The Eat Cook Joy glossary.

What you actually pay for, how it's structured, and what shows up on the invoice.

Chef fee

The flat per-session amount that pays your chef for sourcing, cooking, plating, and cleaning up. It does not include groceries. Listed prices on Eat Cook Joy are chef fees — for example, a Dinner Prep session is $95 chef fee, then groceries on top. More →

Groceries at cost

We bill groceries to the household at the receipt price, with no markup. You can preload an Instacart order to your address, hand the chef a card on arrival, or settle from an itemized receipt after the session. The chef never fronts grocery money.

Flat per-session pricing

A pricing model where one fixed fee covers the whole session — no hourly meter, no surge, no surprise lines at the end. Eat Cook Joy uses three flat tiers (Dinner Prep, Meal Prep Light, Standard Meal Prep). Custom events are quoted separately as one flat per-event proposal. More →

Tip

Optional and never expected. If a chef did exceptional work and you want to recognize it, 100% of tips route through to the chef. The platform doesn't take a cut of tips.

The four ways to book Eat Cook Joy: three standardized meal-prep tiers plus custom events.

Dinner Prep

A 120-minute session producing 1 main + 1 side, with up to 6 portions per dish. Chef fee starts at $95. Best for a single weeknight dinner for a small household with leftovers for lunch. More →

Meal Prep Light

A 150-minute session producing 2 mains + 2 sides, with up to 6 portions per dish. Chef fee starts at $115. Most-booked tier — covers 3–4 dinners for a small household. More →

Standard Meal Prep

A 3.5-hour session producing 3–4 mains + 2–3 sides, with up to 6 portions per dish. Chef fee starts at $165. Designed to stock a household's dinners for the whole week. More →

Custom event

A separately quoted session for dinner parties, birthdays, corporate team dinners, or anything that doesn't fit a standard meal-prep tier. Quoted as one flat per-event chef fee based on menu and headcount.

Three levels that set baseline chef-fee adjustment and signal what kind of menu a chef is independently dialed in to run.

Rising chef

Newer to private work, professionally trained or with serious independent cooking experience. Books at the baseline chef-fee for each tier. Most common entry point onto the Eat Cook Joy roster. More →

Skilled chef

Several years of professional cooking — restaurant, catering, or established private work — with a robust menu library and the ability to run a 10-top alone. Chef fee adds about 30% over the baseline tier price. More →

Seasoned chef

Executive-level chops with multi-course tasting menu and custom-event experience. Chef fee starts at +50% over baseline and the chef can set their own ceiling for premium households and events. More →

What happens around the cooking — matching, scheduling, dietary handling, and cleanup.

Vetting

Our review process before a chef joins the roster: cooking-background interview, photo portfolio review, food-handler certification, background check, and a paid trial session with a real household. Every applicant is reviewed personally.

Background check

Every Eat Cook Joy chef passes a third-party background check before their first booking. Households can request to see a chef's verification status.

Allergy-aware menu

Every menu on Eat Cook Joy can be tailored for gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, vegetarian, vegan, halal, kosher, or low-FODMAP needs. Dietary notes are confirmed with the chef before prep starts — never assumed.

Cleanup included

Cleanup is part of the chef fee. Your chef wipes the counters, washes the dishes, takes out the trash, and leaves the kitchen the way they found it (or cleaner). Cleanup is not a separate add-on.

Match

How Eat Cook Joy connects a household with a chef. We route bookings based on cuisine fit, neighborhood proximity, dietary needs, schedule, and chef level — chefs don't bid for leads, and households don't sort through profiles cold.

Booking confirmation

The point at which a household and chef are both committed to the session — menu locked, time confirmed, address shared, dietary notes acknowledged. Until confirmation, either side can adjust without penalty.

Where Eat Cook Joy is live, and how the SF Bay Area pilot is structured.

SF Bay Area pilot

Our 2026 launch market. A small first cohort of vetted chefs cooks across San Francisco, the East Bay, the Peninsula, and the South Bay — onboarding new chefs in batches to keep the matching system balanced. More →

SF (San Francisco proper)

The 47 square miles inside the city limits — Marina, Mission, Pacific Heights, SoMa, Outer Sunset, and the 70+ other neighborhoods. Pricing and tiers do not vary by neighborhood. More →

East Bay

Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, El Cerrito, and the broader east side of the bay. Same tiers and pricing as SF; chefs assigned to East Bay bookings live or routinely work in the East Bay. More →

Peninsula

The corridor from Daly City and Pacifica down through San Mateo, Burlingame, Palo Alto, and Menlo Park. Same tiers and pricing as SF. More →

South Bay

San Jose, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Santa Clara, and the surrounding South Bay cities. Same tiers and pricing as SF. More →

How the broader private-chef industry uses these labels — and how Eat Cook Joy fits.

Private chef

A chef who cooks in a client's home, on a per-event or recurring basis, for that household specifically. Distinct from a restaurant chef (cooks for many tables at a venue) and a personal chef (typically a recurring meal-prep relationship — see below).

Personal chef

In US industry usage, a personal chef cooks recurring meals — often weekly meal prep — for one or a few households, focused on weekday eating rather than entertaining. The line with 'private chef' is fuzzy and many chefs do both. Eat Cook Joy's meal-prep tiers map closely to personal-chef work.

Meal prep chef

A chef who cooks a batch of meals at once — usually mains plus sides — for the household to eat across the week. Equivalent to a personal chef session in industry usage.

In-home chef

A chef who cooks at the client's home rather than at a restaurant or commissary. Eat Cook Joy is in-home only — every session happens in your kitchen.

Catering

Food prepared off-site (or partially off-site) and delivered or finished at the venue, typically for larger groups. A private chef cooks fresh in your kitchen; a caterer drops off finished trays. Eat Cook Joy does not do drop-off catering.