Customer Terms and Conditions

1. Who we are and who provides your cooking service

Hello Chef is a trading name of HELLO CHEF LTD, a private limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 17560331. Registered office: 59 Dominion Road, Bristol, England, BS16 3ES. Email: contact@hello-chef.co.uk.

Hello Chef provides an online marketplace through which customers find and book independent chefs. These terms govern your use of our platform. The cooking service is provided under a separate contract between you and the independent chef identified for your booking.

The chef is responsible for the cooking service, including preparing the agreed food with reasonable care and skill, hygiene, handling relevant allergy information, and complying with the obligations that apply to their work. Hello Chef does not prepare the food or employ the chef to perform your booking.

Hello Chef is responsible for its own marketplace services, representations and legal obligations. Our role includes facilitating requests, conversations, booking administration, payment arrangements and support. Being an intermediary does not remove responsibility for our own negligence, breach of contract or other legal duties.

2. Accounts and eligibility

Provide accurate information and keep your sign-in details secure. Use only an account you are entitled to use and tell us promptly about suspected unauthorised access. Customer sign-in may be available through Google as well as email and password.

These terms are intended for adults aged 18 or over arranging household cooking. Do not use the service for unlawful activity, harassment, fraud or misleading requests. A person booking for a household must have authority to make the booking and must handle other diners’ information appropriately.

3. Requests, menus and confirmed bookings

A search, request or conversation is not a confirmed booking. Discuss the menu, portions, dietary requirements, kitchen facilities and shopping list with the chef. Before confirming, review the named chef, address, dates, times, duration, price and exact menu and shopping-list version displayed.

The cooking contract is formed when you accept the agreed plan and the platform confirms the booking. You agree to pay the disclosed cooking price on the disclosed schedule even though payment is collected later. Keep your booking confirmation and the terms supplied with it.

Booking times use UK local time, including clock changes. The current booking process requires a request at least 48 hours before the intended start and confirmation at least 24 hours before it. Availability and eligibility checks still apply.

The agreed menu and shopping list are recorded when you book. A message alone does not change them or the confirmed dates. Use the available change controls or contact support if a change is needed.

4. Ingredients, access and food safety

You buy the ingredients on the agreed shopping list separately from the cooking fee. Hello Chef does not supply ingredients. Provide appropriate storage, working equipment, a usable kitchen and access at the agreed time. Discuss substitutions with the chef before use.

Tell the chef about relevant allergies and dietary requirements before agreeing the menu, and promptly correct inaccurate information. The chef must assess whether they can safely provide the service, check relevant ingredient information and address cross-contact risks. Customers are not asked to waive food-safety rights or accept unsafe cooking.

Give a telephone number you can answer on the day. It is saved to your customer profile and made available to the assigned chef for eligible active bookings, to help with arrival or booking problems. Tell support if access or safe performance becomes impossible.

5. Prices and payments

The booking summary shows the cooking charge for each visit, calculated from the agreed time and chef’s rate. Check the total, including any applicable taxes and compulsory charges, before accepting. Ingredient purchases are separate. Optional extras require your agreement.

Payment-method setup is handled through Stripe. The agreed cooking charge is scheduled 24 hours before each confirmed visit; no cooking payment is taken when the booking is initially placed. Authorisation is for the agreed amounts and disclosed schedule, not an unrestricted right to debit your card.

Apple Pay and Google Pay depend on the payment flow, device, browser and wallet. They may not be available in every case. Do not send full card details or security codes in messages or email.

If payment fails, follow the payment-method instructions or contact support. An unpaid visit may be cancelled through the payment-recovery process. A failed payment does not authorise an undisclosed charge.

6. Recurring bookings

A recurring request can initially reserve four visits. Before you agree, the booking summary must state the dates, frequency, rate and whether the arrangement continues by reserving further eligible visits. A four-visit window does not by itself mean a fixed four-visit contract.

Where continuation is enabled and agreed, the platform can add future eligible visits using the agreed arrangement. Review upcoming bookings in your account. Confirmed prices are not changed retrospectively; a material rate or schedule change requires agreement.

Use the available pause, stop or rescheduling controls. Pausing is free for affected qualifying future visits. Ending continuation does not by itself settle an already started service or a valid charge for the nearest confirmed visit. See the Cancellation and Refund Policy.

7. Cancellations, changes and statutory rights

Read the Cancellation and Refund Policy with these terms. Customer cancellation at least 24 hours before the confirmed start, including exactly 24 hours before, is free. The standard fee for a customer cancellation less than 24 hours before the confirmed start is 25% of that visit's cooking price, subject to the withdrawal right and fair-loss review below.

We offer 14 days from booking confirmation to withdraw without a cancellation fee from a cooking service that has not started. This protection applies even if the visit is less than 24 hours away. We do not rely on a general date-specific catering exception to remove this protection.

The standard 25% fee is calculated automatically when you cancel less than 24 hours before the confirmed start. To request its return or challenge the calculation, email contact@hello-chef.co.uk with your booking reference and reason. An administrator reviews your request, the justified direct loss, saved costs, reasonable mitigation and your statutory rights. Any amount that is not lawfully due must be reduced, waived or refunded. Sending an email does not itself trigger an automatic refund.

If the chef cancels, you do not owe a customer cancellation fee and any cooking payment for the cancelled service is due for a full refund. The platform does not automatically book a replacement chef.

Starting a real service during the 14-day withdrawal period requires your separate express request and the required information. Simply accepting these terms does not make that request or waive your rights. Remedies for an unsafe, missing or defective service remain available.

8. Problems, complaints and refunds

Contact the chef through the booking conversation for practical arrangements. For a non-arrival, safety concern, poor service, platform problem or disputed payment, contact Help/support or contact@hello-chef.co.uk and include the booking reference and relevant facts.

Hello Chef can help communicate with the chef, examine platform records and administer an appropriate resolution. This does not replace the chef’s responsibility for their service or Hello Chef’s responsibility for its own actions. We do not guarantee a particular outcome before examining the circumstances.

Report problems promptly and retain relevant evidence. An internal reporting window, completed booking status or acceptance of a menu does not remove statutory rights. Where applicable, remedies for a defective service may include repeat performance or a price reduction or refund.

9. Profiles, reviews and messages

Chef approval means that an application has been reviewed under the platform process. It is not a promise that every future service will meet your expectations or a substitute for the chef’s legal duties. Profile statements and photos must be accurate; report suspected misleading information.

Reviews should reflect a genuine completed booking. Do not publish private addresses, medical information, threats or unlawful content. You retain rights in your content and permit the use needed to operate the service and display the review or content you submit.

We may investigate and moderate unlawful, fake or otherwise abusive content. A negative review should not be removed merely because it is critical. Messages are stored by the platform and may be accessed by authorised staff for support or safety purposes, as described in the Privacy Policy.

10. Responsibility and limits

The independent chef is responsible for performing the agreed cooking service, including its quality, preparation and safety. Hello Chef does not give a separate guarantee of the chef’s performance. This allocation does not excuse Hello Chef from obligations or representations it has itself undertaken.

Hello Chef remains responsible for loss caused by its own breach of contract or failure to exercise the care and skill legally required of it. The chef remains responsible for their own breach or negligence. Nothing in these terms excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, or a liability or consumer right that cannot lawfully be excluded.

We do not require you to waive a claim because we describe ourselves as a marketplace, or to bear losses for which the platform is legally responsible.

11. Account restrictions and changes to these terms

We may take proportionate action to address misuse, fraud, unlawful content or serious safety risks, including restricting an account while a concern is investigated. We will explain the reason where lawful and provide a contact route to challenge an error. Existing bookings, refunds and money owed must still be addressed.

You can stop using the platform and request account closure at contact@hello-chef.co.uk. Closure does not automatically cancel existing bookings or remove information that must lawfully be retained.

Material changes will be brought to your attention before they apply where required. New terms do not retrospectively change a confirmed price or remove accrued rights. A new privacy purpose requiring consent needs a separate choice.

12. Law and resolving a dispute

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, subject to mandatory consumer protections that apply where you live. You retain access to the courts available under consumer law; you are not required to bring a claim in Bristol merely because our correspondence address is there.

Contact contact@hello-chef.co.uk to raise a complaint or request reconsideration. If a dispute cannot be resolved, we will provide any alternative dispute resolution information required by law. No compulsory private arbitration or unverified ADR membership is asserted.