Over the years, I have always tried my best to continue a mindset that allows the business, my people, and myself to grow. This year is no different and as we embark on our 8th year of business I am reminded that a lot of people still have no idea what exactly a personal or private chef does and what services it might offer. So let’s dive in and see if we can’t answer that question for you.

When you are hiring a private chef, there are probably a lot of questions that you might have and if you spend any time on this website, I am sure that a lot of those questions can be answered but one of the most frequently asked questions that we get is: How much does a personal chef cost in Austin? Well, having a personal chef come to your home in Austin is not the cheapest thing that you can do but it is definitely not the most expensive experience that you can have here. Our prices remain pretty custom and we try to keep it that way while still doing our best to remain profitable. Nobody is getting rich here, but nobody is starving either. We start out services out at $85/pp and they can go all the way up to $250/pp depending on what you are looking for.

The most beautiful thing about hiring a personal chef is that your menu and experience are completely custom to you and your wants/needs. No two dinner parties are the same and that is because each event is unique to its hosts and what they envision for their special day. Over the past 7 years, we have always tried to be methodical in our approach to delivering dinner parties in a way that we know our customers will appreciate. This approach has allowed us to grow but it has also allowed us to pay our chefs remarkably well. You see, chefs by nature are underpaid and overworked, which is why 4 years ago, I decided that we would make Gather and Forge a revenue split model where the chef gets to keep 100% of their tips. This allows us to constantly innovate and advertise so that we all can continue to grow and earn rather than be stuck in some kitchen at a restaurant where all of our time is taken aways from us. How we were able to accomplish this was by allowing the chefs to be completely free in their creations. So, when you are inquiring with us about an experience that you are thinking about having, we literally allow our chefs to custom tailor a menu for you that fits exactly what your wants/needs are. This is one of the reasons that we are not cheap but we are also happy to do the creative work because nowhere else are you aloud to do that.

Another question that we get asked a lot is if we have a location where guests come or if we come to the location of the guest. The short answer is that we will go wherever you are. We actually bring an entire restaurant experience to you, full service, so that you can host and your guests can have an amazing meal while you host. This is exactly what the definition of being a personal or private chef is and it is exactly why we have structured the business as we have. As said above, there are no 2 experiences alike and a lot of that comes down to our chefs having to be in different locations every single night. It has been fun learning this side of the business because we never truly know exactly what we are in for. Sometimes it’s a downtown apartment and other times it is a house in Westlake. No matter the location, we are always happy to come to you so that you and your family or friends can enjoy a true restaurant experience at your house.

Services this year are going to change, we are moving towards a service offering that will allow us to be a little more scalable. The reason behind this is 2 fold, we need to make more room for the insane amount of inquires that we get on a daily basis but we also want to continue to help more chefs create financial and creative freedom. In the past, we have offered all kinds of services and we have been very successful doing them but what we have found is that being too custom is hard to scale. And if we are not scaling then we are unable to continue to help more people with their parties and we are unable to continue our mission of helping chefs create better lives.

This year will be our first year testing out our experience list. My job as a business owner is to see data, make decisions based on that data, and act. What I have seen over the last 7 years is that all of our customers essentially wanted the same service but wanted to customize their experience. This is why I have decided to make the business an experience based business where our customers are able to choose what kind of experience they are wanting and then build out their menu based on that experience. In the past, we have always done this opposite and we always end up in a bottleneck when we have too many inquires to field.

We are always going to remain a custom shop. That is what this business was built on and that is what has allowed us to become the best private chef service in Austin but as technology becomes more available to small business owners, it would be almost a crime to not try to continue to have more of an impact. We are always wanting to better the community and help our people and that is why I think that these decisions will be the best for everybody in the long run but will still allow us to be..well.. us.

I come here to write so that I can have a log of how the business is developing and so years in the future I am able to look back and see if the decisions I am making are good, bad or terrible. Typically, we find out pretty quick and I am hoping that this time next year, we are still in a position that allows us the opportunity to change peoples lives. That is what it is all about for me and what it will continue to be about as long as I own the business.

Thank you guys for reading along and thank you for continuing to support our mission. We appreciate it more than you and are thankful for each and every single one of you. Without or amazing customers, we simply would not be where we are. So Thank You.

We look forward to cooking for you.

-Ryan