Published prices
What a private chef costs on Kauaʻi.
The honest answer with the honest range: $125–$350 a guest depending on tier, or from $1,100 a day for multi-day service. Here’s what moves the number — and what a week actually totals.
The short answer
From the published Kauaʻi card:
- Table (family-style) — $125–$150 per guest
- Signature (coursed) — $150–$250 per guest
- Premium (tasting) — $250–$350 per guest
- Chef’s Table — from $350 per guest
- Date Night (two) — $650–$950 fixed
- Stay Chef (multi-day) — from $1,100 per day + groceries at cost
The five cost drivers
In order of weight:
- Guest count — per-guest pricing means headcount is the multiplier
- Menu tier — Table to Chef’s Table spans $125–$350+ per guest
- Hawaiʻi grocery prices — 31–53% above mainland; why groceries sit inside dinner bands and at cost on stays
- Date — December and holiday weeks compress the calendar first
- Crew size — servers $55/hr, sous chefs $75/hr, 4-hour floor
Worked examples (illustrative)
Four guests, Signature mid-band ($200): $800 for the evening, groceries included. Eight at Table top ($150) plus a server for four hours: $1,200 + $220. Twelve at Premium ($300) with a server and a sous: $3,600 + $520. Each then adds the shore surcharge where applicable, 20% service, and GET up to 4.7120% — on their own lines.
A Stay Chef week (7 days) runs from $7,700 for the chef’s time plus groceries at cost — the full worked math lives on the Stay Chef cost page.
What “all-inclusive” usually hides
One Kauaʻi competitor advertises all-inclusive at $200–$300 per person. Ask what the grocery allowance is, what the service charge covers, and what happens at twelve guests versus six. Our bands are published with groceries inside, the fee stack itemized, and the written quote fixed before the deposit — the comparison is invited.
Questions, answered
For groups of 6–12 at dinner, often comparable or better — and nobody drives. A Signature dinner at $200/guest against a resort dining room’s entrees, wine markup, and transport is usually the better evening at a similar number.
Two-person evenings price as Date Night ($650–$950 fixed); per-guest bands apply from there up. There is no separate booking fee — the quote contains everything.
The published card holds year-round. What changes in December is availability — dates compress — so early inquiry and the 50% deposit are the whole game.
Keep reading
- pricing The Kauaʻi rate card.
- pricing What a Kauaʻi wedding week costs.
- pricing What a chef week costs, worked.
- pricing The fee stack, on its own lines.
- pricing Travel zones, published like everything else.
- pricing The Kauaʻi estimator.
- pricing Both shores, one written quote.
- guide Chef at the house, or the dining room?
Get a written quote
Kauaʻi runs inquiry-first: you tell us the table, we send a written quote — and that quote is the confirmed total. We never hold a date we can’t crew.