How Tableside works
The full mechanics — a little deeper than the front page. If you just want answers to specific questions, the Help Center has them.
One idea underneath everything
A dinner between strangers only works if neither side has to simply trust the other. So on Tableside, the money is handled properly: it's paid up front, held by Stripe (the payment company behind millions of businesses — card numbers never touch us), and released after the dinner or event actually happens. Prices are all-in and agreed before anything is booked — no bidding wars, no haggling, nothing added later. When plans change, the money follows published rules instead of an argument. Everything else on this page is that one idea, applied.
For hosts
Booking a private chef
You describe the night; carefully selected chefs propose it back to you, priced. Tableside is free for hosts — the price in a proposal is all-in.
- 1
Post your occasion
Date, guest count, budget, the kind of night you want — plus practical details like what your kitchen has, so chefs arrive prepared, not surprised.
- 2
Chefs propose, at their price
Each interested chef sends a private proposal: their menu, their price, any extras (a raw bar, service staff, travel) as clearly priced line items. Proposals compare cleanly because every price is all-in. You can also start from a chef's storefront — tap “Choose this menu” and it becomes a proposal for your event.
- 3
Choose one, pay once
You pay the full amount when you book — and that's the last money conversation of the night. The funds are held by Stripe, not by the chef and not by us.
- 4
Plan together
Booking opens a private planning space: your address (shared only now, only with your confirmed chef), kitchen notes, timing, dietary details, direct messages.
- 5
Dinner happens; money moves after
After the dinner, tell us it went well — or report a problem, which freezes the money while a human looks at it. The chef is paid from the held funds, never chased. Cancellation terms are published and date-based: cancellations & refunds.
For chefs
Selling your dinners, keeping 85%
Your storefront carries the transaction — menus with real prices, a calendar you control, payouts that arrive without invoicing anyone.
- 1
Build a storefront that books
Menus with photos and real per-person prices — hosts can request one directly, with your listed price already in the request. Priced upgrades let one menu earn more. Your calendar is opt-in: every date is closed until you open it.
- 2
Propose at your price
It's a marketplace, not a bidding war: proposals are private, hosts never see chefs undercutting each other, and before you send anything you see “host pays $X · you receive $Y.”
- 3
Get paid without asking
The host pays everything up front. Two days after the dinner, your 85% is sent automatically. A last-minute cancellation (inside the final 72 hours) pays you like a cooked dinner — and Tableside never earns more from a cancellation than from a dinner that happened, so the incentives point one way: dinners. The commission comparison is published on the Help Center.
- 4
Run your own ticketed events
Classes, tastings, pop-ups, long-table nights: publish an event page, sell seats, share the link anywhere. Fee: 6.6% + $1.79 a ticket; your share transfers two days after the event. Every event grows your follower list — people who asked to hear about your next one. That list is yours.
Running an event
Selling tickets to your own dinner, class or gathering
Have a dinner, tasting, class or culinary experience of your own? You don't have to be a chef to run it — and you can hire one to cook. Tableside gives you the box office; the person selling the tickets is the organizer of that event, which is a job, not a kind of account.
- 1
Build it, publish it, share the link
Open Pop-ups & Events from your dashboard and create the event — title, date, venue, ticket types, add-ons. Publish when it's ready and it's live by link, selling tickets right away. Nobody waits on us. The one thing we do review personally is whether an event appears on Tableside's own homepage — that's curation, not permission.
- 2
Know what you're signing up for
You're the seller. Connect a payout account through Stripe before selling paid tickets — that's where the money goes. Guests pay one all-in price; Tableside's fee is 6.6% + $1.79 a ticket on your side, and your share transfers to your bank two days after the event. If you cancel, every guest is refunded in full and the card-processing cost on those refunds comes out of your side — so a cancellation is never free.
- 3
Want a chef? Book one the way any host does
Post the dinner as an event request and chefs propose — same flow, same protections, and the chef's work stays on their record. Or hire one directly and pay them yourself, the way you'd pay a florist or a venue; Tableside pays you the ticket proceeds either way. Name your chef on the event page — guests want to know who's cooking.
- 4
Which flow is which
One person commissioning a chef for their own guests is a private dinner: book through a chef's storefront. Selling admission to many people is a ticketed event: this flow. Whether the event is public or shared by private link is up to you.
For guests
Buying a ticket to a chef's event
Pop-ups, classes and tastings run by the chefs themselves — with box-office-grade mechanics behind a simple page.
- 1
The price you see is the price you pay
Ticket pages show all-in pricing. Checkout is handled by Stripe; your card details never touch Tableside.
- 2
Everything arrives in your inbox
A confirmation with calendar links and the venue address, a reminder a week before, and another the day before. No app required, nothing to scan.
- 3
If an event is cancelled, you're made whole
Every order is refunded in full to your original payment method, automatically, and you're emailed — you don't have to ask. Processing costs are never deducted from your refund.
- 4
Follow the chefs you like
Following a chef means you hear about their next event the moment it's published — that's all it means, and you can stop any time.
Our rules
Things we hold ourselves to
- — Contested money is frozen. A dispute or refund freezes the related payout until a human has looked at it.
- — We never profit from a cancellation. The rules are built so a cancelled dinner can never pay us more than a cooked one.
- — Prices are honest. All-in for hosts and guests; “you receive $Y” shown to chefs before they commit. Card fees come out of our share.
- — We say what we verify. Chefs are carefully selected and personally approved; credentials we haven't checked are marked self-reported, not dressed up.
- — A human answers. Every message to contact is read by a person, and refunds are reviewed by one.
That's the machine. The food is up to the two of you.