A home cook in Bangalore is paid roughly ₹6,000 to ₹10,000 a month part-time for one or two meals a day, ₹12,000 to ₹20,000 full-time, and ₹25,000 and above live-in, plus a room and meals for a live-in cook. Those are 2026 market ranges for what the household pays the cook directly, and real offers land about 20 percent either way depending on the number of meals, the cuisine, the size of the family and where you live. A cook for a single day is priced per day and agreed before she arrives, so that figure is confirmed on a call rather than printed here.
This guide covers what moves the number, what the salary does not include, and how to tell whether you need a cook, a personal chef or a maid who cooks. The comparison with maids, nannies and elder-care attendants sits in the Bangalore maid salary guide.
Part-time, full-time and live-in cook pay
| Arrangement | Typical monthly pay | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Part-time cook (one slot, 1.5 to 2 hours) | ₹6,000 to ₹10,000 | One or two meals in a fixed morning or evening slot; she cooks, cleans the stove and leaves |
| Full-time cook (8 to 10 hours) | ₹12,000 to ₹20,000 | All meals through the day, kitchen upkeep, grocery lists; she goes home at night |
| Live-in cook | ₹25,000 and above, plus room and meals | Every meal including late dinners and early tiffins, full charge of the kitchen, a weekly off |
Part-time pay is set per slot, and the slot decides the price more than the hours do. A cook who comes at 6.30 am to make breakfast and a packed lunch for two children earns more than one who comes at 11 am for lunch alone, because early morning slots are the hardest to fill and the first to go. An evening slot for dinner sits in between. Two slots a day with the same cook is usually priced as part-time plus a third, which is why many families move to full-time once they need both.
Full-time is what a family of four or more with two working adults usually ends up with. The cook arrives before breakfast, stays through lunch preparation, may rest in the afternoon, and finishes after dinner. The salary covers the cooking, the kitchen, chopping and grinding, and keeping a running grocery list. Serving guests at a weekend lunch is normally included; cooking for a party of twenty is a separate day rate.
Live-in pay starts around ₹25,000 and rises with cuisine range. A live-in cook who manages South Indian breakfasts, North Indian dinners and a non-vegetarian weekend menu for a joint family is doing three cooks' work and is paid accordingly. The live-in cook hiring guide covers the room, the rest hours and the trial week in detail.
What changes the number
Cuisine range moves cook pay more than anything else. Most cooks in Bangalore are strongest in one regional kitchen. A Kannada or Tamil speaking cook will make dosa, sambar, rasam and a rice lunch without a recipe; a cook from north Karnataka or from Bihar or Bengal will make jolada rotti or roti, sabzi and dal the same way. Ask one cook to switch between the two every day and you are paying for a rarer skill. A family that eats one cuisine with occasional variety should hire for that cuisine and accept a weekly dish or two from outside it. The pages for a Tamil speaking cook, a Kannada speaking cook and a North Indian cook explain what each pool is good at.
Non-vegetarian cooking is the second lever. Cleaning and cooking fish, chicken and mutton takes longer and some cooks will not do it at all, so the pool is smaller and the pay is higher. A vegetarian cook for a vegetarian household is the easiest brief to fill in the city.
The number of people eating comes third. Cooking for two and cooking for seven are different jobs even when the menu is the same. Each adult past four adds to the chopping, the grinding and the washing up, and a cook who is also expected to wash the vessels is doing a maid's job on top of her own. Agree who washes up before the first day; it is the most common cause of a cook leaving in the second month.
Timing and days add the rest. Dinner after 9 pm, breakfast before 6.30 am, or a seven-day week each push the figure up. A six-day week with one fixed off is the norm. Families who need Sunday lunch should either pay more or rotate the off day.
Two smaller factors matter in Bangalore specifically. Distance is one: a cook travelling from Kadugodi to a villa in Whitefield, or from Kasavanahalli to a tower past Wipro on Sarjapur Road, will quote more than one working three streets from home, and may decline an early slot altogether. The kitchen is the other. A madi kitchen with its own rules, a kitchen with no mixer or no exhaust, or a society that limits the service lift to fixed hours all make the job harder, and cooks price that in.
What is not included in the salary
The salary is paid by you to the cook each month. It does not include:
- Meals during working hours for a full-time or live-in cook. She eats what she cooks, and that is the expectation in Bangalore.
- Travel. A part-time or full-time cook commutes at her own cost, which is why cooks who live near you are cheaper and more punctual than cooks who live across the ring road.
- Groceries. The household buys the food. A cook keeps the list and tells you what has run out; she does not fund the kitchen.
- A festival bonus, usually around one month's salary once a year at Diwali, Ugadi or the cook's main festival. It is expected rather than optional.
- Paid leave. Two to three days a month, or a block around a festival, is the working norm. Cooks from Bengal and Assam often travel for two to three weeks around Durga Puja; plan a stand-in or a batch of frozen meals for that gap.
- A placement fee, paid once to the agency and separate from the salary.
For a live-in cook placed through EzyHelpers the one-time fee is ₹25,000 plus 18 percent GST. It covers document and background verification, a scored cooking assessment and an in-person interview before the candidate reaches your kitchen. Live-in placements carry a 7-day cooling-off period and a free replacement on the 3-month and 11-month plans. Fees for full-time and part-time cooks depend on the role and are confirmed on a call. The cook pays nothing to us at any stage.
Cook, personal chef or maid who cooks
The three get mixed up and they are priced very differently.
A home cook makes the family's daily meals from the family's own recipes and ingredients. She is paid the ranges on this page.
A personal chef plans menus, cooks restaurant-style or special-diet food and often shops for it. Chefs are paid several times what a home cook earns, and the fee usually covers fewer hours. The cost of hiring a private chef and the personal chef at home in Bangalore page cover that role.
A maid who cooks is the cheapest of the three on paper and the most common source of disappointment. Cooking added to a full-time maid's duties raises her salary by ₹2,000 to ₹4,000 a month, and you get simple everyday food made between the sweeping and the washing. That works for a couple who eat plainly. A family with children, guests or a strict cuisine does better with a cook and a separate part-time maid, which costs more in total and almost always lasts longer.
Paying at the top of the range is usually cheaper
A cook who leaves after three months costs more than the ₹1,500 a month you saved. You lose the search, the trial week, the weeks of ordering in while you look, and the household's patience. Food is the one thing a family notices three times a day.
Where the budget is tight, protect three things before trimming the salary: a fixed salary date, a weekly off that is actually taken, and a written menu. A cook who knows what Monday to Saturday look like, is paid on the first and gets her Sunday stays through the year. A cook asked to improvise seven dinners a week for a family that never agrees what it wants leaves whatever you pay her. The maid agreement and notice period template works for cooks with the duties section rewritten.
How to get an exact figure for your home
Tell us how many meals a day, which cuisine, how many people eat, whether the house is vegetarian and whether you want part-time, full-time or live-in. With those five details we can give you a salary band for your locality and profiles to interview. Verified cooks for the city are listed under cooks in Bangalore, with a one-day cook for parties and festivals on the same page.
Get a cook quote for your home