Catering Dubai, Built Around Your Event

Yes. If your venue, household or team already has everything else covered, we can prepare the food and deliver it. See drop-off catering.

Many Dubai caterers present a package of menus, buffets and staff. myCHEF starts with the event you are actually planning. You add only the layers that make it work — food, kitchen, service, table, atmosphere, event support. Licensed culinary partners employ the cooks and do the cooking; we take the brief, match the event, score the work and carry the booking. You do not have to buy a complete event package to get the food right.

From about 10 guests upward, and small parties of 10 to 20 at home are a large part of what we do — that is not a reluctant minimum. The one case where we send you elsewhere is a *seated* dinner under about 20: a private chef is priced per visit rather than per person, which is usually both cheaper and a better evening. Anything with a buffet, a bar, passed food or a running order is catering at any headcount.

It depends on guest count, menu, service style, staffing and venue — not on a single package price. Drop-off starts from AED 90 per person, a standard event buffet from AED 120, premium buffet, BBQ, live stations and canapés from AED 150, and chef-led plated dining at AED 700–950 per person. Guest count and staff move it from there. Every quote is itemised in writing, with 5% VAT shown separately. See the catering prices guide or the cost calculator.

Yes, as layers you can add. Serving staff, bartenders, tableware, glassware and linen are sized to the guest count and service style. If your venue already provides staff or tables, we work around that.

Halal ingredients are sourced by default for myCHEF catering menus in Dubai. Mixed guest lists and specific certification requirements should be told to us when we build the menu. More detail on halal catering.

Culinary preparation is performed by licensed culinary partners working to Dubai Municipality food-safety standards. Those partner houses employ the cooks on proper visas; myCHEF designs and coordinates the catering around your event, and the contract and the invoice are with myCHEF. You are not hiring a stranger off an app, and you are not employing anyone.

For events under 50 guests, a week ahead is typical. Larger events: 2–4 weeks. Peak season (November–March) and holidays book faster. Short notice is often possible — message the date via contact. During business hours, 9am to 9pm, a reply typically comes back within 15 minutes; a message sent overnight is answered first thing.

Yes. For a party of 10 to 20 at home, home catering Dubai is most of what we do: a birthday, a dinner for twelve on a villa terrace, a family lunch with one chef and one server. Under about 20 guests you can also book a private chef to cook in your kitchen — often the better fit for a seated dinner. Either way the food is cooked for your date, not pulled from a standing buffet menu.

All four, as layers on the same booking. Grazing tables and live cooking stations suit standing events; a gala dinner is plated with a full service team; waiters, hosts and bartenders are added by guest count. Tell us the format and we size the team — you never pay for staff the format does not need.

On what they publish. We keep a page that compares the best catering companies in Dubai on 102 per-person prices, minimum orders and notice periods, all taken from their own menus and source-linked — including where myCHEF is not the cheapest. Read it before you ask anyone for a quote.

For an event, 48 hours before the date: cancel or move it with more notice than that and nothing is charged beyond costs already committed — ingredients ordered, equipment reserved, staff released late. Inside 48 hours the booking stands, because the team and the food are already bought. A standing household visit runs on a shorter clock, 24 hours, and the supplier who employs the chefs works to the same two numbers, so nobody is told a different rule to the one you were told.

Extra time is charged at the hourly rate of that job plus 50%, agreed on the night before anyone stays. The 50% goes to the partner house that employs the team; the cooks and waiters stay on their normal rate, so nobody on the floor has a reason to make a night run long. It is the same rule as the household service — one paper for both doors.

For weddings and larger or high-value events, yes: a tasting is arranged before the menu is locked, and it is quoted as its own line rather than hidden in the per-person price. For a standard party or a corporate booking a tasting is not usually necessary, and we would rather spend that budget on the night itself. Ask, and we will tell you honestly which side of that line your event sits on.

myCHEF invoices you, and myCHEF pays the partner house that employs the cooks and the service team. No guest, host or venue pays a chef directly. A 50% deposit holds the date and the team; the balance is due as agreed in writing before the event, with 5% VAT shown on its own line throughout.

Yes. We do not need to replace them. We coordinate our part of the catering around the suppliers you already have. The objective is for the event to work.