Who you are dealing with

Served is my private chef business. I am Lex Washburn, and I cook in Boone, North Carolina. In these terms, I and Served mean the same person. You means whoever books me.

Reach me at served.chefs@gmail.com or (828) 773-0890. Either one counts as notice, including notice to cancel.

What I agree to do

I come to your home, cook the menu you agreed to, serve it and clean up. That is the whole service. I am not a restaurant, a caterer or an events company.

I cook in your kitchen, with your kitchen. If your oven or stove cannot handle the menu, I will tell you before the night. Be straight with me about what you have.

Booking, and when it becomes real

Sending the form, or giving me a date by phone, is a request. It becomes a booking when I confirm it in writing, by email or text. Until then, nothing is held.

There is no deposit. I do not take card details or hold money up front.

What it costs

The price depends on the meal and how many people. These are starting prices while I build the business. They may go up over time, but the price I quote you is the price you pay:

Groceries are not in the price, but you do not shop for them. Once the menu is set, I give you a grocery budget, buy the food, and you pay me back what it cost, on the final bill or separately. Pricey items like wagyu, caviar, lobster or truffles raise that total. Drinks work the same way: they are not in the price unless the quote says so, and anything with alcohol has to follow local law.

Travel, what your kitchen needs, rentals, extra help or special table settings can change the price. I work it out with you first and quote a number. If you change the menu, I tell you the new number before I shop.

Eight people is the ceiling.

Paying me

I bill you after the dinner, unless you agreed something else in writing. Payment is due within 14 days. If a bill looks wrong, tell me within 14 days and I will go through it with you.

If you cancel

This is the part people care about, so it is the plainest part.

• 14 days or more before the date: nothing to pay. Tell me and that is the end of it.
• Inside 14 days: I bill 20% of the total. By then the menu is written, the shopping is under way, and I have turned down other work for that night.

The 20% is worked out from the price quoted for the number of people you booked. Groceries already bought are billed at cost on top, and I will show you what they were.

Moving a date is not cancelling. Tell me as early as you can and I will try to find another night. If I can, you owe nothing. If no date works and the original is inside 14 days, the cancel terms above apply.

If I cancel

If I cancel for any reason that is not outside my control, you owe nothing, and I will help you find someone else. If illness, an accident, a storm or a closed road stops me getting to you, you owe nothing, and I refund anything you already paid for that night.

Allergies, and being honest with me

Tell me about every allergy at the table when you book, not on the night. I build the menu around them.

I cook in a home kitchen, with equipment I did not choose. I am careful, but I cannot promise a kitchen is free of any allergen, and I am not responsible for a reaction to something I was not told about. If even a trace is dangerous, say so plainly. I will tell you honestly whether I can cook for it.

Your home

I treat your house the way I would want mine treated. I clean as I go and leave the kitchen as I found it.

If I break something through my own carelessness, tell me and I will put it right. I am not responsible for equipment that fails in normal use, or for things that were already failing.

I need to get in, and I need the kitchen at the time you agreed. If I arrive and cannot start, I will wait as long as I reasonably can. A booking I could not cook counts as a cancellation inside 14 days.

Photographs

I sometimes photograph the food I cook, and may use the pictures on this website or on social media. Food only. I do not photograph you, your guests or your home for that. If you would rather I took no pictures at all, say so.

What I am not responsible for

I am responsible for what I do badly. I am not responsible for indirect losses that follow from it, like a ruined occasion or a missed flight. Where the law allows, what I owe you for any one booking is limited to what you paid me for it.

Nothing here limits liability for death or injury caused by my carelessness, or anything else the law does not allow. If any part of these terms does not hold up, the rest still stands.

Which law applies

North Carolina law applies to these terms. Any dispute goes to the courts of North Carolina.

Changing these terms

This page may change. The terms for your booking are the ones on this page the day I confirmed it. If a change affects a booking already confirmed, I will tell you, and you can walk away without paying.

Questions: served.chefs@gmail.com or (828) 773-0890.

The short version

I keep what you type into the booking form, because I cannot cook you dinner without it. I do not track you, do not advertise to you, and have never sold anyone’s details.

What I collect, and only when you give it

Reading this website collects nothing. No analytics, no ad pixel, no cookie. I do not know you were here.

If you fill in the booking form, I get exactly the fields you filled in:

• Your name, email and phone number
• The town or neighbourhood I would cook in
• The date, the time and how many people
• The meal, the food you want, drinks pairings, and a rough budget if you give one
• Any allergies you tick, and anything you type in the notes

If you call or text instead, I have your number and whatever you tell me.

Where it goes

A booking goes to three places, all inside my own Google account:

• My calendar, so I turn up at the right house on the right night
• A private spreadsheet, as my record of what you asked for
• My inbox, and yours, so you get a confirmation

That is all. This website stores nothing.

Why I can hold it

Because you asked me to cook you dinner. I use your details to plan and cook your booking, to reach you about it, and to keep a record of what was agreed. Nothing else. No marketing emails. If that ever changes, I will ask you first.

Who else sees it

Nobody who does not need to. I do not sell, rent or share your details. Two companies handle it as part of how things run:

• Google. My email, calendar and spreadsheet are Google accounts.
• Vercel. They host this website’s files and keep the normal server logs any host keeps.

I will hand something over only if the law requires it.

How long I keep it

Bookings stay on the calendar and in the spreadsheet as a record of work done. Inquiries that never became bookings get cleared out. Want yours gone sooner? Ask, and I will delete it.

What you can ask me for

Email served.chefs@gmail.com and you can ask me to:

• Tell you everything I hold about you
• Fix anything that is wrong
• Delete it, unless I need it for a bill or a tax record
• Send it to you in a form you can keep

I will answer within 30 days. No charge, and no questions asked.

Children

This website is not aimed at children. I do not knowingly collect anything from anyone under 13.

Keeping it safe

The accounts holding your booking are protected the way any account should be. This is one chef, not a security company. If something goes wrong in a way that affects you, I will tell you.

North Carolina, and elsewhere

I cook in and around Boone, North Carolina, and this website is meant for people there. If you are reading from somewhere with stronger privacy law, those rights are yours too.

Anything about this page: served.chefs@gmail.com or (828) 773-0890.

None. That is the policy.

This website sets no cookies. It does not use local storage or any other way of keeping something on your device. Close the tab and there is no trace of you.

There is no cookie banner, and that is not a mistake. A banner asking you to consent to nothing would be theatre.

What that rules out

No cookies and no scripts doing this work means:

• No Google Analytics, or analytics of any kind
• No Facebook or Instagram pixel
• No ad or retargeting tags
• No session recording or heatmaps
• No third-party embeds carrying trackers

I do not know how many people visit this website. I am fine with that.

The one thing that leaves your browser

The fonts and photos are files. Your browser fetches them from where they are stored, like any image on any page. The server sees the request, including your IP address. That is how the web works. It is not a cookie: nothing is written to your device, and nothing follows you to the next site. The photos come from my own hosting.

Check for yourself

Press F12 in any browser, open the Application or Storage tab, and look at Cookies for this site. It is empty. It will stay empty.

If that ever changes

If I ever add something that sets a cookie, this page will say so before it is turned on, and ask you first where the law requires it.

Questions: served.chefs@gmail.com or (828) 773-0890.

What this website aims at

This website aims to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA, the standard the Americans with Disabilities Act is usually measured against. I believe it mostly meets it. Mostly, not fully: anybody who says a website is perfect has not tested it hard enough.

What that means in practice

• Everything works with a keyboard alone: the menu and the booking form. The photo reel holds still while it has keyboard focus.
• A skip link comes first, so you are not tabbing through the whole header on every page.
• Whatever has focus shows it clearly.
• Every image has text that says what is in it.
• Headings run in order, so a page makes sense when it is read aloud.
• Text and background colours meet the AA contrast levels.
• If the booking form rejects something, it says so out loud, marks the field and moves you to it.
• The phone menu is a proper dialog. Escape closes it.
• Reduced-motion settings are respected. Turn it on and nothing moves.
• Nothing flashes.
• The layout works at 320 pixels wide and at 400% zoom.

How it was tested

Automated testing with axe on every page, at phone and desktop widths: zero violations. Automated tools catch maybe a third of what matters, so on top of that it was tested by keyboard only, with the focus order checked by hand.

Where it still falls short

• The photos of dishes have short alt text. A photo of food is hard to describe well.
• It has not yet been tested with every screen reader in every browser. That is on the list.
• The opening animation plays for about three seconds. It respects reduced-motion settings, and any key or tap skips it.

If this website fails you

Tell me and it will be fixed. It will not stop you booking dinner.

Call or text (828) 773-0890, or email served.chefs@gmail.com. Everything on this website can be done by phone instead. I aim to reply within two business days. Say which page, what you were using, and what happened.

This statement was written on 27 August 2026.