Thanksgiving is the one dinner of the year where the cook never gets to sit down. Chefpost matches you with a vetted private chef who plans the menu around your family's traditions, shops for everything, roasts the turkey and cooks every side in your own kitchen, serves the table, packs the leftovers and leaves the kitchen clean. You spend the day with the people you invited.
A private chef for Thanksgiving comes to your home, brings the groceries, cooks the full Thanksgiving dinner in your kitchen, serves it, and cleans up. On Chefpost it costs $65 to $150 per guest, so a table of ten runs about $900 to $1,600 for the chef, with groceries billed at cost on top. The turkey and sides for ten usually add $150 to $300 at the store.
It is not the same as Thanksgiving catering. Catering is cooked somewhere else, driven over in foil trays, and reheated, and you still plate it, serve it and wash up. A private chef cooks the bird in your oven, times the sides to come out together, carves at the table if you want, and the kitchen is spotless when they leave.
Chefpost is the booking layer. Every chef is background-checked, food-safety verified and reviewed by hosts who booked them. You browse chefs and menus, pick one who covers your city and your headcount, and the cooking stops being your problem.
Three very different things get searched as one. Here is what you actually get with each.
One chef, your kitchen, your traditions. The chef shops the day before, arrives four to six hours ahead, roasts the turkey, makes the stuffing, gravy, sides and pies from scratch, serves family-style or plated, packs the leftovers and cleans. $65 to $150 per guest on Chefpost. The food is hot, the host is at the table, and nothing arrives in a foil tray.
A caterer cooks in a commercial kitchen and delivers the meal in trays, usually the morning of or the day before, with reheating instructions. It scales to fifty people and it is cheaper per head, but you are still the one heating, plating, serving and cleaning. It is the right call for a big crowd where the food is not the point.
Grocery chains and restaurants sell a boxed Thanksgiving for six to ten: a cooked turkey, a few sides, a pie, pick up cold and reheat. It is the cheapest option and the least work to order, and it tastes like exactly that. Good for a small table where nobody wants to cook and nobody minds.
Four steps from first message to a clean kitchen on Thanksgiving night. No shopping, no cooking, no dishes for you.
Date, city, headcount, your family's must-have dishes, and any allergies or dietary needs across the table.
Classic, Southern, Latin, coastal or plant-based. Family-style platters or plated courses. Your chef builds it around your traditions.
We surface vetted chefs who cover your city and have cooked holiday tables at your headcount, each with real reviews.
Your chef shops, arrives early, roasts, carves, serves, packs the leftovers and leaves the kitchen spotless.
The same chef, four very different days.
Real ranges from bookings on Chefpost, at $65 to $150 per guest depending on city, menu and course count. Groceries are billed at cost on top of the chef fee.
| Table size | Typical chef fee | What it usually looks like |
|---|---|---|
| 6 guests | $390 to $900 | One chef, one oven, a turkey or a turkey breast, four sides and a pie. The most common Thanksgiving booking. |
| 10 guests | $900 to $1,600 | One chef, a full 14 to 16 pound bird, six to eight sides, two pies, served family-style. |
| 14 guests | $1,100 to $2,100 | One chef, sometimes a helper, two proteins or a large bird, sides in volume, a dessert table. |
| 20 guests | $1,500 to $3,000 | A chef and an assistant, two ovens or a staggered cook, stations or platters. Past this, it is catering territory. |
Premium metros such as New York and the Hamptons run above these ranges, and Thanksgiving Day itself sits in the upper half because it is the single most requested date of the year. For the full breakdown by occasion and service level, see what a private chef costs.
An honest take from the Chefpost team on why this is the dinner people book a chef for first.
“Every year the same person spends Thanksgiving standing at the stove, checking the bird every twenty minutes, and eating last. Everyone thanks them, and they miss the day. The reason people book a private chef for Thanksgiving is not that the food is better, although it usually is. It is that the person who always cooks finally sits down with everyone else, and the kitchen is clean when the last guest leaves.”
What actually happens in your kitchen, from the morning to the last dish.
Your chef shops the day before, or early that morning, and arrives four to six hours before you want to eat. A 14 to 16 pound turkey needs roughly three and a half hours in the oven plus a rest, so for a 4pm dinner the chef is usually in your kitchen by 11am. One oven is fine: the chef plans the sides around the bird, and the things that finish on the stovetop or in a warming drawer are timed to come out together.
You do not need special equipment. The chef brings knives, a roasting setup if you do not have one, and any tools your kitchen is missing. Serving dishes and a table are yours; if you are in a rental, say so when you book and the chef plans for what a rental kitchen actually has.
When dinner is ready the chef carves, either in the kitchen or at the table, and serves family-style or plated, whichever you booked. Dessert and coffee follow. Then the part people mention most in reviews: the leftovers are packed and labeled, the roasting pan is clean, and the kitchen looks like it did that morning.
The single most requested date of the year, and the one where waiting costs you the chef you wanted.
Thanksgiving 2026 falls on Thursday, November 26. Chefs on Chefpost take holiday bookings from September, and in Miami and New York the most reviewed chefs are typically booked by the first week of November. Searches for a Thanksgiving chef peak the week before the holiday, which is exactly when the calendar is fullest, so the people searching latest have the fewest options.
Book three to four weeks out for a comfortable choice of chefs and menus. Two weeks out is still workable in most cities. Chefpost requires 48 hours' notice on any booking, and Thanksgiving week itself is possible but not guaranteed, so if you are reading this the Monday before, talk to our concierge and we will see who is free.
Friendsgiving is easier to staff: the Saturday before and the Friday after Thanksgiving are open on most chefs' calendars until much later.
Home tables, real kitchens, and the holiday cooked where it is eaten.
The format is specific. Here is when it fits and when it does not.
Chefpost cooks Thanksgiving in your kitchen across South Florida, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Atlanta and Boston. If you searched for Thanksgiving catering in Miami, New York, Houston or Atlanta and would rather have the dinner cooked in your own home, this is the version of catering where the chef comes to you. Pick your city to see the chefs who cover it.
Christmas, pricing, and the dinners that come after the holiday.
Tell us your city, your date and how many seats. We will match you with vetted chefs who have cooked holiday tables at your headcount, with real menus and real reviews.
What hosts ask us before booking a chef for the holiday.
