Version 1.0 · Effective 9 October 2026 · ProjectChef Inc., Washington, DC
The short version. We collect what we need to put a chef in your kitchen and pay them afterwards —
your contact details, your event, your address, and allergies for everyone eating. We do not sell your
information, we do not share it with advertisers, and there is no tracking pixel or analytics script
anywhere on this site. You can delete your account yourself at any time.
1. Who we are
ProjectChef Inc., Washington, DC. We run bookprojectchef.com, which connects people who want a private chef
with independent chefs who cook. We are the controller of the information described here. Questions, requests
and complaints: projectchef26@gmail.com.
ProjectChef operates in the United States only. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone outside it.
2. What we collect from everyone
Your account — email address, your name, and a password. Passwords are hashed by our authentication
provider; we never see or store the password itself.
Which side you joined as — host or chef — and, for chefs, how you heard about us.
Your agreement to the terms — which version you accepted and the date and time you accepted it.
This is kept as the record that you agreed.
Messages you send through a booking or enquiry thread.
Basic technical data — IP address and request logs kept by our host for security and
troubleshooting, and the session token that keeps you signed in.
Messages are screened. Messages between hosts and chefs are automatically checked for phone numbers,
email addresses and other contact details before they are delivered, and we record when that happens. This is
how we keep bookings — and their deposit protection and refund policy — on the platform. A person reads a
message only when it is reported, when a booking is disputed, or when safety requires it.
3. What we never do
We do not sell your personal information, and we never have.
We do not share it with advertisers or data brokers, and we run no advertising cookies.
There is no Google Analytics, no Meta pixel, and no third-party tracking or session-recording script
anywhere on this site.
We do not use your information to train machine-learning models.
We never see your full card number — see section 5.
4. How we use what we collect
To create and run your account, and to sign you in.
To make a booking happen — showing a chef where to go, when, for how many, and what nobody can eat.
To take payment, hold a balance, settle the final bill and pay chefs.
To send you transactional email: confirmation codes, booking updates, quotes, receipts, password resets.
These are part of the service and are not marketing.
To provide support, investigate disputes, and prevent fraud and abuse.
To meet our legal, tax and accounting obligations.
Marketing email is separate. We only send it if you asked for it — by joining the waitlist or opting in —
and every one of those emails has an unsubscribe link.
5. Who we share it with
We share personal information with the companies that make the service run, and with nobody else. Each is
bound to use it only to provide their service to us.
Supabase — our database, sign-in and photo storage. Holds almost everything described here. US-hosted.
Stripe — payments. Your card details go from your browser to Stripe directly; ProjectChef never
receives or stores your full card number. We keep a Stripe customer reference so saved cards and refunds work.
Stripe handles your payment data under its own privacy policy.
Resend — sends our transactional email. Receives your email address and the contents of that email.
MailerLite — our mailing list, for waitlist and marketing email only. Receives your email address
and neighbourhood if you signed up for it.
Netlify — hosts the website and our server functions, and keeps standard request logs.
Photon (Komoot / OpenStreetMap) — address suggestions. When you type an address into a booking form,
what you type is sent to this service to return matching addresses. It is not told who you are.
Google Fonts — our typefaces are loaded from Google's servers, which means your browser's IP address
reaches Google when a page loads.
jsDelivr and unpkg — content delivery networks that serve some of our code, which likewise see your
IP address.
We will also disclose information if the law requires it, to enforce our terms, or where we believe in good
faith that someone is at risk of serious harm. If ProjectChef is ever sold or merged, account information would
transfer with the business, and we would tell you first.
6. Cookies and what is stored in your browser
We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, so there is no consent banner to click through. What we store
in your browser is:
Your sign-in session, so you stay signed in between visits. Clearing it signs you out.
A pre-launch access flag, so you do not have to re-enter the early-access code each visit.
7. How long we keep it
Your account — until you delete it.
Completed bookings and payment records — kept for as long as tax, accounting and legal rules
require, typically seven years, with your name detached where we can still meet those rules.
Messages and enquiries — kept with the booking they belong to.
Reviews — stay published after an account is deleted. The reviewer's name is replaced with
“Former guest” and the link to their account is removed.
Server logs — kept for a short period by our host for security and troubleshooting.
8. Your choices and your rights
Whichever state you live in, you can ask us to:
See what we hold about you, and get a copy.
Correct anything wrong — most of it you can edit yourself on your account page.
Delete your account and personal details. There is a Delete account button on your account page —
you do not have to email us to be let out. The one thing that stops it is an unsettled booking: if you still
owe money on an event, settle or cancel it first, and then deletion goes through.
Unsubscribe from marketing at any time, using the link in any marketing email. You will still get
transactional email about bookings you have made.
We do not sell personal information or use it for targeted advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of
there. We will not treat you differently for exercising any of these rights.
To make a request, email projectchef26@gmail.com from the address
on your account. We reply within 45 days. If we cannot act on a request we will tell you why, and you may
appeal by replying to that decision.
9. Security
Traffic to and from this site is encrypted in transit, data is encrypted at rest by our database provider,
passwords are hashed, and access to the live database is limited to those who need it.
No service can promise perfect security. If a breach ever affects your personal information, we will tell
affected users and the authorities as the law requires.
10. Children
ProjectChef is for adults. You must be 18 or older to hold an account, and we do not knowingly collect
information from children. If you believe a child has given us information, email us and we will delete it.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update the version and date at the top. If a change materially affects how we
use your information, we will tell you and, where the law requires it, ask you to accept the new version.
These are in addition to the shared items in the Everyone tab.
Contact details — your name, email address and phone number.
The event — date, time, number of guests, the occasion, your budget, which chef, your menu or
offering, and any notes you add.
The address where the event takes place, and its zip code.
Allergies and dietary requirements for everyone attending — see below.
Payment records — the booking total, the deposit, the balance held, the final bill, any tip, your
credit balance, discounts used, and a Stripe customer reference. Not your card number.
Reviews you write, published with your first name.
Allergy and dietary information is health information. We ask for it because your chef shops and cooks
from what you enter, and getting it wrong can put someone in hospital. We treat it as sensitive: it is shown to
the chef cooking your event and to our support team when they need it, and it is never shown publicly, never
used for marketing and never shared with anyone else. You choose what to enter — but what you leave out, your
chef cannot plan around.
Who sees your address
Your event address is shared with the chef you book, because somebody has to turn up and cook, and with our
support team if there is a problem. It is never shown on a public page, never given to chefs you did not book,
and never sold. Before you book, chefs only see the zip code area they serve — not your street.
While you are typing an address into a booking form, what you type is sent to our address-suggestion provider
to look up matching addresses. If you would rather not use it, type the address in full and ignore the
suggestions — the booking works either way.
Deleting your account
The Delete account button on your account page removes your profile and personal details. Bookings already
completed, and their payment records, are kept as described in section 7 — we are required to — but your name
is detached from them, and reviews you wrote are re-attributed to “Former guest”. You cannot delete
while a booking is still unsettled; settle or cancel it first. Any credit balance is void when the account closes.
What we collect when you cook
These are in addition to the shared items in the Everyone tab.
Shown publicly on your profile
You control these, and you decide what goes in them. Once your profile is approved they are visible to anyone
on the internet, and search engines may index them:
Your name, tagline and biography
Your photograph and the food photos you upload
Your cuisines, specialties, what is included, and your menus and prices
Your rate, minimum and maximum party size, and years of experience
The neighbourhood you give and the zip codes you serve
Your published availability
Your Instagram or portfolio link, if you add one
Verification badges, and reviews hosts leave about you
Kept private, never on your public profile: your email address, your phone number, your application
answers, our vetting and reference notes about you, and your payout records. The public view of a chef profile
is built so these cannot be read from it.
Vetting and verification
When you apply we collect your name, email, phone, zip code, experience, current role and cuisines. With your
consent we carry out identity and reference checks and record food-safety certification. Our notes from that
process are internal, are used to decide whether to approve you, and are never shown to hosts or published.
Getting paid
We keep a record of each booking you cook, what you earned, tips, and your payout requests and their status.
Where the law requires it we will issue a Form 1099, which means reporting your earnings to the tax
authorities along with the details they require.
Photos you upload
Food photos and your profile photograph are stored publicly so they can be displayed on your profile — anyone
with the direct link can view them. Only upload photos you own and are happy to have seen publicly. Removing a
photo from your gallery removes it from your profile.
Deleting your account
Deleting removes your profile and it stops appearing publicly. Records of bookings you cooked and of money we
paid you are kept as described in section 7, because tax law requires it. Reviews hosts left about past
bookings remain published.