Terms of Use

Chefmark is a directory. We help clients find chefs and contact them. We are not an agency or employer, we are not a party to any booking, and we take no commission. Menus, prices, dates, deposits and everything else about a job are agreed directly between the chef and the client.

Chefmark never takes payments for a job. Hire requests, quotes and job confirmations only pass details between you; the chef and the client agree the price and pay each other directly.

We can't guarantee that a chef will be available, that a booking will go well, or that a client will hire anyone.

• You must be 18 or older and give accurate information.
• Keep your password private. You're responsible for what happens on your account.
• Chef accounts and accounts for hiring chefs are separate, with separate log-in pages — one email address can be one or the other.
• If you sign up to hire with an email and password, we'll ask you to confirm your email address. What you've paid for works while you do.
• You can download a copy of your data or delete your account at any time from your account. Deleting takes effect 14 days after you ask, and you can cancel until then. Membership fees and passes already paid for aren't refunded because you delete your account, except under the refund rules below.

• Membership costs ₦20,000 a year, paid through Paystack. Your profile goes live once you've paid and finished setting it up. Founding chefs who paid the founding rate keep it as described when they joined.
• Membership fees aren't refundable once your profile has gone live, except where the law requires otherwise.
• Everything on your profile must be true and yours: your own photos of food you cooked, experience you actually have, and qualifications you actually hold.
• Verification is optional. If you choose it, you send us your certificate and a government ID, and we check that they match before adding the blue tick. The tick means we checked those documents — it isn't a guarantee of your cooking.
• Training you list yourself is shown under Training without a tick. Only a certificate we've checked against your ID shows the blue tick. Your profile can go live without any certificate or ID.
• You keep ownership of your photos and words. You allow Chefmark to display them on your profile, in search results and listings, and in materials promoting your profile.
• Invoices, receipts and other business documents you create are your own documents. You are responsible for their contents, and for any tax or VAT you charge.
• Treat clients honestly. Taking a deposit and not turning up, or misrepresenting your qualifications, will get your profile removed.

• Browsing chefs is free and needs no account.
• Signing up to hire costs ₦25,000, paid by card or bank transfer. It gives you a contact pass: for 30 days you can message every chef on Chefmark and see their phone number, email and WhatsApp. An account that hasn't paid can't contact chefs.
• When your 30 days end you can still read your earlier conversations, but you need to renew to send messages or see contact details. Chefs can always reply to you.
• Use chefs' contact details only to discuss hiring them. Don't share, sell or publish them, and don't use them for marketing.
• Chefs set their own prices and terms. Check what's included before you pay a chef anything.
• Sending a chef a hire request uses your pass in the same way as sending a message.

You can get a full refund of a contact pass if both of these are true:

• You ask within 24 hours of buying it, and
• You haven't used it to contact a chef — that is, you haven't messaged a chef, sent a hire request or revealed any chef's contact details.

Each client account can have one refund. Refunds go back to the card or account you paid with through Paystack, and usually arrive within 5–10 business days — the timing is up to your bank and Paystack.

• A quote is the chef's own document. Accepting one on Chefmark records that you've agreed it; payment and any deposit are between you and the chef.
• Reviews are only possible after a real job: a hire request the chef accepted, or a job both of you confirmed on Chefmark. Leaving a review is always optional.
• Be honest and fair, and write only about your own experience of the job. Don't include anyone's contact details, and don't offer or accept anything in return for a review.
• Neither side sees the other's review until both have written one, or 14 days after we invite you. After that the window closes, and published reviews can't be changed or removed by either side. A chef can post one public reply.
• Anyone can report a review. We hide reviews that break these terms, and tell both sides when we do.

• Pretend to be someone else, or upload documents or photos that aren't yours.
• Harass, threaten or deceive anyone you meet through Chefmark.
• Send abusive, offensive or unwanted messages, or use messages to advertise or to collect people's details. Messages are for discussing a booking.
• Copy chef profiles or contact details in bulk, or use automated tools to collect them.
• Try to get around the contact pass, or interfere with how Chefmark works.

Anyone can report a profile, and either person in a conversation can report it. When a conversation is reported, our team reads it to look into what happened. We look at every report and may contact the people involved. We can take a profile down — temporarily or permanently — or close an account if we believe these terms have been broken or someone is at risk. Where we can, we'll tell you why.

If we take a chef's profile down, we email the chef the reason. The chef can appeal from their dashboard, one appeal at a time. Someone on our team looks at every appeal and emails the decision: either the profile goes back up, or it stays down with our reasons. If something changes, the chef can appeal again. We aim to look at every report within 48 hours.

We work hard to keep Chefmark accurate and available, but it's provided as it is. As far as the law allows, we aren't responsible for what chefs and clients do, for any arrangement between them, or for indirect losses. If we are found responsible for a loss, our total responsibility is limited to the amount you paid Chefmark in the 12 months before it happened. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under Nigerian consumer protection law.

We may update these terms. If a change is significant, we'll tell account holders before it takes effect. These terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Questions? Message us on WhatsApp at 07070125606.