A private chef you taste before you hire
Cuisine-matched chef placement for Bangalore households. Every shortlisted chef cooks a meal in your own kitchen before you decide. If what you actually want is dal and roti on the table each evening, a cook is the better and far cheaper hire, and we will tell you so.
- Three-day trial in your own kitchen
- Matched on cuisine, not adjectives
- Aadhaar & reference checked
- ₹59,000 placement fee incl. GST
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Quick answer
What does it cost to hire a private chef in Bangalore through EzyHelpers?
Two separate amounts, and a third smaller one. The monthly salary reaches the chef in full, and we give you an accurate band on the consultation call once we know the cuisines, the headcount and whether the role is live-in or daily. Our placement fee is one-time: ₹50,000 plus 18% GST, which is ₹59,000 inclusive, plus the ₹1,499 registration fee. That covers sourcing against your brief, identity and reference checks, background verification, arranging the three-day trial, and replacement cover under the plan you choose. The trial itself is charged separately and quoted before it is scheduled. The fee does not cover the salary, the ingredients or kitchen equipment.
A chef and a cook are two different hires
Most people who search for a private chef want a very good cook. The two roles differ in what they do and in what they cost, so decide which one you are hiring before you enquire.
A cook prepares the household’s regular meals to your family’s taste. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, the dal your family grew up on, a sabzi rotation your children will actually eat. That is a full job and a skilled one, and for most homes in Bangalore it is the right hire.
A chef works to a standard rather than to a routine. A chef plans menus a week at a time, specifies and sources the ingredients, cooks across cuisines to the same result every time, plates the food, and absorbs guests and events without the household changing its plans. That capability costs several times a cook’s salary.
So if the food you want is dal and roti every evening, hire a cook. We place cooks too, and you can start at our cook placement page. Sending you there earns us half the fee and saves you a great deal of money every month, which is the trade we would rather make than place a chef into a home that did not need one.
| What differs | Private chef | Household cook |
|---|---|---|
| Menu | Plans the coming week with you, then writes the grocery list against that menu. | Cooks the household rotation your family already eats, adjusted on request. |
| Cuisine range | Depth in one or more named cuisines, cooked to the same result each time. | Home-style Indian, usually one or two regional styles done well. |
| Ingredients | Specifies cuts, grades and brands, and will tell you when a substitution changes the dish. | Cooks with whatever the household has bought that week. |
| Guests | Can put a multi-course meal on the table for guests without the household rearranging its day. | Handles a few extra plates at short notice. |
| Presentation | Plates each course. | Serves into household dishes. |
| Monthly salary | Several times a cook’s salary in Bangalore. Band confirmed on the consultation call. | The usual Bangalore cook range for the hours and meals you need. |
| Our placement fee | ₹50,000 plus 18% GST, which is ₹59,000, plus ₹1,499 registration. | ₹25,000 plus 18% GST, plus ₹1,499 registration. |
Who actually hires a private chef in Bangalore
Five household situations where the salary earns itself back. If none of them describes your home, a cook will serve you better.
Households that entertain often
Ten to thirty people at the house several times a month, for work or for family. The chef cost is measured against catering bills and against the evenings you spend supervising a kitchen instead of sitting with your guests.
Families holding a dietary standard
A Jain kitchen with no root vegetables, a satvik household, a strictly vegan home, or a home where veg and non-veg preparation must never share oil, pans or storage. The rule has to hold on an ordinary Tuesday when nobody is checking.
Founders and senior executives with no time
Meals land at unpredictable hours and often at a desk. A chef who works from your calendar rather than a fixed lunch slot removes the daily decision about food entirely.
NRI families back in Bangalore
Families returning after years abroad usually want the food standard they got used to. Bread and baking done at home, salads that are actually dressed, continental breakfasts, and Indian food alongside all of it rather than instead of it.
Medical and sports diets to hold to
A household weighing protein and carbohydrate for an athlete, or cooking to a low-salt, low-sugar or renal plan a doctor has set. The chef cooks to the plan. The chef does not write the plan and is not a dietitian.
Cuisine is the first thing we match on
Tell us the cuisines your household will eat every week. That single answer decides most of the shortlist.
Continental and European
French and Italian technique. Stocks and sauces, roasts, pasta made in the house, bread, and salads that hold up on the table.
Pan-Asian
Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese. Wok work, raw fish handling, and the ingredient sourcing these cuisines depend on in Bangalore.
Mughlai and Awadhi
Slow-cooked korma, biryani, kebab and dum work. This is a specialisation in its own right and does not come free with North Indian home cooking.
Coastal and seafood
Mangalorean, Malvani, Kerala and Bengali fish cookery. Buying fish well matters as much as cooking it, so ask each chef about the market run.
Regional Indian
Chettinad, Andhra, Gujarati, Rajasthani, Bengali, Kashmiri. Seasoned the way the region seasons it rather than as a generic Indian version.
Patisserie and baking
Bread, viennoiserie, plated desserts and celebration cakes. A domestic oven limits what is possible, so discuss your oven before you shortlist.
Diet-led cooking
Jain, satvik, vegan, keto, diabetic and gluten-free. This is a technical skill on its own and it narrows the candidate pool further than a cuisine does.
Depth in one cuisine is common. Two is findable. Four cuisines at genuine depth is rare in Bangalore and is priced accordingly, and a chef who lists eight on a CV usually means they have cooked from all eight rather than mastered any. Name the two you will eat most weeks and treat the rest as a bonus. The tasting trial exists precisely to test the claim on the CV.
The chef cooks in your kitchen before you commit
This is the part of the placement worth paying for. A profile tells you where someone worked. A meal tells you whether your family will eat their food.
You write the brief
Name the cuisines, the diet rules, how many people sit down on a normal day, and the meals you want to judge on across the three days. A vague brief produces a vague trial and wastes three days for everyone.
We shortlist against it
Profiles state the cuisines each chef has actually cooked professionally and where. Where a chef does not cover part of your brief, we say so on the profile instead of leaving you to find out at the trial.
The chef cooks in your kitchen
The shortlisted chef cooks the brief in your own kitchen, on your equipment, with your family eating it. You learn whether the seasoning suits your household and how the person works in your space.
You decide afterwards
You can ask a second shortlisted chef to cook before you commit. Nobody is expected to hire a chef from a profile and a phone call.
The trial runs across three days and is charged separately from the placement fee. We confirm that amount before anything is scheduled, so you agree the cost before a chef sets foot in your kitchen. Ingredients are bought by your household.
Watch three things beyond the taste. Whether the chef asked you questions before cooking, what the kitchen looked like when they finished, and whether they cooked the brief you gave or the dish they cook best. The third one predicts the next twelve months more reliably than the food does.
Menu planning, groceries and who pays for what
The weekly planning routine is the part families underestimate, and the part that decides whether the arrangement stays calm.
In a working arrangement the chef sits down once a week with whoever runs the household, agrees the menu for the coming week around who is travelling and who is eating at home, and turns that menu into a grocery list. Ten minutes on a Sunday prevents most of the friction that otherwise shows up on a Wednesday.
Your household pays for the ingredients. Families usually settle it one of two ways: the chef shops and submits bills against a float, or the household orders online from the chef’s list and the chef checks the delivery before it goes into the fridge. Decide which before the chef starts and agree a spend limit above which you want to be asked.
Sourcing is where part of the salary is earned. Fish bought at the market at seven in the morning is a different ingredient from fish delivered at noon, and a cut specified properly to a butcher is a different piece of meat. If you want that standard, say so at the hiring stage and agree the extra hours it needs.
- A written menu for the week, agreed before any shopping happens.
- A grocery list built from that menu rather than a standing monthly order.
- Ingredients paid for by the household, never by the chef out of pocket.
- A spend limit above which the chef checks with you first.
- Named brands, cuts and grades for the items where it changes the dish.
- A morning market run written into the schedule if you want fresh fish or meat.
Cooking for eight and cooking for twenty five are different jobs
If you entertain, this is the question to ask each shortlisted chef by number rather than in general terms.
A chef who cooks beautifully for a table of eight is not automatically a chef who can run a sit-down dinner for twenty five. Twenty five plates need timing, holding, enough oven and burner capacity in a domestic kitchen, someone to plate and clear, and a menu designed so three courses can leave the kitchen hot and together. Ask each chef the largest sit-down dinner they have cooked and served out of a home kitchen, and whether they had a helper or a full brigade behind them.
Say at the hiring stage how often you entertain and at what size. A chef hired to feed a family of four, then asked to cook for thirty every month, will leave within the year, and both sides will have wasted the placement.
For a single party with a date on it, a full-time chef is the wrong hire. Tell us the date and the headcount and we will say plainly whether an event cook is the cheaper and better answer.
How a chef runs and organises a home kitchen
Set these on day one. They are easier to agree before the first shift than to renegotiate in month three.
- Separate boards and knives for raw meat, fish and vegetables, agreed on day one.
- Veg and non-veg preparation kept apart where the household requires it, including oil, pans and storage.
- Cooked food cooled and refrigerated rather than left standing on the counter.
- Labelled and dated containers so nothing gets served past its time.
- A fridge and pantry order that the rest of the household can also work with.
- Stove, counters and floor left clean at the end of every shift.
Most chefs will want to reorganise your kitchen in the first fortnight, moving the knives, rearranging the pantry and changing where things live. That is usually worth allowing, with one condition: the new layout has to be one your family and your maid can also work in, because they use the same kitchen every day.
What we check before a profile reaches you
The same identity and reference checks we run on every placement, plus a cooking assessment that only applies to this role.
Identity and address checked before you meet anyone
We verify Aadhaar and identity and check the local address where it is available. Police verification and a medical check-up can be arranged on request at extra cost. Families hiring a chef often ask for the medical check specifically, because the person handles the household food every day.
References from the kitchens they actually worked in
We speak to previous employers, whether that was a household, a hotel or a restaurant, about what the chef cooked, at what volume, how long they stayed and why they left.
A cooking assessment, not an interview alone
An interview tells you how well someone talks about food. A chef is judged on cooking, which is why we run a three-day trial in your kitchen before you commit. The trial is charged separately from the placement fee and we tell you the amount before it is scheduled.
Matched to your cuisines before the profile reaches you
We would rather send two profiles that fit the brief than eight that do not. A chef who has never cooked Japanese professionally does not get sent to a household asking for Japanese.
Replacement cover under the plan you choose
Replacement cover follows the plan you choose: up to one replacement within 30 days on the 1-month plan, up to two within 90 days on the 3-month plan, and up to three within 330 days on the 11-month plan. The full terms are on our terms and policies page.
The salary and our fee are two different payments
One goes to the chef every month. The other comes to us once. Neither is a percentage of the other.
The chef’s salary is separate, and none of it comes to us
We do not publish a monthly salary figure for private chefs, because the spread in Bangalore is wide enough that any single number would mislead you. It moves with how many cuisines the chef holds at real depth, years in professional kitchens against years in private homes, live-in or daily, and how often you entertain. We give you an accurate band for your own brief on the consultation call. The full salary then reaches the chef each month, with no cut taken by us.
₹50,000 plus 18% GST, which is ₹59,000 inclusive
The ₹1,499 registration fee applies on top, as it does across the site. It is charged once at onboarding and is set out in our terms. This is a one-time fee paid to EzyHelpers, and it is not a percentage of what you pay the chef.
What the placement fee buys
Sourcing chefs against your written brief, identity and reference checks, background verification, arranging and supervising the three-day trial in your kitchen, and replacement cover under the 1-month, 3-month or 11-month plan you choose.
What the placement fee does not buy
The chef’s salary. The three-day trial, which is charged separately and quoted before it is scheduled. Ingredients, including the ingredients cooked during the trial. Kitchen equipment, and any equipment the chef asks you to add. Police verification and medical checks, which are arranged on request at extra cost.
Why a chef placement costs twice a standard one
The standard placement fee here is ₹25,000 plus 18% GST. A chef is double for three reasons. The candidate pool is far smaller, so building a shortlist is real searching rather than a call down a list. Screening runs to a cooking assessment and a trial cooked in your home, not an interview alone. And a chef placement that fails costs both sides more than a maid placement that fails, because the household has reorganised its kitchen around the hire and the chef has usually left a salaried kitchen job to take it.
What we will not promise you
Read this before you enquire. It is cheaper for both of us if you rule us out here.
- Bangalore is the city where we genuinely place chefs. Other cities are handled case by case, and we will say on the call if we cannot help.
- A chef search takes longer than a maid or cook search. Everyday roles usually get a shortlist out in 24 to 72 hours. A chef brief does not run to that clock, and we will not pretend otherwise.
- The three-day trial adds days, because it has to fit both your calendar and the chef’s calendar.
- The narrower the brief, the longer the search. Four cuisines plus a diet restriction plus live-in is a very small pool.
- We place the chef and we do not employ them. Salary, leave and the working relationship after placement are between you and the chef.
- A chef is a kitchen hire. Laundry, general cleaning and other household work belong to a different role, and asking for them is the quickest way to lose a good chef.
Private chef placement available in:
Private chef hiring questions
Cost, cuisine, the trial, the dishes, and what happens if it does not work out.
What is the difference between a private chef and a cook?
A cook prepares your household’s regular meals to your family’s taste, usually home-style Indian in one or two regional styles. A chef plans menus with you, specifies and sources ingredients, cooks across named cuisines to a consistent standard, plates the food, and handles guests and events. A chef costs several times a cook’s salary in Bangalore and the placement fee is double. If what you want is dal, roti and sabzi on the table every evening, hire a cook instead. Our cook placement page is at /services/cooks.
What does a private chef cost per month in Bangalore?
We do not publish a salary band for private chefs, because the real range in Bangalore is wide enough that a single number would mislead you. It moves with cuisine depth, years in professional kitchens, live-in or daily, and how often you entertain. We give you an accurate band for your own brief on the consultation call. The full salary reaches the chef every month. Our placement fee is separate and one-time: ₹50,000 plus 18% GST, which is ₹59,000 inclusive, plus the ₹1,499 registration fee.
Can you find a chef for one specific cuisine, such as Italian, Japanese or Awadhi?
Usually yes for a single named cuisine, and that is the brief we can fill best. Depth in one cuisine is common, two is findable, and four cuisines at real depth is rare and priced accordingly. Tell us the cuisines your family will actually eat every week rather than everything you enjoy eating out, and use the tasting trial to check the claim.
How does the tasting trial work, and do I pay for it?
You set a brief covering cuisines, diet rules and the meals you want to judge on. The shortlisted chef then cooks in your own kitchen, on your equipment, for your family, across three days. Three days rather than one evening, because a chef can rehearse a single meal and cannot fake a week of them. You decide afterwards. The trial is charged separately from the placement fee, and we confirm the amount before scheduling it, so the cost is agreed before anyone cooks. Ingredients are bought by your household.
Will the chef wash up and clean the kitchen afterwards?
Agree this before the chef starts, because it is the most common friction point in a chef placement. Most chefs clean their own work area, the stove and the counters at the end of a shift. Washing every dish the household used through the day, scrubbing the kitchen floor and cleaning outside the kitchen are usually outside the role, and pushing a chef into them tends to end the placement early. Many households keep a part-time maid for the dishes. Whatever you settle on, write the split into the agreement on day one.
Should I hire a live-in chef or a daily one?
Daily suits most households. The chef arrives for fixed hours, cooks the agreed meals and leaves, which works when your eating times are reasonably predictable. Live-in makes sense when meals are needed at unpredictable hours, when you entertain at short notice, or when a medical or sports diet needs cooking through the day. Live-in requires a private room, proper rest hours and a weekly off, and the salary is higher.
What is the notice period, and what happens if the chef leaves?
Put a notice period in writing when the chef starts. We ask households to give one month’s notice before ending a placement. A chef who chooses to leave is an employee of your household, so what they owe you is whatever your written agreement says, which is a further reason to have one. If the placement does not work, replacement cover depends on the plan you chose: up to one replacement within 30 days on the 1-month plan, up to two within 90 days on the 3-month plan, and up to three within 330 days on the 11-month plan. Replacing a chef takes longer than replacing a cook, so tell us as early as you can.
Can the chef cook for a party, and for how many guests?
It depends on the chef, so ask the number rather than assume it. A chef who cooks well for eight is not automatically able to run a sit-down dinner for twenty five, which needs timing, holding, oven and burner capacity, and someone to plate and clear. Ask each shortlisted chef the largest sit-down dinner they have cooked and served out of a home kitchen, and whether they had help. If you entertain at that size regularly, say so at the hiring stage so the salary reflects it. For a single one-off party, a full-time chef is the wrong hire and an event cook is usually cheaper.
Does the chef buy the groceries?
Many chefs do, and it is one of the reasons to hire one. The two usual arrangements are that the chef shops against a float and submits bills, or the household orders online from the chef’s weekly list and the chef checks what arrives. Either way the household pays for the ingredients. Set a spend limit above which the chef checks with you first, and if you want a morning market run for fish or meat, build those hours into the schedule.
If a chef is the wrong hire, one of these usually is not
Most households that enquire about a chef end up hiring one of these instead, and are happier for it.
Home cook
Everyday Indian cooking for the family, live-in, full-time or part-time. Placement fee ₹25,000 plus GST.
Hire a cook →Regional cookingNorth Indian cook
Rotis, dal and sabzi cooked the way your region cooks them, matched on where your family’s food comes from.
Learn more →Runs the householdHouse manager
Coordinates staff, vendors, maintenance and the household budget in a larger home.
Learn more →Nest by EzyHelpers
India’s first women-only hostel for domestic helpers. A reliable stay for your helper when you travel, removing last-minute stress on both sides.
Tell us what your household actually eats
Send us the cuisines, the diet rules, how many sit down on a normal day and how often you entertain. We will give you an honest salary band, say whether a cook would serve you better, and set up a tasting trial if a chef is the right hire.