How Much Does a Private Chef Cost in Dorset? (2026 Guide)

A private chef in the UK costs £75 to £150 per person. At The Dorset Chef, the rate is £75 to £100 per person, all-inclusive, with no transport, no staff fees, no service charge and no separate tasting fee. Wedding catering starts at £85pp; private dining at £75pp. The figure on the quote is the figure on the invoice. Below is the full cost picture for hiring a private chef in Dorset and Hampshire in 2026, with ten worked quotes from real recent bookings.

The Headline Numbers

Booking type	Guests	Service style	Per-head	Typical total
Intimate dinner party	6–10	3-course at home	£75–£100pp	£450–£1,000
Standard dinner party	10–20	3-course with canapés	£75–£100pp	£750–£2,000
Larger dinner party	20–60	3 or 4-course with canapés	£75–£100pp	£1,500–£6,000
Tasting menu	6–12	5 or 7-course	£75–£100pp	£450–£1,200
Birthday / milestone	10–60	Canapés + 3-course + dessert station	£75–£100pp	£750–£6,000
Holiday-let dinner	6–14	3-course in a rental kitchen	£75–£100pp	£450–£1,400

Wedding totals sit in a different band (£85–£100pp with a 60-guest cap); the full breakdown is in our companion post on wedding catering cost in Dorset.

What “All-Inclusive” Actually Means

The £75–£100 per-head figure for a private chef covers everything for the food side of the evening. That means:

• Menu planning: a bespoke menu designed around your guests, dietary requirements and the date.
• All ingredients: locally sourced, day-of, from named suppliers (day-boat fish from Parkstone Fisheries, organic vegetables from Four Acre Farm and Sopley Salads, meat from a Fordingbridge butcher, eggs from Stoney Farm Sherborne).
• Preparation and cooking: every course made fresh, in your kitchen, on the night. No reheating, no plate-up of pre-cooked food.
• Full table service: each course served at the right moment, paced to the conversation.
• Crockery, cutlery, napkins, personalised printed menus: table set as you’d find in a fine-dining restaurant.
• Complete kitchen clean-up: surfaces wiped, washing-up done, hob and oven cleaned, bins managed. Kitchen left cleaner than we found it.

What it does not cover: drinks (we can recommend wines but you arrange them), and venue-specific costs for off-grid sites (a marquee with no power needs a generator; we cost that line transparently when it applies).

What Pushes the Private Chef Rate Up or Down

Three things move the per-head price inside the £75–£100 band.

1. Guest count. The per-head rate doesn’t change with guest count: it’s the same £75–£100pp whether we’re cooking for 8 or 40. At the larger end of that range, service sometimes shifts from plated courses to a shared feast-style format, but the rate itself stays flat.

2. Number of courses and ingredient choices. A 3-course dinner with seasonal British ingredients lands nearer £75pp. A 5 or 7-course tasting menu, or a 3-course menu built around premium proteins (lobster, wagyu, Dorset venison, day-boat halibut, native oysters, truffle), pushes the rate to the top of the band, £100pp. The technique and prep time scale with the menu.

3. Format and logistics. A standard 3-course dinner in a fully equipped home kitchen is the cheapest format per head. A canapé reception followed by a sit-down meal, an evening food station added later, or a holiday-let kitchen that needs extra induction or hot-hold equipment all add prep time and so keep the rate toward the top of the £75–£100 band. Off-grid venues (marquee field-kitchens, beach houses, unconverted barns) carry a transparent venue-logistics line (generator hire, water bowser, equipment hire) quoted up front, never on the day.

UK Private Chef Pricing in Context

A quick sense of where we sit in the national market:

• Budget end (£40–£60pp): usually a chef cooking from a fixed weekly menu in your home, often a part-time or supplementary service. Limited ingredient flexibility.
• Mid-market (£60–£90pp): bespoke menu, mid-range ingredients, sometimes with a separate service charge or transport line added on top.
• Premium / boutique (£85–£150pp): fully bespoke menu, named-supplier ingredients, full table service, all-inclusive pricing. The Dorset Chef sits at the lower, more transparent end of this band, at £75–£100pp.
• Celebrity / luxury (£200pp+): Michelin-trained chef, wine pairings included, named-brand ingredients, multi-day events.

Within Dorset, Hampshire and the wider South Coast, £75–£100pp is the realistic boutique private-dining rate for a chef cooking everything from scratch in your home. Anything substantially under £75pp usually means either a fixed-menu service or hidden line items added after the headline number.

Ten Worked 2025 Private Chef Quotes

Names changed; everything else is real.

1. Sandbanks waterside dinner party, 8 guests: 3 courses, scallop and chorizo to start, lamb rack with smoked aubergine, dark chocolate mousse. Total £760 (£95pp). Mid-band; classic Dorset coastal dinner. See private chef in Sandbanks for the dedicated BH13 page.

2. Bournemouth 50th birthday, 16 guests: canapés on arrival, 3 courses, dessert station with petit fours. Total £1,520 (£95pp). Birthdays sit in the upper band; canapés and the dessert finish are why.

3. New Forest holiday cottage, 6 guests: 3 courses with venison from the surrounding estates, mushroom risotto, golden syrup brûlée. Total £570 (£95pp). Holiday-let bookings often land toward the top of the band, since a kitchen away from home adds a little extra prep.

4. Wimborne anniversary, 4 guests: 5-course tasting menu, Shetland king scallop, lamb loin, lemon tart. Total £440 (£110pp). Tasting menus pull the rate up across all group sizes.

5. Christchurch dinner party, 12 guests: 3 courses with seared tuna, slow-roasted lamb, dark chocolate ganache. Total £1,020 (£85pp). Simple, seasonal ingredients kept this one toward the lower end of the band.

6. Poole harbour-view supper, 6 guests: 4 courses centred on day-boat brill, harbour view. Total £630 (£105pp). Premium fish and a fourth course explain the £100+ landing.

7. Studland villa, 10 guests: 3 courses with charred sirloin, evening cheese board. Total £900 (£90pp). Holiday-let mid-band; villa kitchen had everything we needed.

8. Dorchester estate dinner, 18 guests: 3 courses with Dorset venison, root vegetables from the Cranborne Chase, blackberry parfait. Total £1,440 (£80pp). A straightforward seasonal menu in a well-equipped kitchen kept this one toward the lower end of the band.

9. Lymington summer dinner, 8 guests: 3 courses with native lobster and Solent crab, English strawberries with crème fraîche sorbet. Total £840 (£105pp). Lobster pushes the per-head up; a smaller group keeps the total contained.

10. Salisbury graduation celebration, 14 guests: canapés + 3 courses with pheasant, root vegetable terrine, pear tarte tatin. Total £1,260 (£90pp). Mid-band celebration with a clear theme.

Across these ten bookings the average per-head landed at £94pp, which is a representative middle of our £75–£100 band for private dining in Dorset and Hampshire.

What’s Not in the Quote (And What Often Is, Elsewhere)

A note on the lines that frequently appear on private-chef quotes from other operators and never appear on ours:

• Transport / mileage: included for anywhere within roughly 90 minutes’ drive of Bournemouth. Further afield we agree mileage in advance, not after the fact.
• Service charge: there isn’t one. The headline per-head includes full table service.
• Staff fees: included. For larger dinners we bring service staff at our cost, not yours.
• Tasting fees: wedding bookings include a complimentary tasting; private dining doesn’t need one because we adjust to your feedback in conversation before the menu is locked.
• Equipment hire: included for any normal kitchen; only off-grid sites carry a transparent equipment line, agreed up front.
• Booking fee: none. A £100 deposit secures the date and goes against your final balance.

When to Book and How Long the Booking Process Takes

We are booked well ahead, so enquire as early as you can, for a Dorset or Hampshire dinner party, and for weddings and larger events alike, especially for weekend dates and the summer months in Sandbanks and the New Forest. We reply to every enquiry the same day, and it’s always worth asking even if your date feels close.

The booking conversation usually takes a single short email exchange: date, rough guest count, location, the feel of the evening, any dietary requirements you already know about. We come back within 24 hours with a menu suggestion and a clear quote. If both work for you, a £100 deposit secures the date.

Is a Private Chef Worth It?

That is a question we cover in more depth in Is a private chef worth it? An honest answer, but the short version: for a milestone evening (a significant birthday, an anniversary, a small family wedding, a once-a-year holiday-let dinner), the all-in £75–£100pp lands a couple of pounds below the same evening at a comparable restaurant once you factor in drinks, transport, time pressure and the cost of getting back home. The upgrade is the room, the company and the kitchen, none of which a restaurant gives you.

Next Steps

• Browse our full pricing page for the headline rates, what’s included by tier, and the FAQ.
• See boutique wedding catering across Dorset and Hampshire for the wedding-specific breakdown.
• Read how to hire a private chef for the booking process step-by-step.
• Or send us the details: date, rough guest count, location, the feel of the evening. We come back within 24 hours with a menu suggestion and a clear quote.

We are based in Bournemouth and cook across Dorset and Hampshire, from Poole and Sandbanks through to the New Forest, Lymington, Winchester and Salisbury. Anywhere within roughly 90 minutes’ drive is straightforward, with no transport charge added to your quote.