Free guide for UK home cooks
From your kitchen to your first paid order — legally.
A free, plain-English guide to everything you need to cook for the public in the UK. Written for home cooks, not lawyers.
Send me the Starter Pack
Enter your email and confirm it — the guide arrives a minute later.
- Registering is free, and your council cannot refuse you
- The law has a lighter chapter written for home kitchens
- Renting does not stop you — there is a whole step on it
The UK Home
Chef Starter Pack
From your kitchen to your first paid order — legally, safely, and with your name on it.
34 pages · Free · Updated October 2026
What’s inside
Eleven steps, in order, each with what it is, why it matters, exactly what to do and a checklist. Everything was checked against Food Standards Agency, GOV.UK and local authority guidance in October 2026.
Registering with your council
Free, it cannot be refused, and it takes about twenty minutes. The step that makes you a legitimate business.
Your Level 2, honestly explained
What the law actually requires versus what everyone claims it requires — and what to look for in a course.
The hand-washing myth
The single most common reason good cooks give up. The strict separate-basin rule comes from the chapter that excludes home kitchens.
If you rent your home
Why your tenancy probably bans business use, why that is not personal, and how to ask your landlord in a way that gets a yes.
Allergens, including the African traps
Dried crayfish is shrimp. Suya spice is peanut. Iru is sometimes soya. The things a generic course will never teach you.
Five numbers worth memorising
The temperatures that keep food safe — plus why rice has a warning all of its own.
Your first inspection
What the officer is actually looking at, and the folder to hand them when they arrive.
A seven-day action plan
The whole thing, one evening at a time. You do not need to take time off work.
Who it’s for
Anyone who already cooks well and has been told, wrongly, that going legitimate means a commercial kitchen and thousands of pounds. You already know how to cook — that is the hard part, and it took you years. What is left is a short list of mostly free, mostly simple steps.
You do not need a restaurant, a commercial kitchen, or a lot of money to start.
We are Cook4Me — a marketplace for verified African private chefs in the UK.
Everything in this guide is what we check before a chef cooks for anyone. The guide is free and stays free, we will never sell or share your details, and you can unsubscribe from any email in one click.
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