, which is two ways of feeding people who would rather be eating something else.
In the roomAsks a lot of questions and writes the answers down. Entirely unshockable about what you currently eat, and will not tell you off for any of it.
Nutritionist
Working out the week you will actually cook
Comes with The Week Ahead, and with no other session. Rings you before the chef shops and asks which nights you are in, who eats what, any allergy the week has to be built round, and what you are sick of. Does not cook: your chef does that with you. Not a dietitian, and anything medical is a conversation for your GP.
“Nobody fails at eating well on a Sunday. It’s Wednesday at seven that needs a plan.”
Prices
No membership, no credits, no subscription you forget to cancel. Every price below is for a chef on their own — they shop, cook, teach, plate and wash up — for an evening in PL1–PL7 and PL9. PL8 and PL10–PL21 add £20 for travel, and a morning start adds £25. Ingredients typically land between £20 and £55 depending on the menu, and you see the receipt.
£120
per session · up to 2 people
Start here
£220
per session · up to 4 people
£380from
per evening · up to 8 people
Adding crew
A chef on their own is the standard booking and the price above is the whole of it. If the evening needs more, each person is a supplement on top of any session: front of house +£90, a sommelier +£110, or a mixologist +£140. Take one, or take front of house with one of the other two and pay the two supplements added together — there is no bundle price and no discount for combining them. What each one does.
A session takes one drinks specialist: a sommelier or a mixologist, never both.
Gifts
Any session can be given to someone else. You pay, we send you a card to hand over, and they choose their own dates with us afterwards. It is a booking held in their name rather than a voucher, so there is no code to lose and nothing to redeem. Their allergies and their kitchen are our problem, not yours. Give a session, or read how a gift works.
They need to be in PL1–PL21. If you don’t know their postcode we’ll check it with them, and tell you before you pay if it puts them outside the area. Valid for 6 months from purchase.
Charity auctions
Running an auction for a Plymouth cause this Christmas? Ask us for a lot. We donate a Full Service session — a chef in the winner’s kitchen for an evening, cooking with them — and send you the wording for the catalogue and a card for whoever wins it. We can do [two] before Christmas, and we’d rather they went to causes with a Plymouth connection. Email [email protected] with the date and the cause.
The lot is the session fee. Ingredients are bought at cost by the winner on the night, and we put that in the catalogue wording ourselves so nobody bids on a surprise. The winner needs to be in PL1–PL21 and has [12 months] from the auction. After that it works exactly like a gift: a session held in their name, no code, nothing to redeem.
No travel charge across PL1–PL7 and PL9. PL8 and PL10–PL21 add £20. Mornings add £25, because your chef shops the night before — the good stuff isn’t open at seven. Every tier is chef-only as standard — add front of house, a sommelier, a mixologist, or front of house with one of the other two on top of any of them. Cancel free up to 48 hours out. Inside 48 hours we charge half, because your chef has already shopped. We are not registered for VAT, so there is none to add: the price you see is the price you pay.
Pick your crew
Every booking is chef-only as standard: they shop, cook, teach, plate and wash up. Add front of house, a sommelier or a mixologist when the evening is doing more work than dinner: a birthday, an anniversary, or the night you have fourteen people round and no intention of leaving the table.
| Included | Front of house+£90 | Sommelier+£110 | Mixologist+£140 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopping, cooking, teaching, plating | Included | Included | Included |
| Washing up and the kitchen put back | Included | Included | Included |
| Door answered, coats taken, glasses kept full | Included | Not included | Not included |
| Courses cleared and the table reset between them | Included | Not included | Not included |
| Your chef stays at the hob teaching, instead of running food | Included | Not included | Not included |
| A buy list before you shop, matched to the menu you chose | Not included | Included | Not included |
| Wine poured and talked through, course by course | Not included | Included | Not included |
| Wine glasses and a decanter brought in and taken away | Not included | Included | Not included |
| Three cocktails built from your bottles, mixed at the table | Not included | Not included | Included |
| A zero-proof version of every one of them | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Glassware and bar kit brought in and taken away | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Best for | Dinner parties where you want to actually sit down. | The menu you want the wine to match, without guessing in the shop. | Birthdays, anniversaries, showing off. |
Add them up There is no bundle and no discount for adding more than one — a combination costs exactly the sum of its parts. Front of house and a sommelier together is +£200; front of house and a mixologist together is +£230. Your mixologist will teach you the builds too, if you want them, and your sommelier will tell you why the wine works — same deal as the kitchen.
When Every add-on runs seven days, mornings included.
Drinks crew A mixologist or a sommelier, never both, so there is no session with one of each. Two people whose whole job is the drink cannot work one home kitchen without doing each other’s, so pick the one that suits the evening: cocktails built at the table, or the wine matched to the menu.
Detail Three of these have a page of their own: what front of house does all evening, what a sommelier brings and what they never buy, and what adding a mixologist includes.
Drinks The alcohol is yours to supply. We don’t sell it and we won’t buy it for you, so the spirits, wine and beer have to come from you. Your mixologist brings the glassware, mixers and bar kit — the ice is yours, out of your own freezer — and builds the drinks round your menu; your sommelier sends a list to buy from and brings the wine glasses and a decanter.
Cook for us
For Plymouth and Tamar Valley chefs who want the cooking without the admin. Self-employed, your own diary, cooking in clients’ kitchens — no premises, no lease and nothing stored at yours.
Plymouth has good chefs the trade is wasting — low pay, long weeks, a rota you see on Thursday. We find the bookings, take the payment, carry the insurance and have the awkward money conversation so you don’t have to. You drive over, you cook what you’d cook if anybody let you, you eat it with them, you go home. We tell you plainly what we don’t offer as well as what we do.
What it’s like to cook with usThe evening hour by hour, what you need and what we pay for — all of it on the cook-for-us page.
Book
Plymouth, and as far out as the drive stays sensible. Check yours — it takes a second and we’ll tell you straight if you’re outside it. Or answer six questions and we’ll suggest a chef and show you the whole price.
Not ready to book yet? Tell me when you launch, and we’ll send you news about it for up to 12 months. Nothing else.
Everywhere we cook
Plymouth, closer (the dashed box)
A picture of the area, not the rule: the outlines are from 2012 and simplified, so the checker above decides which band your kitchen is in. Drawn by us from open postal boundaries. Postal Boundaries © GeoLytix copyright and database right 2012. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2012. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2012. Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2012.
Where we cook
No travel charge across PL1–PL7 and PL9: PL1 the Barbican, the city centre and Devonport; PL2 Keyham and North Prospect; PL3 Peverell, Efford and Stoke; PL4 Mutley and Greenbank; PL5 St Budeaux; PL6 Derriford, Estover and Southway; PL7 Plympton; PL9 Plymstock and Hooe.
PL8 and PL10–PL21 add £20 for travel: PL8 Yealmpton; PL10 Millbrook; PL11 Torpoint; PL12 Saltash; PL13–PL18; PL19 Tavistock; PL20 Yelverton; PL21 Ivybridge. Everywhere else is a waiting list, and the checker above tells you which you are.
Straight answers
Anything we’ve missed, email [email protected] and a human replies.