Ask ten hosts what a private dinner costs and you get ten numbers, because everyone counts something different. The trade counts five blocks: food, kitchen labour, service, rentals and logistics. Once you separate them, quotes become comparable and the reason for the price becomes obvious.
The five blocks
For a four course plated dinner for twelve in a European city in 2026, the blocks look roughly like this: food 60 to 90 euros a guest, kitchen labour 45 to 70, service 35 to 55, rentals 20 to 35, logistics 10 to 20. That is 170 to 270 euros a guest before wine, flowers or music, and the food is between a quarter and a third of it.
Where the money really goes
Hours. A tasting menu for eight is a full day of prep for three people; a wedding for a hundred is four hours of build, eight of service and three of strike for a team of fifteen. When a quote comes in 30 per cent below this model, the missing money is almost never in the food. It is in staff hours, which is why the dinner arrives lukewarm and the kitchen is still in your garden at two in the morning.
Market differences
Between Tuscany and New York the same dinner roughly doubles, and almost all of the difference is wages and access. Tuscan service staff cost 22 to 30 euros an hour, Manhattan captains 45 to 55, and a New York building may require an insurance certificate, a lift reservation and a porter before a single crate moves.
The cost planner rebuilds these five blocks for your market, format and guest count, so you can hold a real quote against the same structure.
