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Private chef pay

How Much Do Private Chefs Make?

The official median pay figure covers chefs and head cooks, mostly restaurant and hotel kitchens, and it counts employees only. BLS says 7% of chefs and head cooks, across the whole occupation, are self-employed, and those workers are left out of that median.

A private chef sells a dinner or a week of meals, so this page sets those published prices next to restaurant-employee pay, with a ZIP code tool and a calculator for your own bookings.

A private chef in a dark apron plates a course at a kitchen island in a family home.
$62,470 a year
Median for chefs and head cooks, mostly restaurants and hotels, BLS May 2025[1]
The self-employed and nearly every private chef.
$150 per guest, from
Starting price per guest on a Denver private chef's October 2026 price list, groceries included; a price, not income[11]
The list runs to $250 per guest; groceries come out of it; not a national figure.
$98,560 a year
Where the top-paid tenth of employed chefs and head cooks start, mostly restaurants and hotels, BLS May 2025[1]
The other 90% of employees, and everyone who is self-employed.

Which figure fits you depends on whether you cook for an employer or sell dinners and weeks of meals yourself.

Chef pay near you

Employed chefs and head cooks in Seattle earn a median of $80,330, against $62,470 nationally

Every US ZIP code is matched. BLS publishes a median for employed chefs and head cooks in 459 of 528 areas; the other 69 show the state figure, and the tool says which. Health permits, food handler cards and cottage-food rules are local and differ by state and county.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue pays employed chefs and head cooks a median of $80,330
BLS May 2025: $80,330 a year for employed chefs and head cooks in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, not counting the self-employed. That is 29% above the national median, across 3,740 jobs.
New York-Newark-Jersey City: a $71,780 median for employed chefs and head cooks
Employed chefs and head cooks in New York-Newark-Jersey City earn $71,780 a year (BLS May 2025), and the self-employed are not counted. That is 15% above the national median, across 20,010 jobs.
Employed chefs and head cooks in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach earn a median of $57,940
In Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, BLS May 2025 shows $57,940 a year for employed chefs and head cooks in that restaurant-heavy code; the self-employed are not counted. That puts it 7% below the national median, across 8,210 jobs.

Sources: BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 35-1011, by area, mostly restaurant and hotel kitchens; Census ZIP-to-county file; USDA rural-urban codes. County figures are not shown because the closest Census code is a catch-all. No agency publishes self-employed pay by area, so the calculator's area pricing uses the pay level of employed chefs and head cooks as its guide. The lookup runs in your browser. It loads a small file for the first three digits of your ZIP code from this site and sends nothing else.

Chef pay by state

Rhode Island pays employed chefs and head cooks a median of $79,930; Louisiana pays $45,570

The table shows the national figure, the highest and lowest states, and the states with the most of these jobs. The first column is the BLS median for employed chefs and head cooks, a restaurant-heavy code, with the self-employed not counted. The second is Census average gross receipts for one-person businesses in special food services, a catch-all that also holds caterers, food service contractors and food trucks.

StateChefs and head cooks, mostly restaurants, median a year (BLS May 2025)One-person special food services business, a catch-all, average gross (Census 2024)
United States$62,470$28,513
Highest five
Rhode Island$79,930$35,278
Hawaii$77,360$51,216
District of Columbia$76,420$23,525
Washington$76,010$37,018
North Dakota$74,740$30,351
Lowest five
Louisiana$45,570$21,103
Arkansas$46,170$24,649
Iowa$47,990$27,920
Kentucky$48,070$33,047
South Dakota$48,470$26,426
Most people employed in this job
California$64,500$37,813
Florida$58,240$29,138
New York$70,670$32,517
Texas$56,080$23,385
Pennsylvania$63,860$33,068
New Jersey$74,280$33,818

First column: BLS May 2025 state medians for SOC 35-1011, chefs and head cooks, mostly restaurant and hotel kitchens; the self-employed are not surveyed. Second column: Census Nonemployer Statistics 2024, average gross receipts before expenses for one-person businesses in NAICS 7223, special food services, a catch-all that also holds caterers, food service contractors and food trucks. Census does not publish 722320 or 72232 in this file, so the catch-all is the closest figure available.

Employed or on your own

Private chefs and personal chefs are the same job here: they sell dinners and weeks of meals, and BLS does not count that pay

A private chef and a personal chef are the same job on this page. BLS surveys employees, and people selling their own dinners and weekly meals sit outside that survey, so the two columns below hold different kinds of numbers.

Choose one
AOn a payroll
+An employer sets the pay and the schedule. The median for employed chefs and head cooks, a restaurant-heavy code, is $62,470 a year, and the self-employed are not counted.
+Among chefs and head cooks on a payroll, the middle half earn between $48,440 and $78,750 a year, a band that leaves out the self-employed.
+Groceries, equipment and insurance are the kitchen's cost, not yours.
−BLS wage data "does not include pay for self-employed workers" or workers in private households, so these figures say little about a chef hired by a family, and the 1,100 private household cooks BLS does report are too few to describe them.
BYour own bookings
+You set the price. MileHighCook in Denver lists dinner at "$150 to $250 per guest", and Down to Earth Cuisine in Seattle starts at $175 per guest with an 8-guest minimum. These are prices, not income.
+Weekly meals can be priced by the hour or by the week: $75 an hour in Denver, $95 an hour in Seattle, and $300 a week plus groceries from the chef behind the YouTube channel with coffee in hand.
+Cintia Diaz, a private chef and culinary educator in New York, grossed about $66,000 in 2025 before expenses, teaching included.
−Census reports an average gross of $28,513 for one-person businesses in special food services, a catch-all that also holds caterers, food service contractors and food trucks, before groceries and expenses. The 406,608 businesses behind that average are not a count of private chefs.
−Both price lists come from small companies, which tend to sit at the upper end, so read them as two examples. Groceries, insurance, travel and equipment all come out of what you charge.

The calculator below treats each price as money coming in, before the costs you subtract.

Private chef income calculator

Work out what your bookings add up to before tax

Put in your own prices and bookings to see a year before tax. The starting numbers are examples, so change them to yours.

  • Bookings in a year$67,200
  • Your share$67,200
  • Card fees− $2,016
Before tax, a year$65,184about $1,254 a week

Checked November 2026. Insurance, travel and equipment are not deducted, and neither are groceries when your price includes them, so subtract yours. With a ZIP code, the price follows that area's pay level.

Do private chefs get tips

Private chefs are named on the IRS list of tipped jobs, entry 105

The IRS lists this work among occupations that customarily receive tips. The list does not say how much a private chef receives, and this page gives no verdict on whether you should tip one.

IRS entry 105, Chefs and cooks, includes private chef[4]

Entry 105 reads "Chefs and cooks. Direct and may participate in the preparation, seasoning, and cooking of salads, soups, fish, meats, vegetables, desserts, or other foods. Executive chef, pastry chef, sous chef, fast food cook, private chef, restaurant cook, saucier, food truck cook, banquet cook, caterer, chocolatier, confectioner 35-1011, 35-2011, 35-2013, 35-2014, 35-2019".

Up to $25,000 of qualified tips can be deducted for tax years 2025 through 2028[5]

Employees and the self-employed can both claim it. The deduction phases out above $150,000 of modified adjusted gross income, or $300,000 on a joint return. For the self-employed it cannot exceed the net income of the business, and the tips must be voluntary.

MileHighCook in Denver suggests a 20% gratuity on top of its dinner price[11]

MileHighCook's pricing guide, updated October 2026, suggests a 20% gratuity added to its per-guest dinner price. It is one company's suggestion for its own dinners.

No survey we could read gives tips as a share of private chef pay[6]

Neither USPCA nor APPCA publishes a tips figure we could find, and the BLS and Census numbers on this page do not report tips for private chefs.

Real private chef pay

Cintia Diaz brought in about $66,000 gross in 2025 as a private chef and educator in New York

Only one person here gives a full year: Cintia Diaz, and her figure includes teaching. The other card is one chef on YouTube, who gives a weekly fee and what a single day brings in. All of these figures are gross.

$66,000
gross for the full year 2025, before expenses, includes teaching
Cintia Diaz
Reported by CNBC Make It · December 2025 · New York City
Private chef and culinary educatorMeal prep, private dinners and culinary classes

CNBC's video description says "In 2025, she brought in around $66,000 in gross income." Her income comes from meal prep customers, private dinner customers and teaching culinary classes.

$800 to $1,000
gross for a day, in their words "not sustainable"
with coffee in hand
YouTube · April and October 2026
Sets their own weekly and one-time feesWeekly and one-time meal service

April 2026: "for my regular clients, I charge a $300 per week, and for one-time personal chef service, I charge $450 plus the cost of groceries", with groceries "usually about $150 per week" and about $700 gross for one prep day. October 2026: fees rising "from $300 a week to $400 a week and $550 for onetime service", and "I can make you know between $800 to $1,000 a day, but it's not sustainable".

How much do new private chefs make

The lowest-paid tenth of employed chefs and head cooks earn under $37,900

BLS reports $37,900 a year at the 10th percentile and $48,440 at the 25th for employed chefs and head cooks, a restaurant-heavy code that does not count the self-employed (May 2025). The low end of that range is the closest official figure, and it does not measure new private chefs.

No survey gives first-year private chef income[6]

We looked for a first-year figure from the two professional bodies for this work, USPCA and APPCA, and found none. We have not filled that gap with an estimate.

USPCA's Premier membership costs $400 the first year and $325 to renew[6]

That is the published price of joining the United States Personal Chef Association at its Premier level. The page carries no date.

BLS projects 7% job growth from 2025 to 2035, with about 25,200 openings a year[2]

Both figures describe chefs and head cooks as a whole occupation, so they are not a forecast for private chefs alone.

Celebrity and live-in chef jobs are the most-asked private chef pay question
Each bar counts the distinct ways people phrase the question in Google's suggestions, from fixed starting points per row at the same depth for every row, so the numbers compare. Phrasings that name a place are counted separately.
about payaround the edgesthe control
Celebrity and live-in jobs
59
Per year
56
Starting out
38
Per hour
33
Tipping private chefs
31
Hours and how many clients
22
Weekly meal prep
19
Per dinner or event
18
Is it worth it
18
By state or city
6
Self-employed and own business
0
Domain and email
0
Celebrity and live-in jobs drew 59 phrasings, the most of any row
Celebrity and live-in chef jobs drew 59 phrasings, more than any other row. No source we could read publishes celebrity or live-in chef pay, so this page gives no figure for it.
Per year drew 56 phrasings and per hour drew 33
Pay per year drew 56 phrasings, against 33 for pay per hour. Starting out drew 38, tipping 31, and hours and how many clients 22.
Weekly meal prep drew 19 phrasings and per dinner or event drew 18
People ask about both ways of selling this work about equally: 19 phrasings for weekly meal prep and 18 for a dinner or event. The price lists on this page cover both.

Measured by us in November 2026. Culinary school drew 212 phrasings, plus 97 that name a place; we measured it and left it off the chart.

Private chef pay questions

Related
Booking software for caterersBooking pages for catering businesses.Booking software for cooking classesBooking pages for people who teach cooking.How much do wedding planners makeThe same pay figures for another events job.

If you cook for clients on your own, let them book and pay online before the groceries.

Set up a dinner party for 8, weekly meal prep or a tasting menu at home once, then share one booking link.

  • A booking page that works as the link in your bio.
  • Each service with its own length and price, like a dinner party for 8 or weekly meal prep.
  • A deposit at booking, or a card on file for later.
  • Tap to Pay on iPhone, to take a card in person.
Free to start. No credit card needed.
A chef in a dark apron carries a covered dish through a home kitchen doorway.
A chef lays out labeled meal prep containers on a counter.
Hands finish a plate with herbs.
The kiwilaunch iPhone app showing today's bookings and payments
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Book now

Sources

Where every number on this page comes from, with a link to the original wherever one exists.

  1. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: Chefs and Head Cooks (35-1011), national, state and area; Private Household Cooks (35-2013), national, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-05-15 Employees only; the self-employed are not surveyed. 459 of 528 areas are matched to an area median; the other 69 use the state figure.
  2. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Chefs and Head Cooks, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27 Job counts, the self-employed share and the outlook describe the whole occupation, which includes chefs who run their own restaurants or catering businesses. Not a count of private chefs.
  3. Nonemployer Statistics 2024: Special Food Services (NAICS 7223), national and state, U.S. Census Bureau, 2026-09-29 Gross receipts of businesses with no paid employees, before costs and tax. Special food services is a catch-all that also holds caterers, food service contractors and food trucks; the closest published figure, not a count of private chefs.
  4. Occupations that customarily and regularly received tips on or before Dec. 31, 2024, Internal Revenue Service, 2026-06-28 Entry 105: Chefs and cooks. Example titles include private chef.
  5. One Big Beautiful Bill Act: tax deductions for working Americans and seniors (no tax on tips), Internal Revenue Service, 2026-11-09 Qualified tips deductible for 2025 through 2028, up to $25,000; for the self-employed no more than net income from the trade; phases out above $150,000 of modified AGI ($300,000 joint); tips must be voluntary.
  6. Membership benefits, United States Personal Chef Association Undated page. Premier membership prices. We found no surveyed income or pricing figure.
  7. How to become a personal chef, American Personal & Private Chef Association We found no surveyed income or pricing figure.
  8. Iowa Administrative Code, rule 481-30.2, food code definitions, State of Iowa The private home or private party exemption, quoted in the licensing answer.
  9. Food handler education or training programs: frequently asked questions, Texas Department of State Health Services Food handler cards for food employees. The page does not address private homes.
  10. Food worker card, Washington State Department of Health Food worker cards for food employees. The page does not address private homes.
  11. Private chef cost, pricing guide, Denver, MileHighCook, 2026-10 A published price list, not income. Updated October 2026.
  12. Pricing, Seattle, Down to Earth Cuisine, 2026-11 A published price list, not income. Seen November 2026.
  13. I Bring In $66K A Year As A Private Chef In NYC, Reported by CNBC Make It, December 2025, on YouTube, 2025-12-30 Cintia Diaz, New York City. Gross, full year, before expenses; includes teaching.
  14. with coffee in hand, on their weekly and one-time fees, YouTube, 2026-10-11 Gross for the day, in their words.
  15. with coffee in hand, on their regular customers and groceries, YouTube, 2026-04-22 Weekly fee, grocery cost and gross for one prep day.
  16. Stripe pricing, standard US card rate, Stripe, 2026-10-25 the card processor kiwilaunch uses; quoted for the 3% card fee in the calculator

Not tax, legal or financial advice. Prices, pay and what you keep vary by state and city, licensing rules differ by state, and the tax rules on tips have conditions. A tax professional who knows your situation can answer for you.