How to hire a home cook: what to ask on the phone, what to watch on the trial day, and the red flags

A cook is the only professional you will hire who is in your house twice a day for years, so the hiring deserves more than a phone call and a hope. It needs ten minutes of the right questions, a paid trial day watched properly, and one sheet of paper. Here is how to do each.

On the phone: seven questions that sort the professionals

1. "What do you cook every day, at home?" Not "what can you cook". You want the everyday repertoire, because that is what you are buying: South Indian, North Indian, Bengali, Gujarati, Maharashtrian, and whether rotis are part of it.
2. "Veg, or non-veg too? Eggs?" Settle it now. A cook who does not cook non-veg is not wrong, just wrong for a house that eats it. If yes, mention that the non-veg add-on of ₹1,000 a month is standard.
3. "How many homes do you cook for now, and what times?" This tells you whether your slot is realistic. A cook with a 7 am home across the city cannot be in your kitchen at 7:30.
4. "How many people did you last cook for, and for how long?" You want a year or more at the last home. Six homes in two years is a pattern.
5. "Do you plan the menu and the grocery list, or do you want one?" Either answer is fine; what you want is a clear one.
6. "Any diet you have cooked for: diabetic, elderly, Jain, a dietician's chart?" Relevant if your house has one; a special-diet cook at ₹12,000 a month is a different hire from a daily cook.
7. "What do you expect for two meals a day, family of four?" Compare it with ₹10,000, the typical city figure. A number in range means they know the market. A number far above or far below means they do not, or they are testing you.

If you post on TheHire, the request already asks the cuisine, the meals and the timing, and up to three verified cooks call back. Adding "rotis at both meals" or "diabetic father" to the request gets the right people replying.

The trial day, and what to watch

Pay ₹700 for a proper trial: the real slot, the real meal, your groceries, your kitchen. Then watch five things.

1. The first two minutes. Hands washed at the sink with soap before anything is touched. Hair tied. If this does not happen unprompted, the rest of the day is already decided.
2. Order of work. The cooker goes on first, then the cutting, then the tadka. A cook who does one thing at a time will take two hours for a one-hour meal.
3. The questions they ask. How much chilli does the house take, which oil, does anyone not eat something. A cook who asks nothing will cook their last family's food.
4. Tasting and the board. Separate spoon. If anything raw was cut, the board is washed before the next vegetable.
5. The kitchen at the end. Counter wiped, stove clean, whatever washing-up was agreed done. Look in the bin: a cook who threw away half a cauliflower cuts expensively.

Then eat, and say what you would change. The response is the last test. "Sure, less oil tomorrow" is the right one.

Red flags

• A refusal to do a paid trial.
• "I can cook anything." Nobody can; a good cook names their food.
• No reference from a home they cooked at for a year or more, or a reference that does not pick up.
• A salary ask far below the typical figure. It will be renegotiated in month two, or the cook will not stay.
• Vagueness about the other homes they cook for and their timings.
• A phone on the counter through the whole trial.
• Any sign of drink on the breath, at any time of day.
• Pressure to be paid a large advance before starting. A week's pay in advance is reasonable for a cook who is leaving another home for yours; a month is not.

What a fair arrangement looks like, in writing

One page, read together on the trial day, photographed by both. It should say:

Three things to notice. Every number has a date or a rule attached. The grocery arrangement is explicit. And leave, illness and notice are written down before any of them happens, which is the only time they can be discussed calmly.

For a live-in cook the same sheet applies with three changes: a monthly rate around ₹17,000, the daily hours and the afternoon rest written in, and a month's notice both ways. For live-in with housekeeping at ₹20,000, add a line that says exactly what "housekeeping" includes.

Agency or direct

Direct, through TheHire, gets you the cook's own rate, a direct relationship and public reviews. An agency charges a placement fee, often part of a month's salary, and in return may replace the cook within a period if it does not work out. The agency route is worth it for live-in, where a replacement guarantee matters and you cannot run trials easily, and for a cook needed next week. For a daily cook with time for a trial, direct is simpler and cheaper. If you do use an agency, read the replacement clause and ask whether the cook receives the full salary or a share.

After the first month

Pay on the date. Then do one thing most households never do: a five-minute conversation at the end of month one. What is working, what is not, on both sides. The cook will tell you the slot that is tight or the vegetable that is always missing; you will say the one thing you have been putting up with. It is the cheapest retention tool there is.

Then write the review on TheHire. It is public, it is what the next family reads, and it is what keeps the good cooks at the top of the list in your city.

When you need more than a cook

• A party. A daily cook can stretch to six guests with notice. For twenty-five, hire a party cook at ₹1,800 for the day and let your daily cook assist or take the day off. For a function of fifty to a hundred, ₹3,500 plus helpers at ₹800 each.
• A patient at home. A diet cook at ₹12,000 and, if there is nursing involved, the home nursing guides cover attendants and nurses.
• Housekeeping as well. A cook is not a maid. If you need both, hire both, or a live-in cook-plus-housekeeping at ₹20,000 with the duties written down.
• No cook at all for a while. A tiffin at ₹3,500 a month for lunch, 26 days, bridges a gap without anyone in the kitchen.