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Private chef insurance

Join over 1,200 chefs like you with cover from £3.19 per month*

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Three male chefs cooking in a restaurant kitchen

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Rated 4.7/5

Based on 39,755 reviews

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Claims paid in 24 hours

For 80% of settled claims

What's on this page

  • Why is insurance important?
  • What does it cover?
  • How much does it cost?
  • How do I choose insurance?
  • How do claims work?
  • FAQs
  • Helpful articles

Why do you need personal chef insurance important?

From long standing clients to brand new contracts, your diners are looking for truly personal service. Catering to individual needs carries specific risks, whether it’s an allergic reaction or spoiled produce, so our insurance for chefs helps cover the liability, starting with third party accidents and property damage. Just add on the other covers you need – such as employers’ liability insurance if you’ve hired anyone.

  • personal chef liability insurance between £1 million and £10 million
  • trusted by over 900,000 small UK businesses for flexible, tailored cover
  • chef insurance, UK customer service and 24/7 claims team

Start your quote

What does insurance for chefs cover?

We’ll start with liability insurance for chefs, including public, product, and employers’ liability, giving you back-up for accidents in your kitchen or claims against your food – for example, if someone has an allergic reaction to an ingredient. From there, you can add insurance for equipment and stock, plus personal accident cover for you or anyone else you’ve covered.

Public liability insurance for chefs

In case your business and products cause an injury or property damage.

What’s typically covered by public liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • damage to someone’s property, because of your chef business
  • an injury or illness caused by your business activities or products
  • accidental damage or injuries caused by your employees

For example:

  • one of your employees spills sauce over a client’s marble surface, causing a permanent stain
  • some canapés you’ve prepared contain sesame traces and cause an allergic reaction

What you’ll need additional cover for

  • a catering trailer – jump to our mobile catering insurance for cover that’s built to fit your mobile catering business.

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

In case an employee gets sick or injured while working for you.

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • an injury or illness that happens as a result of working for you (including temps and casual workers)

**Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

For example:

  • a sous chef you’ve hired for the busy Christmas period cuts themselves on a broken piece of equipment
  • your assistant slips on the wet kitchen floor, damaging their lower back

Business and office equipment insurance

In case something happens to the equipment you use to run your business.

What’s typically covered by business and office equipment insurance?

  • theft of the equipment you use to operate the business, from your laptop to your new deep freezer
  • loss of your equipment
  • flood, fire, or accidental damage

For example:

  • a flood in your workspace causes damage to your equipment, including your laptop which you’ve left out overnight
  • your sous chef calls to tell you that the deep freezer has failed and needs replacing immediately

Read more about business and office equipment insurance

Tools insurance

In case something happens to your chef tools and kit.

What’s typically covered by tools insurance?

  • the specialist tools you use for catering, like handheld or portable electronic equipment
  • loss, damage, or theft

For example:

  • your new knife set is damaged while you move premises, and needs replacing
  • a new blender you’ve ordered gets stolen from the client’s hallway while the front door is left open

Read more about tools insurance

Stock insurance

In case something happens to your ingredients or materials.

What’s typically covered by stock insurance?

  • loss, damage, or theft of things like your fresh ingredients, specialist flours, or packaging materials

For example:

  • your employee is transferring an order of specialist stock to a client’s holiday home, but half of it gets dropped down a deep shaft and needs replacing
  • a flood damages the dry stock you’ve ordered for the Christmas season

Read more about stock insurance

Legal expenses insurance

In case you’re hit with legal expenses connected to your business.

  • legal costs attributed to your chef business
  • property damage, nuisance, or trespass – specifically, the associated legal claims and compensation payouts
  • tax and compliance disputes and investigations you need help with
  • includes a tax advice helpline, a 24/7 confidential legal helpline, and crisis PR support to help you protect your reputation as a sought-after chef

For example:

  • HMRC begins a randomised tax investigation into your business, and you incur costs in the process which need to be recovered
  • a customer disputes their contract with you after you cater their birthday party, stating you haven’t fulfilled your obligations – you need to pay for legal representation

Read more about legal expenses insurance

Personal accident insurance

In case anyone you’ve covered is accidentally injured, at work or off-duty.

What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

  • accidental injury or death at work or elsewhere, for anyone covered on the policy
  • lost income, medical costs, and hospitalisation benefit

For example:

  • you slip on a greasy floor and injure your lower back, preventing you from carrying out your work as normal
  • your kitchen assistant, who you’ve covered on the personal accident policy, breaks their knee while playing rugby, and can’t work for at least two months

Read more about personal accident insurance

This content has been created for general information purposes. Make sure you have the right level of business insurance by checking your policy documentation for details. Read our full Terms and Conditions

How much does chef insurance cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £3.19 per month

Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.

Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes

Start your quote

10% of our customers paid up to £38.32 a year for a public liability insurance policy between 1st April 2023 - 30th June 2023. Equivalent to £3.19 per month based on a monthly cost when paying for the policy in one annual payment. Paying monthly is usually more expensive as you'll pay interest. Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.

Example private chef insurance quotes, real prices

covea insurance

£7.03 /month

£50.31 /month

A self-employed chef working in local restaurants with their own knifes

  • 1-2 years' experience
  • Sole trader
  • No employees
  • Based in Southampton
  • Public liability

    £1,000,000

  • Employers’ liability

    Not included

  • Contents & business equipment

    Not included

chiswell insurance

£36.24 /month

£322.14 /month

A self-employed chef working in local restaurants with their own knives

  • 5+ years' experience
  • Limited company
  • 2 employees
  • Based in Cardiff
  • Public liability

    £2,000,000

  • Employers’ liability

    £10,000,000

  • Contents & business equipment

    £5,000

How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 16/08/2021). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your business. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.

What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Public liability

£100

£2500

Employers' liability

No excess

No excess

Tools

£60

£500

Stock

£100

£500

Business and office equipment

£50

£750

The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.

How it works

  • Pick what goes into your policy

    Only pay for what you need

  • Get prices from a range of insurers

    Choose the best fit for you

  • Buy online in minutes

    Get your documents the same day

Start your quote

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How do I choose insurance?

Making sure you have the right type and level of business insurance can be the difference between getting a claim paid and having to cover the cost of an expensive accident yourself. Read our tips for guidance on what to consider when buying a policy.

Can I just cover my most expensive tools?

Make sure you cover the total cost of replacing all your tools or you’ll only get a proportion of your claim paid out if something happens to them. Learn about tool cover.

Which type of workers do I need insurance for?

Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ people.

If you have people working for you, including bona fide subcontractors (BFSC), labour-only subcontractors (LOSC), part-timers, or full-time staff, employers’ liability insurance is required by law.

Read on for our simplified guide to the difference between labour-only subcontractors and bona fide subcontractors.

Will tools insurance cover all my equipment?

Depending on what you use to do your work, you may need other covers.

You may need more than tools insurance – for example, business equipment insurance if you have a work laptop, plant insurance if you use machinery.

Does private chef insurance cover my work correctly?

Make sure you're picking the right cover to protect you properly. It's important to know that if you have another trade or job, you'll need additional cover. For example, do you need to consider catering insurance or fast food insurance?

Do I need cover for other types of work?

If you provide other services, make sure you’re covered:

Other types of insurance

Which public liability cover limit should I choose?

Think about the maximum possible loss your business could face in the event of a claim, and make sure you take legal fees and damages into consideration. You can choose from three levels of coverage – £1 million, £2 million, or up to £5 million.

Talk to an expert

Our team of UK-based insurance experts are here to help, Mon 09.00am - 05.30pm, Tues 09.00am - 05.30pm, Weds 09.00am - 05.30pm, Thurs 09.30am - 05.30pm, Fri 09.00am - 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am - 02.00pm

Call our team

0333 043 8527

Online

Contact us on our website whenever suits you

Phone

Call our insurance experts during office hours (calls are charged at a local rate)

FAQs

Find answers to common insurance questions

How do claims work?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive. The figure below is rounded across our range of products. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.

£39 million in claims paid out in 2022

Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2022

Example claim

Having private chef insurance through Simply Business has saved professionals thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.

Oliver saved more than £15,200

While working in his client’s kitchen, Oliver (not his real name) slipped on a wet floor, injuring his back and head. The optional personal accident cover in his private chef insurance policy covered Oliver’s treatment fees and lost income.

  • Insurance payout

    £15,282.22

    Covering the cost of personal accident

  • Oliver’s costs

    £100

    The excess amount stated in Oliver’s policy terms

Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.

  • Compare and buy in minutes

    Documents arrive today

  • Rated 4.7/5

    Based on 39,755 reviews

  • Here to help

    Help from UK-based experts

  • 24/7 claims

    Make a claim any time

Freelance chef insurance FAQs

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about private chef insurance. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

  • Public and product liability insurance is often an important cover for private chefs – it’s designed to protect you if someone is injured or gets sick, or their property is damaged, because of your business.

    Do you employ any staff? If so, you’re usually required by law to take out employer’s liability insurance, even if it’s for a contractor team member, or casual and seasonal staff. You’ll face fines of up to £2,500 a day for anyone you haven’t covered correctly.

    From there, you can pick and choose from other specific protection for your stock and equipment, plus legal expenses for things like employee disputes and personal accident cover for the slip-ups that can delay contracts and orders. Our personal chef insurance policies are flexible – you can bundle everything into one policy or go for just one or two covers, depending on what you need.

  • Yes. It’s important to make sure you have the right type and level of insurance for the different types of work you do. For example, if you’re a private chef, you may also do private catering at parties or weddings from time to time – you’ll need additional cover for this, but you can have it all on the one policy. When you start your quote, you’ll have the option to add another trade or profession to your policy. If you need to add a third trade, give us a call on 0333 0146 683 and one of our insurance experts will help you set up your policy in minutes.

  • Each insurer looks at CCJs and IVAs differently – some apply stricter rules than others, but having a CCJ or IVA doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to buy insurance.

  • If you change your business legal structure from sole trader to limited company mid-way through your policy, give us a call straight away on 0333 043 8527. It’ll only take us a few minutes to cancel your existing policy and replace it with one that correctly covers your new legal structure. It’s worth bearing in mind that your insurer and premium amount may need to change.

  • This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

    If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

    There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions

Helpful articles for private chefs

A chef tossing a salad in the kitchen

30 Jul 2021 • 5-minute read

How to become a freelance chef in the UK

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