You choose the oil
Restaurant gravy is built on oil, cream and butter because that is what makes food taste good at scale. At home it is your bottle, and your hand on it.
Home cooks · Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai
The cook your neighbour won't stop recommending.
Verified home cooks who come to your kitchen and cook with your ingredients, your masalas and your dietary rules. Browsing every cook near you is free. ₹49 reveals one cook's number and full profile.
✓Browsing is free
✓474 verified cooks
✓No subscription, ever
12 yrs cooking
Arrives 12:30 PM
Rated 4.9
474verified cooks you can call
108localities covered today
9 yrsmedian cooking experience
4.8median customer rating
How it works
From searching to a cook in your kitchen.
Hiring a cook usually means a cousin's recommendation and a lot of hoping. Cookest replaces that with a profile you can actually read.
01
Tell us your area
You see only cooks whose hub covers your locality, 108 of them covered today, not a city-wide guess.
02
Compare for free
No sign-in needed to look. Years cooking, homes served, cuisine-by-cuisine skill, languages, and separate scores for hygiene, punctuality and conduct.
03
Unlock the one you want
₹49 reveals their name, number and full profile. Once per cook, yours for good, no subscription.
04
Call and agree it directly
You settle days, timings and rate with the cook. Cookest takes no commission on what you pay them.
What a cook usually costs
Paid to the cook, not to Cookest₹6,500 – ₹10,000a month, on average, for two meals a day for 3 people
A typical range, so you can budget before you unlock anyone. What a cook actually charges depends on the menu, the number of people and how often they come, and the cook quotes you that figure themselves. Cookest takes no commission on it.
Cook versus ordering in
Cheaper than delivery, and you decide what goes in it.
Two meals a day for a family of three, worked out both ways. Change the two numbers people usually argue about and see whether it still holds.
Ordering in
₹250
per person per meal
- Restaurant price, delivery fee, packaging and taxes
- Cooked for volume, not for your household
- Arrives when it arrives
₹45,000 a month
vs
A cook at home
₹106
per person per meal
- ₹8,000 to the cook, the middle of the usual range
- ₹11,000 of groceries you buy yourself
- Cooked fresh in your kitchen, at your timing
₹19,000 a month
That is ₹26,000 a month, or 58%, staying in your pocket.
Based on 3 people, 2 meals a day, 30 days. The cook's fee is ₹8,000, the middle of what cooks on Cookest typically charge.
The part that does not show up in the bill.
Protein you can count
Ask for 200g of paneer, two eggs each, or dal thickened properly, and that is what goes in. A delivered curry contains whatever the kitchen costed it at.
Nothing hidden
No food colour, no tenderiser, no batch of gravy made on Tuesday. You can stand in the kitchen and watch if you want to.
Salt and sugar, your call
Which matters a great deal if someone at home is managing blood pressure, diabetes, or recovering from an illness.
Jain, no onion or garlic, low oil, high protein, one plain meal for a child: you say it once to the cook rather than hunting for a restaurant that will do it.
The cooks
Rated for what they can actually cook.
Every cook is scored per cuisine rather than given one blanket star, so "good cook" becomes a specific claim you can check before anyone walks into your home.
Cooks by cuisine
Most cooks cook more than one cuisine, so the bars total more than the roster. Counts cover the 474 cooks listed today, which is every cook you can actually reach.
Browse all 474 cooksDishes they cook most
- Dal makhni
- Kadhai paneer
- Shahi paneer
- Dal tadka
- Masala dosa
- Sambar and idli
- Chicken curry
- Chilli chicken
What most cooks on Cookest are asked for. Each profile lists that cook's own dishes, and they will follow your family recipe too.
Coverage
Deepest where people actually ask.
We add cooks hub by hub rather than announcing cities we cannot staff.
Browse by need: Female cooks in Gurgaon, Female cooks in Delhi, North Indian cooks in Bengaluru, Vegetarian cooks in Gurgaon, Experienced cooks in Delhi, Experienced cooks in Gurgaon, South Indian cooks in Delhi, North Indian cooks in Gurgaon, Continental cooks in Delhi.
Pricing
One price. Nothing recurring.
We are solving discovery first: finding a cook you can trust is the hard part. Browsing is free, and you only pay for the cook you actually want to call.
Free
₹0Browsing and search
- Every cook within your locality
- Experience, homes served and ratings
- Filter by cuisine, pure veg, woman cook or slot
- Browse free, no sign-in needed
Unlock a cook
₹49One cook · one time · taxes included
- Their name and phone number, to call or WhatsApp
- Full profile: cuisines, dishes and free slots
- Hygiene, punctuality and conduct scores
- Unlocked for good, on any device you sign in from
Whatever you pay the cook is between the two of you. Cookest takes no commission on it. Payments by Razorpay: UPI, cards and net banking.
Safety
The checks a stranger in your kitchen should pass.
Identity
Verified before listing
ID and background verification is completed before a profile is shown, and the state is on the profile rather than implied.
Skill
Scored per cuisine
A cook rated expert at North Indian and intermediate at Chinese is shown exactly that way.
Conduct
Four separate scores
Hygiene, punctuality, communication and behaviour are rated separately, because they fail separately.
Privacy
Contact stays sealed
Numbers are released only after you unlock a cook, and only to you. We never sell customer or cook data.
Questions
Before you book.
Is this food delivery?
No. The cook travels to your home and cooks in your kitchen, with your utensils and your ingredients. Nothing is cooked elsewhere, packed, or reheated, which is the whole reason it tastes like home food instead of restaurant food.
What exactly do I get for ₹49?
That cook's name and phone number, plus their full profile: every cuisine with its skill level, the dishes they cook, their free slots, and separate scores for hygiene, punctuality, communication and conduct. One-time for that cook, and they stay unlocked on your account for good.
What happens after I have the number?
You call or WhatsApp them and agree your own days, timings and rate directly. Cookest is solving discovery, so we do not sit in the middle of that arrangement.
Who buys the groceries?
You do, in almost every arrangement, and it is why home food tastes like yours: you choose the oil, the masalas and how much salt goes in. Settle it with the cook along with everything else.
Can I browse without paying?
Yes, and you do not even need an account. The whole directory is open to search and filter, for as long as you like. The ₹49 is only for revealing one specific cook's contact details.
Do I pay again to see a cook I already unlocked?
No. An unlock is recorded against your account, so that cook shows a View button from then on, on any device you sign in from.
Can I find someone for Jain or pure-veg cooking?
Yes. Filter for pure veg and you will only see cooks who cook vegetarian; 24 of the cooks listed today do. Confirm no onion-garlic or any other rule with them directly.
Do I need an account?
Only to unlock a cook. An unlock has to belong to an account so it stays yours on every device you sign in from. Browsing and filtering need no account at all.
Free to browse
Find your cook this week.
Compare every cook near you for free, then pay ₹49 only for the one you want to call.