— For chefs
Resources, written by chefs.
Everything we wish someone had told us before our first booking on a platform. Playbooks, pricing math, payout logistics, day-of checklists. Plain language, real specifics, no fluff.
Playbooks
How to actually do this.
Field guides written by chefs who've cooked for a thousand tables. Read in order if you're new, or skip to whatever you need.
First 30 days on SERVD
Profile photos, menu publishing, availability windows, your first booking inquiry — what to do, what to skip.
Article coming soon
Menu design — the SERVD way
Course count, dietary versatility, anchor dishes, how to write a menu that books itself.
Article coming soon
Pricing your private dinners
Hour-of-labor + food cost + your floor. How to set a per-guest rate that lands you bookings without underselling.
Article coming soon
Dietary handling, demystified
Gluten-free, vegan, top-9 allergens, cross-contamination. What you're responsible for vs. what we vet.
Article coming soon
Money + payouts
The financial side of the kitchen.
Everything money: Stripe Connect setup, payout cadence, 1099s, tax write-offs, the math behind 0% take rate.
Stripe Connect setup
Step-by-step through Connect onboarding. Bank info, ID verification, when the green Payouts Connected badge appears.
Article coming soon
Why 0% commission, actually
The math behind keeping 100% — why SERVD is free for chefs at launch, what the 8% Guarantee covers, and where our giving commitment shows up.
Read →
Taxes 101 for private chefs
1099 vs. business income, write-offs, quarterly estimated payments, the basics every self-employed chef should know.
Article coming soon
Cancellation protection — how it pays you
Cancellation tiers, how the 50% late-cancel fee gets to you, when the payout shows in your earnings dashboard.
Article coming soon
Day-of
When the night is on the line.
Logistics, customer comms, day-of mistakes you only make once. Bookmark these for your service days.
The arrival checklist
Knife rolls, tasting spoons, plate-up plates, intro line. What we wish every chef brought on their first booking.
Article coming soon
Communicating with the host
When to text vs. call, how to handle "can we add another guest?" gracefully, when to loop in SERVD ops.
Article coming soon
Emergencies — chef-side
Family conflict, equipment failure, weather. How to reach Servd's 24-hour ops line and what we'll cover.
Article coming soon
Reviews, both sides
How the reveal-after-both system works, how to write a review of your diner, how to politely respond to a tough one.
Article coming soon
Need something we haven’t written?
Ask — we’ll write the playbook.
If the answer you need isn’t in here, write the chefs@ inbox. We use those requests as the queue for what we publish next.
chefs@servdchefs.com →