5 Reasons you can afford a personal chef and Yhangry review

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Yhangry offer personal chef services in your own home, something I think you may be surprised that you can afford as a treat once in a while. Here I want to share with you how you can afford a personal chef.

How often do you go out for a meal, many of us do this sometimes whether it be for a break from cooking or a special occasion? Have you ever considered a personal chef? I can honestly say that I hadn’t. In my eyes, it was something that celebrities and rich people do, and I definitely wouldn’t consider us as either!

When I was given the opportunity to review Yhangry and their personal chefs I was excited as I thought it was definitely once in a lifetime experience but actually realised afterwards it was something we might consider doing again, let me explain why.

All images throughout this article are from our Yhangry experience with some images of Chef Sam and some of the food.

5 reasons you can afford a personal chef

Here are 5 reasons I think you can afford a personal chef. Not on a daily basis of course but as a special treat. If you have often thought that it would be amazing to have a personal chef from Yhangry but not something you could have then read on and I will explain more.

The food is a similar cost to eating out

If you are going out for a three-course meal it would be quite common in a chain pub to pay a minimum of £22 per person. This is £6 for a starter, £10 for a main course and £6 for a dessert. Of course, if you chose steak, a sauce for your steak and side dishes such as garlic bread the cost would be higher. We all know that meals from these venues are mass produced though and generally microwaved!

For a nice restaurant, it can often be double this, if not more, so easily could be £40-50 per person. For this, you usually would have a more personal service and freshly prepared food rather than microwaved meals!

Costs in London or really busy popular venues could of course be different.

You don’t need childcare

When you think about a night out the cost of childcare soon adds up. If you are a group of couples all going out for a meal it could easily be £25/30 per couple for a babysitter so a group of 6 (3 couples) could easily be paying, between them, £90 on childcare.

With the personal chef, at least one of the couples may not need to pay for this as it is at home. It would be a little less of a night away from the kids but it of course does depend on how old the children are. If you have a big enough house and the children of each couple get on then it might be that with a personal chef, none of the families needs to pay for childcare!

There are no costs for taxis

For a night out taxi costs easily add up, again this can be avoided for at least one household with a personal chef depending on your circumstances. This could save £20 or more quite easily depending on your location.

Allergies and dietary requirements are easier

As many of my regular readers know, I am vegetarian and Ben has some allergies. When we eat out this can be a bit difficult as I have to ensure his allergens are not in his food.

As one of Ben’s allergies is cinnamon which isn’t an allergen that legally has to be listed in the ingredients of foods it can be difficult as you have to trust staff to look at ingredients and check for both cinnamon and spices.

With a personal chef, you can ask in advance of your meal and be assured that the foods are perfect for your family. Additionally, it is easy for the chef to suggest alternatives or adapt recipes in advance to take these things into account.

Drinks are cheaper

When you eat out, the drinks can be quite expensive, seemingly unnecessarily. A glass of wine is often £7+ for something that is only about the same price as a bottle in the supermarket! This essentially means quite quickly per person you can be paying a lot on drinks alone and £20 on drinks per adult wouldn’t be unusual.

Having a personal chef at home means that everyone can drink what they like at a much lower cost. Whilst of course there will still be a cost for drinks it will be a lot lower!

5 Reasons a personal chef at home is amazing

Ideal for disabilities and health issues

If any members of your group have disabilities or health issues they may find choosing suitable restaurants difficult. Perhaps someone has autism or another issue and finds busy restaurants difficult.

Alternatively, perhaps there are mobility issues either needing somewhere wheelchair accessible or perhaps needing a hoist or similar to use the bathroom. In cases like this, it is often difficult to eat out at all. With a personal chef from Yhangry, you get to experience a nice meal out, without going out.

No dress codes

Are you someone who hates getting dressed up to go out, or finds that there are expectations in certain restaurants of what you should wear and you don’t like this? Having a personal chef at home means if you want to wear slippers and leggings you can! There is no need for make-up, a little black dress or even brushed hair if you don’t want to!

It fits around you and you get more time with your guests

If you work long shifts, have medication to take at certain times, or simply have a busy life then perhaps a personal chef at home would work well. Whilst the chef needs to be in your home 2 hours before the serving time this doesn’t mean all the guests need to be there then.

Additionally, you get more time with your guests without having to cook food, check on the food, do the dishes, and worry about serving everything hot. You simply sit and enjoy yourself with your guests!

It is quieter and more intimate

Chatting openly in a restaurant isn’t always easy. It might be busy, you might have personal things you like to talk about, or perhaps you just don’t want to have people passing your table often and bumping your chair when they get up. Whatever you don’t like about restaurants and the busy aspect of them is likely to be removed by having a meal at home.

You know it will be foods you like

Fussy friends or frustrated with restaurants running out of your favourite meals before you arrive? When you plan a personal chef with Yhangry you get to choose the cuisine you prefer and then from options available from the chef your actual dishes too. If there are aspects you are not sure about they can adapt them easily for you.

Our experience with a Yhangry personal chef

In return for sharing my experience with you, we received a three-course meal for six people at our home. We chose to book this for the evening of Stuart’s birthday and invited some friends over, Martin, Tracey and Natalie.

Between us, we had one vegetarian, one person who doesn’t eat fish, one who doesn’t eat peppers, a few who don’t like spicy foods and Ben with his allergies to cinnamon and sesame!

Booking the chef and choosing the menu

We didn’t need to choose the chef from the website as she was chosen for us as part of the review. That said I had a good browse and was very impressed with the variety of chefs available.

Their profiles shared what experience they have, the foods they offer (for example some offer BBQs), their pricing, and any specialities they have. For the pricing, many have a per-person starting price and also a minimum fee.

It is easy then to go through the process of choosing the food after you have shared any allergies or preferences. Prices are then clear and you can start looking to officially invite your guests.

Yhangry send out invites you can use and guests can go online to accept and choose their food if there is a choice. Depending on the price you pay you can have it so there is a choice or simply one starter, main course and dessert.

The chef brings all ingredients with them and you receive a list of all utensils you may need to have available. These are general things that most people will already have but they provide links for you to order some if necessary to make that easy. Most of the list is things like a grater, a blender, a chopping board, a large frying pan etc so nothing too difficult.

On the day of the meal

When the day of the meal arrives you need to be ready for the chef to arrive 2 hours before the start of the meal. That said you can leave them to cook then and go and shower, get changed, put the kids to bed etc so you do not need to be ready for your evening at this point.

Your table should be set ready and you should have enough plates, glasses and cutlery for your guests for each course. I found it easy to leave most of the utensils etc out but also to describe where things are and the chef didn’t need to ask for anything.

The chef arrived with all the food, a selection of her own utensils and tools, and even a portable fridge! We chatted through the food that was planned and she ensured she had the right allergens and preferences. Sam also checked with me about the dessert as it has a small amount of alcohol in and she hadn’t realised Ben was 17. This is because I consider him an adult with regard to his food. Of course, though I understood this and was happy for Ben to have that small amount of alcohol.

During the meal

The meal was served to us by the chef, Sam and everything went very well. It was so nice to be able to relax and enjoy time with our guests rather than going backwards and forwards to the kitchen to prepare and serve food.

Each dish was brought out to us and described to us by the chef which I think was a lovely touch. The chef remained in the kitchen throughout preparing the next element of the meal and also cleaning and tidying up the kitchen.

After the meal

At the end of the meal as we all moved from the table to sit and have another drink in the lounge I popped through to the kitchen to see the chef and check how things were going. Sam had washed up everything used and cleaned all the work surfaces. The kitchen was as clean as it had been when she arrived and she was almost ready to leave. The whole experience had gone really smoothly and was so relaxing as a host.

Starter

Burrata with burst daterini tomatoes, basil and panagrato.

Main course

Beech Smoked Bacon Carbonara or Pumpkin Carbonara. Both were made with freshly made pasta.

Side dishes

Rosemary and tomato focaccia

Mixed dressed salad

Dessert

Tiramisu

Would we recommend a personal chef with Yhangry

We really enjoyed the experience of having a personal chef from Yhangry and were surprised at how relaxed the whole experience was. Of course, tidying the house and cleaning the kitchen was a bit of a task but only in the same way as you would anyway before having friends over, to be honest.

The overall cost of the experience we had was £45 per person, for 6 of us the total cost was £270. Whilst in some respects this is quite expensive, in others I think it is very worth it. We spent very little on drinks as have a lot already and of course, our guests brought some too and we had no childcare costs anyway.

For us, for a special occasion, we felt this was a good price as we could easily spend that on a meal out for 6 people including taxis, drinks and such. What do you think, would you pay £270 for a special meal cooked and served in your own home by a personal chef?

Any negatives about the Yhangry experience

Whilst we did thoroughly enjoy the experience with the Yhangry personal chef I feel it is important to share any negatives we had or that others may have felt. It was quite difficult to find anything negative but my thoughts are as follows.

Some of the chefs on the Yhangry platform have more accessible prices than others. Each has a minimum fee and some of the minimum fees I saw were around £1000. This means that whilst I think the experience we had was a good price and very reasonable for special occasions, not all chefs on the platform had prices like this. The prices were varied however, there is a good number with these lower fees available so don’t let you put that off. Of course, if you want a chef who has worked for celebrities you will pay more though, won’t you?

If you wish your guests to have a choice of food prior to the day and the chef to make more than one option on the evening this will cost more. For that reason, in some ways, the cost can not be compared to those of a restaurant as the option we chose everyone had the same dishes, with the exception of a vegetarian alternative for the main course.

How to book your own experience

If you would like to book your own personal chef experience through Yhangry then simply visit their website and type in your postcode. From there you will see a selection of chefs available for your area. If you have an event date specifically in mind you can select that too to see which chefs may have availability for that date.

Depending on your budget, cuisine of choice etc you can then find the experience to suit you. If you have any questions at any point they have great customer service and you should be able to have your mind put to rest easily.

Does this sound like something you would enjoy? Is there anything you would like to know about our personal chef experience that I may have not shared? Do let me know in the comments below.

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