The facts on Private Chef Sydney
A short, data-forward version of what this is. No founder’s letter — just the shape of the directory and how a night comes together, laid out plainly.
The directory at a glance
- Founded
- Sydney, 2017
- Chefs on the books
- Five, each cooking under their own name
- Cuisines
- Modern Australian · Mediterranean · Italian · Fusion · Contemporary
- Areas served
- Eastern Suburbs to the Northern Beaches, across the harbour
- Typical spend
- A$120–260 a head, all-in
- Lead time
- One to two weeks; longer over summer
- What’s included
- Menu design, shopping, cooking, service and clean-up
- Booking
- Direct with the chef you choose — no dispatch desk
- How a chef gets on
- By invitation, after reading what their guests wrote — never by asking
- What is checked
- Cooks under their own name in Sydney · reviews are real and dated · one figure a head
- Enquiries
- By email, weekdays, Sydney time — see the Enquiries page
The idea, briefly
Sydney is full of talented independent chefs, and hiring one used to mean chasing an Instagram DM and hoping for a reply. This directory pulls a handful of them into one place and organises them the way you actually decide — by what you feel like eating.
There is no dispatch desk and no house style imposed on the cooking. You browse the 5 cuisines, read real menus and guest notes, and choose the specific person whose food you want in your kitchen. From there you deal with that chef directly.
Every price on the site is per head and all-in — groceries, cooking, table service and the wash-up all sit inside the figure, and any dietary version is built into the menu rather than added to the bill. The chefs cover the city from the Eastern Suburbs across to the Lower North Shore, and they leave your kitchen the way they found it.
Who is behind it, and how a chef gets on
Private Chef Sydney is an independent directory, edited by hand and kept deliberately small. The chefs do not write their own entries; each was invited after we had read what their guests wrote, and the same reading is what keeps them on. What is checked, and how the book is priced, sits in the sheet above.
The one thing the directory does not do is stand between you and the chef. Once you enquire from a chef’s page, the date, the menu and the money are settled with that person. If you would rather talk to the directory first — you are not sure who suits, it is a big table, or you cook in Sydney and want in — write to [email protected] or see the Enquiries page.
Have a night in mind?
Start with the cuisine, then pick your chef. Five independent Sydney chefs, browsable by cuisine, cooking dinner at your own table.