Terms of Service

ChefLynk is a marketplace. We connect you with independent chefs and handle the booking, the payment and the money held between you. The chef is an independent professional, not our employee. They decide their menus and their prices; we are not the ones cooking.

You pay the chef’s quoted price plus one service fee: 10% of the chef’s price, with a minimum of $9 and a maximum of $399. On very large bookings the fee may exceed $399, but never more than 6% of the chef’s price. That is the whole fee. Nothing else is added at checkout, and the chef receives their full quoted price.

You are charged when your booking is confirmed, but the money does not reach the chef then. It is held in escrow and released after your event — 24 hours after for an established chef, and longer for a chef’s first few bookings on the platform. If something goes wrong on the night, the money has not left yet.

Before you pay, cancelling is free and instant. After a booking is paid, what you get back depends on how much notice the chef gets — they have already turned down other work and, closer to the date, already shopped:

• More than 7 days before: 95% of the chef’s price back; the chef keeps 5% for holding the date.
• Between 48 hours and 7 days: 90% of the chef’s price back; the chef keeps 10%.
• Within 48 hours: 50% of the chef’s price back; the chef keeps 50%.
• On all three the service fee stays with us, and a cash refund also loses the card processing fee, which the card networks keep and do not return.
• If the chef cancels or does not turn up: 100% back, including the service fee.

Refunds within this policy are self-serve. Anything outside it — an unusual situation, a dispute about what happened — is handled by us case by case.

Credit never expires. It can be spent on any booking on the platform. It cannot be exchanged for cash, and it has no value outside ChefLynk.

You agree to give an accurate address, headcount and, in particular, accurate allergy and dietary information. Your chef cooks from what you tell them. If someone attending has a serious allergy, say so explicitly in your booking notes and confirm it with your chef before the event. You agree to provide reasonable access to a working kitchen at the time booked.

A chef has 48 hours to answer a request, reduced when the event is close, and never less than one hour. A request closes automatically once every chef asked has answered or run out of time, and in any case 24 hours after your event date. An offer a chef has already sent you stays open until that same 24-hour point, so you are never rushed into accepting one. A chef’s offer is an offer, not a booking — nothing is agreed and nobody is charged until you accept and pay.

Only a client who paid for a completed booking can review the chef who cooked it, within 14 days. We do not delete a review because a chef dislikes it; we remove reviews that are fraudulent or abusive.

We are responsible for the platform, the payment handling and the escrow. Chefs are independent professionals responsible for their own food, their own licensing and their own insurance. We are not liable for the chef’s performance, though we will act on reports and can suspend chefs from the platform.

You are responsible for what happens under your account. We can suspend accounts for fraud, abuse or repeated policy breaches. You can close your account at any time — see the Privacy Policy for what happens to your data.

If we change these terms materially we will tell account holders by email. Questions: support@cheflynk.com.