Booking a private chef: the terms

These terms apply when you book me to cook for you. “I” and “me” means Mike Sutton and Tipsy Squirrel Events Ltd (company number 14694733, registered office 1434 London Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex SS9 2UL). “You” means the person who books. If anything here is unclear, ask me before you book: 07960 862841 or mike@tipsysquirrelevents.com.

1. Your booking

Your quote sets out the date, the number of guests, the menu and the price. The price covers the ingredients, the menu, me cooking and serving on the night, the equipment I bring and a full clean-down of your kitchen afterwards.

Your booking is confirmed once you have agreed to these terms and paid the deposit. Until then, the date isn’t held for you. I’ll email you a confirmation that names the version of these terms you agreed to; the date at the top of this page is the version.

2. Deposit and payment

• A deposit of 25% of the quoted price secures your date. From that moment I hold the date for you and turn away other bookings for it, so the deposit is non-refundable, except where I cancel (section 6) or something outside our control stops the dinner (section 7).
• When you pay the deposit, Stripe, my payment provider, saves your card, and you authorise me to take the balance from it. The balance is taken automatically 7 days before the event. I never see or keep your card number.
• I email you a reminder 3 days before the balance is taken, with the amount and the date. If you book within 10 days of the event, your booking confirmation is the reminder.
• If we agree a change to the numbers or the menu before then, the balance taken is the new total less the deposit.
• If the payment doesn’t go through, I’ll email you a link to pay on your booking page, with the same card or another. Please pay within 48 hours. If the balance still hasn’t been paid three days before the event, I may treat the booking as cancelled by you, under section 4.
• If you book 7 days or fewer before the event, the full price is due when you book.
• Extra time on the night (section 9) is paid afterwards, by a link I email you.
• Payments are taken by card through Stripe. No VAT is charged: Tipsy Squirrel Events Ltd is not VAT registered.

3. Final details, guest numbers and the menu

• Please fill in the final details form on your booking page by the time the balance is taken: final numbers, every allergy and dietary need, your kitchen, timings and access. You can update it up to the day.
• If the numbers or the menu change before the balance is taken, I’ll confirm the new total with you, and the balance is worked out from it.
• After that, I can usually add guests at the same price per head if I can still get the ingredients, and I’ll send you a link to pay for them. Fewer guests doesn’t reduce the price, because the food has been ordered for the number you gave me.

4. If you cancel

Tell me in writing, by email or WhatsApp. The day I receive your message is the day of cancellation.

• More than 7 days before the event: I keep the deposit and you owe nothing more. If you have paid more than the deposit, I refund the rest within 14 days.
• 7 days or fewer before the event: the full price is due. By then the food is ordered and it is too late for me to take another booking for your date. If I do rebook the date, I’ll refund what you paid above the deposit, less anything I had already spent on your event.

The 14-day cancellation period that applies to many online purchases doesn’t apply to a booking for a specific date. Catering for a set date is excluded by the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 (regulation 28(1)(h)), so this section sets out your cancellation rights instead.

5. Moving your date

• You can move your booking once, free of charge, to another date I’m free, if you ask at least 14 days before the original date. Your deposit moves with it.
• If the menu or the numbers change with the new date, I’ll update your quote.
• A request made fewer than 14 days before the original date, or a second move, is treated as a cancellation under section 4, unless I agree otherwise.

6. If I have to cancel

If I can’t cook for you for any reason, illness included, I’ll tell you as soon as I can and refund everything you have paid, deposit included, within 14 days. If you’d rather, we can move your booking to another date I’m free instead.

7. Events outside our control

Sometimes something neither of us could reasonably have prevented stops a dinner going ahead: for example, severe weather that makes travel unsafe, a flood or fire at the venue, a power cut, or a law or government restriction. If that happens, neither of us is in breach of these terms.

• We’ll first try to move your booking to another date I’m free, with everything you’ve paid carried over and no charge for the move.
• If we can’t agree a new date, I’ll refund what you have paid, less any money I had already spent on your event and can’t get back (ingredients bought for it, for example). I’ll show you what that was.
• This section doesn’t cover illness or a change of plans on your side; those are cancellations under section 4.

8. Allergies and dietary needs

• Tell me about every allergy, intolerance and dietary need in your group on the final details form, and tell me straight away if anything changes. I plan the menu and the cooking around what you tell me.
• Your booking page shows which of the 14 major allergens each dish contains. When you send the final details, you confirm you have read this and shared it with your guests.
• If I can’t cook safely around an allergy you tell me about, I’ll tell you before the dinner and we’ll agree a change to the menu.
• I cook in your kitchen, which isn’t an allergen-controlled kitchen, so I can’t promise that any dish is free from traces of an allergen.
• I’m not responsible for a reaction to an allergen I wasn’t told about.

9. Time on site and extra time

• The price covers up to 7 hours at your venue, from when I arrive to when I leave after the clean-down. I’ll agree my arrival time with you.
• If I’m there longer because you ask me to stay on, or because of a delay on your side (guests arriving late, or the meal starting later than agreed), extra time is £60 an hour, charged by the half hour (£30 for each half hour or part of one). I’ll tell you before any extra time starts.
• I don’t charge for delays I cause.
• I’ll email you a link to pay for extra time after the dinner. Please pay it within 7 days.

10. Your kitchen and property

• You provide a clean, working kitchen: an oven, a hob, fridge space, running hot water and a sink. You also provide safe access, somewhere to unload nearby, and somewhere for your guests to eat. Tell me beforehand about anything unusual, such as an induction hob, a temperamental oven or a lot of steps.
• If the event is in a rented house or venue, it is your responsibility to get the owner’s permission for a private chef and to tell me the house rules. I’ll follow them.
• Please keep pets and children out of the kitchen while I’m cooking.
• I treat your home with care. If I damage anything through my own fault, I’ll pay to repair or replace it. I hold public liability insurance for this.
• I’m not responsible for faults that were already there or that show up in normal use (an oven that fails on the night, a fuse that trips), for ordinary wear from normal cooking, or for damage caused by anyone else.
• If a guest or a pet damages my equipment deliberately or through carelessness, I may ask you to pay for the repair or replacement.
• If the kitchen can’t be used when I arrive and I can’t cook, I’ll do what I can to adapt. If the dinner can’t go ahead, it is treated as a cancellation under section 4.

11. Tableware and the table

• You provide the table and chairs, and the plates, bowls, cutlery and glasses your guests need for each course, unless we have agreed in writing that I’ll bring them.
• If you’re short of anything, say so on the final details form, so we can sort it out before the day.

12. Safety and conduct

• I can refuse to start, or stop, if the kitchen or venue isn’t safe to work in (a smell of gas, dangerous wiring or no safe way in, for example), or if I’m threatened, abused or harassed by anyone at the event.
• I’ll always try to sort it out with you first. If the dinner can’t go ahead or has to stop for one of these reasons, it is treated as a cancellation by you under section 4.

13. Leftovers

Anything left after service that you choose to keep is handed over as it stands, cooled and covered, and I’ll tell you what each item is and what it contains. From that point its storage, reheating and eating are your responsibility, on these terms, which follow Food Standards Agency advice:

• Put it in a fridge running at 0–5°C within two hours of service (within one hour on a warm day).
• Eat it within 48 hours, or freeze it within that time.
• Reheat it until piping hot all the way through (75°C in the centre), and only once.
• If it has been left out for longer than four hours, or you are in any doubt, throw it away.
• Anyone you share it with needs to know its allergens. I’ll have told you; it is for you to pass on.

I’m not responsible for illness, loss or damage caused by leftovers kept, reheated, shared or eaten other than as above.

14. Photographs

• I’d like to photograph the food and the table for my website and social media. I only do so if you say yes on the final details form, and never with your guests’ faces in the picture.
• If you change your mind later, tell me and I’ll take them down.

15. If something isn’t right

Please tell me on the night, so I can put it right there and then. Otherwise, email me as soon as you can and I’ll reply within seven days.

16. Your rights and the law

• Nothing in these terms excludes or limits my liability for death or personal injury caused by my negligence, or any other liability the law doesn’t allow me to exclude.
• Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer.
• These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring proceedings there.
• How I use the details you give me when you book, allergy details included, is set out in the privacy notice.