In-Home Personal Chefs In Chicago

Meet Friend That Cooks, an in-home personal chef service for busy families and couples. We specialize in in-home weekly meal prep and there is no service more experienced or better staffed to bring you the best option available for affordable, weekly personal chef service in your home. Our talented, professional chefs also offer in-home parties and in-home cooking lessons.

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We selectively recruit local chefs with huge repertoires of ethnic and classic dishes they can prepare for you, from scratch, personally selecting the very best of ingredients while also saving you money on your grocery bill. We price our service hourly, and you provide the shopping money for our personal chefs, so you receive both the highest quality food and the best value cooking service possible. Personal chefs are employees of Friend That Cooks and not contractors. After testing their culinary expertise, personalities and cooking ability, we conduct background checks on our chefs then bond and insure them so you can be sure you have an incredibly talented, nice, trustworthy Friend to cook for you and your family every week. Less than 1% of chefs who apply to Friend That Cooks make it through our testing process.

In-Home Services & Rates

Select one of the services below to learn more about what we do and see average prices. Friend That Cooks only offers personal chef services in the homes of our clients. We do not prepare food off-site for pickup or delivery. Unlike meal kit delivery, we customize all our services to meet the needs of each of our families individually.

In-Home Weekly Meal Prep

Weekly meal prep is the most popular service Friend That Cooks Personal Chefs offer. It's what we do better, and more affordably than anyone else.

With Friend That Cooks weekly meal prep service, one of our talented chefs will come to your home for a half day every week to shop, cook, clean up and stock your refrigerator with a week's worth of healthy premade meals to reheat.

We charge a reasonable hourly rate of $63/hour (3-hour minimum) for our chef's time, and you provide shopping money for groceries. Our service is the most fair way possible to pay for a personal chef.

Average service cost:
($63/hour rate)

Week of meals for family of 4
$250 to $315, plus groceries

Actual cost varies based chef's time used.
Three hour minimum.

With Friend That Cooks weekly meal prep service, one of our talented chefs will come to your home for a half day every week to plan, shop, cook, clean up and stock your refrigerator with a week's worth of healthy premade meals to reheat.

We do not have set packages or a limited menu to select from like other personal chef and meal delivery services. Each family gets to decide how many portions they need to make it through the week. They are welcome to change that amount week to week, or even take the occasional week off for vacation if necessary. We have no contracts.

Our chefs create menus to fit each family's specific preferences and dietary needs. In addition to having huge ethnic food repertoires, our personal chefs are skilled at cooking for special diets of all types. Are you eating Paleo? No problem, no extra charge. Are you diabetic and need help controlling your diet? No problem, no extra charge. Need low sodium, fat, sugar or carb? Food allergies? Vegetarian or vegan? Athlete in training? Busy mom? Just want scratch made, healthy prepared meals? Our personal chefs will create menus on the spot, on the day of service, based on your personal tastes and needs. You'll love the ease and enjoy making a new Friend That Cooks.

If you are gift shopping for a friend or loved one, a Friend That Cooks weekly meal prep gift certificate makes a unique and impressive present. Our gift certificates are great for new mother's, holidays, anniversaries, birthdays and surgery recovery.

Here's what our meal prep clients say

Visit our Reviews Page for more client feedback!!

"Nate is amazing and so helpful. We appreciate him so much. He cooks the best dishes and the food is awesome. Friend That Cooks is helping our lifestyle as we both work, have 3 active school aged kids that are busy with sports..."
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- Carla K.
"Jane is doing a terrific job cooking for us. The food is well prepared and delicious. But what makes Jane special is the attention she pays to our likes and dislikes. I was worried (at first) that she would be insulted if a dish wasn't our favorite or we liked red sauce over green sauce..."
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- Katybeth
"Jonelle is fabulous. We have been a client of Friend That Cooks for about a year now. The food is fresh and delicious with lots of variety. Our grocery shopping and weekly meal menu is totally taken care of. This has been fantastic creating more time..."
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- Jennifer L.
"Jacob has been with our family for 2 months and it has been such a treat! We enjoy having him in our home every wk and look forward to his incredible food! He is able to accommodate any special health needs and does it with a smile! Having Jacob in our home has..."
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- Leslie H.
"My chef Tyler is fantastic. I absolutely love this service. I am a busy, single woman. I can cook, I just don't like to, and I hate to grocery shop. This service has been fantastic because it frees up lots of time for me to devote to work and..."
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- Melanie S.

In-Home Parties

If you have a kitchen, we have a better way to host a party. With a Friend That Cooks personal chef, you can get a much better value for your party or wine dinner than you can hiring a caterer. Rather than buying food, marking it up 400-500% and selling it back to you as caterers do, Friend That Cooks personal chefs buy your food ingredients at the grocery store with your money, then charge you a simple hourly rate.

You save money by doing the table setup and decorating yourself. We use your kitchen, your equipment and your dishes so you only have to pay a simple hourly rate of $85/hour (three hour minimum) for the chef's time to plan, shop, cook and clean up. It's a much more transparent and fair way to get food for your in-home party.

Average service cost:
($85/hour rate)

Dinner party for 8 people
$510 to $680, plus groceries

Actual cost varies based chef's time used.
Three hour minimum.

In-Home Cooking Lessons

Cooking lessons can be for groups or individuals. A Friend That Cooks group cooking lesson is like hosting a live cooking show right in your home.

While cooking lessons vary in length, the average group cooking lesson for 8 people uses around 6 hours of service including planning, shopping, cooking and clean up of four courses. Individual cooking lessons take around half that time. Friend That Cooks charges our prime rate, $85/hour (3-hour minimum) for planning, shopping, a live lesson, and clean up. You provide the shopping money for groceries.

Friend That Cooks cooking lessons are a great value. You get to drink your own wine or soft beverage, bring your own beer, and prices don't go up exponentially when you want to use a premium ingredient like lobster or filet of tenderloin. More importantly, you don't have to drive home. It's all happening right there!

You provide shopping money for groceries and pay a reasonable hourly rate to your Friend That Cooks. We'll do the rest. Simple, easy, entertaining.

Average service cost:
($85/hour rate)

Cooking party for 8 people
$510 to $680, plus groceries

Actual cost varies based chef's time used.
Three hour minimum.

Special Diets Welcome!

Our chefs are experienced working with dietary restrictions and special diets of all types. We prepare our meals from scratch, and customize every menu, every week, for every client, making it very easy for us to tailor your food to your tastes and needs. We have a degreed dietitian on-staff to help guide our chefs, and our large team of talented professional chefs constantly share experiences and guide each other. Paleo, Keto, vegetarian, and food allergy preparations are just some of the special menu considerations we can easily accommodate.

In-Home Personal Chefs In Chicago

In-Home Services & Rates

In-Home Weekly Meal Prep

Actual cost varies based chef's time used. Three hour minimum.

Here's what our meal prep clients say

In-Home Parties

Actual cost varies based chef's time used. Three hour minimum.

In-Home Cooking Lessons

Actual cost varies based chef's time used. Three hour minimum.

Actual cost varies based chef's time used.
Three hour minimum.

Actual cost varies based chef's time used.
Three hour minimum.

Actual cost varies based chef's time used.
Three hour minimum.