The Pass

Chef Brittiney is officially our Chef of the Year for the second year in a row.

Brittiney led this year’s COTY standings through strong performance across the categories that shape the award, consistent Host engagement, and thoughtful hospitality from the first conversation through final follow-up.

Rounding out our COTY Top 3:

• Chef Andrea | Preferred Chef Club
  

• Chef Sean | Preferred Chef Club
  

All three are active Preferred Chef Club members.

COTY is not determined by one standout metric. It is calculated across four performance categories:

• Revenue: 45%
• Reviews: 20%
• Availability: 20%
• Total Bookings: 15%

Apparently, COTY comes in twos: our last two recipients have each carried the title for two consecutive years.

Next year, we’re introducing a new competition and refreshing the metrics used to calculate COTY. Full details are coming in the next issue.

Two similar dishes with different prices? Duplicate names? Old pricing? A description that doesn’t explain the difference?

That friction matters when it could be the difference between being booked or not. 

Now is a good time to clean house:

• Remove duplicates
• Tighten dish names and descriptions
• Make pricing differences make sense
• Update anything that no longer reflects your costs

Your menu should make the decision easier, not create more questions.

Need to adjust your Mix + Match minimum payout? You can update it from your Chef Profile.

We’ve updated chef profiles so the city the Host searched for now appears directly under your profile photo, making it clearer that you service that market.

That said, if you travel within a larger service radius, avoid anchoring your bio to one specific home base.

A Host may still see a different city in your bio and wonder whether you actually travel to them. Even with the new location display, mixed signals can create hesitation.

Instead:

• Keep your bio focused on cuisine, experience, and hospitality style

• Let your service radius and searched-city display handle location

• Use chat to confidently confirm travel and availability when needed

If travel is part of your business, your profile should reinforce that flexibility—not accidentally create a boundary that isn’t there.

If a Host asks you to add a bartender, server, rental, upgrade, or any other paid service, make sure it is added through the FFK reservation.

Why it matters: our COI does not extend to outside transactions or side deals.

If payment happens off-platform, that service will fall outside of our Certification of Insurance and won’t be covered.

Protect the Host. Protect yourself. Protect the booking.

Route all paid add-ons through Concierge so they can be invoiced and documented properly.

What sells is not always what’s most elaborate; it’s what feels worth it. Across FFK bookings in 2026, themean entrée price was $85.19 and the median entrée price was $71.75. 

As you review your menus, think about where your pricing lands for the average Host and whether your dishes are positioned to convert confidently.

Meal prep Hosts want convenience, but they still expect food that feels fresh, intentional, and appetizing.

Gone are the days of bland, all-beige containers getting a pass just because the food is “healthy.” Presentation matters. Color matters. Variety matters. If every tray looks the same — brown protein, brown starch, muted vegetables—the experience starts to feel more like obligation than service.

What Hosts are looking for:

• Convenience: meals that are easy to grab, heat, store, and understand
• Freshness: food that still feels chef-made, not mass-produced
• Protein-forward options: without every meal becoming chicken and rice
• Variety: enough rotation to keep recurring service interesting
• Customization: portions, dietary needs, household preferences, and family considerations
• Value: the service has to justify itself against groceries, takeout, and the Host’s own time
• Clear execution: labels, storage instructions, reheating directions, and organized packaging
• Visual appeal: bright vegetables, clean plating, thoughtful garnishes, separate sauces, and meals that feel distinct from one another

A strong meal prep menu should eat well and look good in the fridge.

Pro Tip: Concierge sees better conversion when the option for a reasonable grocery allowance is built into the service price as opposed to chef labor from groceries and requiring reimbursement at service. It’s one less transaction, one less question, and one less thing for the Host to manage.

You have the right to approve or decline a reschedule request.

The important part is deciding before it happens what your rescheduling fee should be, so you’re not making that call in the moment.

Consider: 

• How close the request is to service
• What fee fairly covers your time and disruption
  
• Whether ingredients have already been sourced
• Whether the new date affects another booking
• What fee fairly covers your time and disruption

Be ready before the request comes in. A clear rescheduling fee makes the conversation easier for everyone.

Chef Joe recently represented FFK in Simply Recipes, sharing his expertise alongside other culinary pros on the best way to reheat lasagna without sacrificing texture or moisture.

Beyond a great quote, it’s another opportunity to put FFK chefs and their expertise in front of a national food audience.

We receive media and expert requests like this regularly and share them in the General Slack channel. Keep an eye out; the next opportunity to be featured could be yours.

Nice work, Chef Joe!