Hello!
I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask for this. But last weekend I hosted a fine dining experience for my friends. And I’m planning on to host more of these types of nights.
The only thing I’m struggling with is the pricing. I told my friends the price is based on how you guys like the food, the ambience, the overall experience I would say.
In no means am I a professional chef, I’m just a 24y/o home cook who loves to make dishes for my “guests” but after receiving some high and some low offers I was thinking if I should ask a set price.
So my question here is, what would you pay for this type of menu. At first glance, I’ve had a lot of positive reactions when I posted my work on my socials. I’d love to show you my progress for that night, just shoot me a dm!
Context:
the dinner is hosted in the comfort of my own home, I’ll give a bread with olive oil and salt on the side. Drinks in these two cases free. So that was beer, wine, softdrinks and water.
Please be honest, I aspire to maybe hopefully make this a small side business and I would love to hear some feedback.
Thanks in advance!
1st dish:
Beef tartare made out of Bavette, seasoned with olive oil, Worcestershire, capers, chives, salt and pepper. On a toasted brioche. Topped with Japanese mayo
2nd dish:
Caramelised sweet onion, on top of a mix of quinoa, oyster mushrooms and spinach with Greek yoghurt. Topped with puffed quinoa and served with a mushroom stock
3rd dish:
Bife de tire with seasonal veggies, pommes puree and red wine reduction sauce
4th dish:
Dark chocolate mousse with macerated poached cherries, with crushed pistachios, topped with sea salt and olive oil
by toxicgook
13 Comments
I’d pay any price you set. But, I’m a foodie that has above average income that likes a service that’s catered to a person. And this is like the closest I could get to a personal chef and meet some like minded people while at it. So, I love the concept and I wish it’s popular in my country. As long as you put the effort in and love doing this I would love coming back. Making a viable business out of this is beyond my business prowess, but love the idea
It really depends on the alcohol served.
This could be $40-$50 or it could be $250 depending on what bottles of wine you cracked open or what cocktails/liquor you had available.
I’d suggest pricing the food at $50 and doing paid beverage service where you partner with someone to sell nice bottles of interesting wine with a couple BTG options.
One concern is that selling alcohol is likely way more regulated than selling food, depending on where you live.
Pricing also depends on where you live. This being $50 in Iowa might mean it’d be $125 in NYC.
Why did you plate the mousse like a vagina
To start, you need to calculate the cost of your ingredients and come up with a minimum cost of your time and labor. As a starting point you could use minimum wage or look up the wage for a chef in your area. From there you could look at the menu prices for restaurants in your area and anchor off those.
Folks in this sub would easily value your home cooking at par with a restaurant for the unique experience. People who are less of fine dining enthusiasts may see it as a way to get a deal, since you’re not a professional.
These look beautiful you did a great job! The onion dish looks like a lot of onion though lol
This looks really good. Great job!
For $50, not bad. Though your plates look a bit busy. As Marco Pierre White loves to so frequently say, chefs starting out tend to do too much.
My honest reaction is confusion since my answer would be different if I was a friend you invited for dinner vs. a customer/stranger paying for a niche amateur catering dinner advertised on IG or whatever. Are you asking how much you should charge your friends (which I find weird to do if they didn’t ask you to do this for them, and the *most* I would ask is that everyone split the grocery bill if that were communicated ahead of time)? Or how much to charge other people for this ‘experience’ in your home?
I used to cook tasting menus out of my apartment as well 🙂 This looks fantastic!
In terms of pricing, I think when you’re just starting out (and if it’s for friends) then doing a small markup on the food costs is appropriate (so if it cost like $40pp for the ingredients and food, then charging $50pp is fine). You won’t be making money this way and it definitely doesn’t value your time, but you don’t have experience so this is just to make sure you’re not losing money outright.
Once you’ve done it a few times and you’ve gotten the hang of it, when you start improving the experience and food, then you can start to go towards normal prices where food costs are ~25-30% of price (maybe slightly more because you’re less experienced).
For context, my tasting menu when I was hosting was 10 courses, you could book it online on a reservation site, and I charged $150pp (food costs were around $80-90pp but I wasn’t really doing it for the money so didn’t focus on bringing that cost down).
sort of off topic question, but were you eating too? id love to do something like this, and have done something close, but i need to do simpler dishes/do more prep ahead of time so i can sit with my friends. id love to just cook/plate for people but that feels like it would be seen as rude lol
Very nice! Hope you absolutely enjoyed this fine experience.
The food looks great, let me say that outright. Well thought out and intriguing.
I personally wouldn’t pay more than $80 to visit your place for this exact meal. Drinks beyond water don’t interest me and my wife.
I’d also want to see a few more courses tbh especially enjoy some proper amuse bouche rounds. I’d be down to pay more for that.
Now if you would run these off sites at private locations like for my own guests at my own house, I’d be willing to pay much more.
If you did 10 courses, at my house for an event, I’d do at least $200pp.
Good luck with everything it’s a cool idea and your skill itself is undeniable.
You probably deserve 125 a head but 85 makes it more accessible and likely to be viable
Love it
Can we be friends?! Looks awesome. Including the chocolate vajayjay. I’d pay at least 75 for this at a friend’s house, not including alcohol. Love the idea!