The problem
Somebody spends the dinner with their back to it
Cooking for five to eight at home means one person at the hob while everybody else is at the table. It is usually whoever did the inviting.
Prep sheet 006 — private chef · Plymouth
A private chef.
Put the knife down.
The Takeover is the one evening we don’t make you cook. Your chef shops, cooks, serves to the table and clears, for five to eight of you, in your own kitchen — and the kitchen goes back spotless. Teaching is optional: stand at the hob if you want to, or sit down and be fed. Plymouth only, PL1–PL21.
Teaching optional. Washing up included. The bottles are yours, because we hold no licence.
What you are buying is the evening off
Every other evening we sell is a cooking lesson with dinner attached. This one is dinner, with the lesson there if anybody wants it.
The fix
Your chef cooks, serves and clears
They arrive with the shopping done, cook the menu you chose, bring each course to the table, clear it, and put the kitchen back. You don’t pick up a knife all night.
The limit
It is your kitchen, and it is not a restaurant
One chef, your hob, five to eight people. Nothing is cooked anywhere else and nothing turns up in a box. The drinks are yours. If you want the door answered and the glasses kept full as well, add front of house.
The evening
An example: a half-past-six start on a 4-hour evening. Times shift to suit you. The version where you cook is here.
4 hours, and you sit through all of them
18:30
Your chef arrives and unpacks
Shopping already done and paid for at cost, from the list you approved. Knives, kit and an apron come with them. You show them the hob and then you are finished.
18:45
Mise en place, without you
Everything prepped before anything gets hot. You are welcome at the hob and under no obligation to be there — teaching is optional on this one, and nobody will hand you a peeler.
19:30
Your people arrive
It is your door, so you answer it — unless you added front of house, in which case somebody else takes the coats and keeps the glasses full from the bottles you bought.
20:00
Dinner, served to the table
Each course cooked at your hob, carried out and cleared away. Hot plates, dry rims, nothing crowded to the edge. You stay sitting down.
21:30
Your chef joins you, or doesn’t
They will sit down with you if you ask and clear off if you would rather they didn’t. Either is fine and neither is awkward.
22:30
Kitchen back better than they found it
Washing up done, surfaces wiped, kit back in the car. It is in the price and it is not negotiable, including the roasting tin.
What it costs
One flat fee for the evening, not a price per head. Prices are placeholders until commercial sign-off.
From £380, and you see the receipts
The Takeover is from £380 for five to eight people and 4 hours. Shared across a table of 8 that comes to from £48 a head — plus ingredients at what they cost, with the receipt. Sessions in PL8 and PL10–PL21 carry a £20 travel charge, and a morning start adds £25. We are not registered for VAT, so there is none to add. The whole price is shown before you commit to anything.
If the evening needs more people than a chef, each is a supplement on top: front of house +£90, a sommelier +£110, or a mixologist +£140. One drinks specialist a session, never both. Cancel free up to 48 hours out; inside 48 hours we charge half, because your chef has already shopped.
Questions
Anything else, email hello@forkingchefing.com and a person answers.
The ones people ask before hiring a private chef
- Is this a private chef in the ordinary sense?
- Yes. On The Takeover your chef cooks, serves and clears, and you don’t pick up a knife all night. What is unusual is the rest of what we do: every other evening is a cooking lesson, where you cook alongside them and keep the technique. On this one the lesson is optional.
- How many people can you cook for?
- The Takeover is for five to eight. For fewer, one of the other two evenings is the right booking. We don’t take a bigger table than that, so ask us before you promise anyone a seat.
- Who is the chef?
- One of 6, all Plymouth. We don’t make you pick one off a list: answer six questions and we suggest one, with the reason, and you can ask for somebody else. They are all here.
- Are the chefs vetted?
- Every chef holds a Basic DBS check, which is the level available for work in private homes, 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. Every session is covered by £5m of public liability insurance.
- Do you bring the food?
- Yes. Your chef sends a shopping list, you approve it, they buy it and you pay what it cost. Receipts go over with the invoice, every single time.
- Do you bring the drinks?
- No, and we can’t. We hold no licence, so we neither sell alcohol nor buy it on your behalf. The bottles have to be yours. A sommelier will tell you what to buy and pour it, or a mixologist will build cocktails from what you bought.
- Allergies and diets?
- Declared at booking and designed around from the start. Be honest with us: a home kitchen is never an allergen-free kitchen and we won’t pretend otherwise.
- My kitchen is tiny.
- So is most of Plymouth’s. Send a photo when you book and your chef plans around one hob ring and a chopping board if that’s what there is.
Next
Book the evening, keep your hands clean
Six questions, a suggested chef, and the whole price before you commit to anything. Confirmed once we have spoken.