A chef for the retreat, not a caterer for the event.
The retreat-chef model is continuity: one chef who learns the group on day one and feeds it better by day four. From $1,100 a day plus groceries at cost — the only published multi-day chef rate on the island.
Why continuity is the product
A different caterer each night means re-explaining the nut allergy nightly and never learning that the group eats light before breathwork. One chef across the program means the dietary flags settle once, the menu arcs across the week — grounding food early, the feast night where the program earns it — and the kitchen becomes part of the retreat’s calm rather than its logistics.
Hosts hiring ad hoc today (a cook here, a restaurant run there) spend the same money for none of the continuity. The retreat chef is the line item that makes the rest of the program land.
The working relationship
The chef joins your planning call, reads the program schedule, and writes the menu draft against it — labeled by protocol, priced by day. During the retreat, the kitchen runs on your timetable: early service before practice, the dinner hour when you say it is.
Staffing scales with the format: a chef alone covers daily rhythm to about 12–14; service staff join at published hourlys ($55/$75) for feast nights and larger groups.
The money, in the open
From $1,100 per day plus groceries at cost with receipts — and on Kauaʻi, at-cost matters: island food runs well above mainland prices, and receipts are how a host audits the week. The 20% service charge and GET appear on their own lines; the written quote is the confirmed total.
Questions, answered
Fundamentally: one contract, one chef, one dietary conversation, a menu that arcs across the week. Per-meal catering re-runs the logistics daily and prices every delivery as an event; the retreat chef prices the program.
Daily rhythm cooking for up to about 12–14; beyond that, or for event nights inside the program, service staff join at $55/hr (servers) and $75/hr (sous) with a 4-hour floor. The quote names the crew per day.
Yes. Program rules are part of the spec: alcohol-free kitchens, silent service windows, caffeine policies. The kitchen conforms to the retreat, not the reverse.
Keep reading
- service A personal chef, in the island sense.
- service The rental has a kitchen. Use it.
- service Dinner for two, priced as dinner for two.
- service The week, cooked ahead.
- service Learn the island’s food in your own kitchen.
- service The tasting menu, without the dining room.
- service The kitchen is the room.
- service The honeymoon table, without the reservation app.
Get a written quote
One contract, every meal, dietary depth included. The written quote is the confirmed total.