Here's How Much Celebrity Chefs Charge For A Private Meal
The food industry expands far past your local grocery store and the chef world past your local restaurants. It's one of the most expansive industries in the world because it's something everyone in the world has in common; we all eat, and people from every culture are passionate about food and share it with others.
The chef world includes your local restaurants' chefs, personal/private chefs, and celebrity chefs, the latter of which you're likely familiar with thanks to Food Network and Cooking Channel on television. Worth noting, too, is that a lot of celebrity chefs began as personal chefs before their careers blew up. Some wonder how celebrity chefs make their money, but their celebrity status says it all. Still, despite their money and fame, how celebrity chefs cook at home may surprise you, especially if they'd been cooking all day that day.
Sometimes, celebrity chefs still put their private chef skills to work and accept private hirings. However, only other celebrities can typically afford them. But just how much do celebrity chefs charge for a private meal?
Is $10,000 the base line for celebrity chefs?
Private meals aren't necessarily cheap to begin with. According to Fash, private chefs typically earn $30-$40 per hour, or up to $100 per dinner attendee if you divide it by person, though this depends on the foods being served. Once you add celebrity status into the mix(ing bowl), these prices only increase. When celebrities hire private chefs, they typically afford the chef no limit on grocery expenditures, per Health, and their annual income often sits around $150,000. Ultimately, then, it's only celebrities who can afford to hire celebrity chefs due to a large gap between what an everyday person could spend and what a celebrity could spend on a chef.
An online database called the Celebrity Chef Network tracks how much money each celeb chef charges for a meal/appearance. According to this database, Alex Guarnaschelli charges between $20,000-$50,000, while Bobby Flay charges $100,000+. These are some of the biggest names Food Network has produced over the years, and it's safe to say that Guarnaschelli could even raise her rate to be more on par with Flay's.
Some chefs don't charge as much, though. A lot of chefs in the database, especially those who may not have a television show but are still huge in the culinary world, only charge around $10,000 per meal/appearance. This applies to big chefs like Michael Voltaggio, Justin Warner, Katsuya Fukushima, Eddie Jackson, and more.
So, how much would you be willing to spend on a meal prepared by a celebrity chef?