How much should I pay?

jackcrew

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Aug 5, 2010
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I am planning a vacation to the Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo) for June and have decided to rent an apartment for 10 days rather than stay at a hotel. I would like to hire a cook to swing by the apartment about 5 days out of the ten and prepare an authentic Dominican dinner for me. My question is, how much should I pay a cook for this service? I don't need anything super fancy but it must be delicious. A couple of those nights I intend to have guest over and the meals need to be slightly larger (about 4 - 6 people).

Would I pay for the week or by the meal?
Should I purchase the food and give the cook recipes I want or let them be creative?
Should I ask the cook to buy the food products, save the receipt, and I reimburse them?
Does anyone know where to find a domestic cook that would be willing to make extra income for a week?
Does this sound complicated and I would be better off eating out the whole time?

I appreciate your replies.
 

Ken

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Jan 1, 2002
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I'll let others answer most of the questions, but with respect to purchasing the food, don't expect the cook to buy the food and be reimbursed. Very unlikely the person you hire can afford to do that.
 

belmont

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Oct 9, 2009
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If you rented this apartment through an management service or this apartment is regularly rented short-term, there probably is regular cleaning staff available. See if they can cook and want to work extra or if they know of smoebody who does.
 

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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I think that if you are renting an apartment, it will be nice to take advantage of the kitchen.

I would have an intial meeting plan the basic menu.. as in.. pork, chicken or seafood.,,, Sancocho

Then I would ask her how much money she needs to shop and transport and all that and either go with her or send her.. Do not expect that they will have enough money to buy the food out of their pockets.

You are not going to get someone to follow recipies that you give them, unless you hire a real chef. But if you want basic Dominican food, then they will have their own menus, handed down from their abuela recipies. They are going to need to stock the kitchen with the spices.. the olives, the saizon, the garlic.. And survey the cooking inventory.

If you have a blender, then they can prepare fresh fruit for your batidas in the morning.

You will have to instruct about the RICE which is the real staple food of Dominicans.. they will eat three times the rice to the protein and if you do not want that, you will have to be clear,.

I did this once, hire a cook, for friends of mine who were visiting in LT for a week. They had five kids and four adults so it was really a godsend for them... but we were still throwing out rice at the end of the week. There is a real business here for areas such as LT where folks come and rent fully equipped condos and such.. but there are few places which offer the service.(ditto baby sitters!)

You should, indeed, ask the management of the apartment.

I asked my trabadora and she said that she thought that cook should be paid $4000 for the five days. That is $108 US or about $21 per meal. And that would probably mean that you should add the transport on top of that.

If you do not find anyone else, PM me if you would like to contact her.
 

AlterEgo

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Jan 9, 2009
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I asked my trabadora and she said that she thought that cook should be paid $4000 for the five days. That is $108 US or about $21 per meal. And that would probably mean that you should add the transport on top of that.

If you do not find anyone else, PM me if you would like to contact her.

I think that's an outrageous amount to charge someone to cook a meal with you providing all the food [we're not talking about a chef]. $4000 pesos sounds more like 5 days of cooking, cleaning, AND laundry.

I realize you're just passing on what she said Annie, but me thinks your girl thinks gringos pick pesos off mango trees.

AE
 

mountainannie

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I think that's an outrageous amount to charge someone to cook a meal with you providing all the food [we're not talking about a chef]. $4000 pesos sounds more like 5 days of cooking, cleaning, AND laundry.

I realize you're just passing on what she said Annie, but me thinks your girl thinks gringos pick pesos off mango trees.

AE

You are right...

I was just passing on what she said .. perhaps what she was willing to do it for.

The problem that the OP is going to have is finding someone that is
1. a good cook
2. available to work perhaps 4 or five hours on those 5 days and
3. honest and reliable.

So perhaps you or your family knows someone who would do the job for less?

I do not know if there may perhaps be an agency here in SD that has such staff?
 

Africaida

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Jun 19, 2009
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I think that's an outrageous amount to charge someone to cook a meal with you providing all the food [we're not talking about a chef]. $4000 pesos sounds more like 5 days of cooking, cleaning, AND laundry.

I realize you're just passing on what she said Annie, but me thinks your girl thinks gringos pick pesos off mango trees.

AE

I hired a ninera for a month in LT and she asked me 3000 pesos quincenal . That is 6000 pesos a month, although I ended up paying her 10 000 because I liked her very much. She cooked, cleaned, did laundry and took care of my 2 toddlers 6 days a week from 10 am to 7 PM. Dominicans I knew thought I was generous. I am sure SD is more expensive, but it can be that expensive.
 

mountainannie

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I hired a ninera for a month in LT and she asked me 3000 pesos quincenal . That is 6000 pesos a month, although I ended up paying her 10 000 because I liked her very much. She cooked, cleaned, did laundry and took care of my 2 toddlers. Dominicans I knew thought I was very generous.

Yes, 10,000 a month is good pay for a full time person.

I think that the problem that the OP will have is finding someone good who is avaiable to just do the fill in for five days.

Let us see if anyone can find someone?
 

Africaida

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Jun 19, 2009
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Yes, 10,000 a month is good pay for a full time person.

I think that the problem that the OP will have is finding someone good who is avaiable to just do the fill in for five days.

Let us see if anyone can find someone?

Living in NY, I miss her every single day. Some people come back in love with a sanky, I came back in love with my ni?era, thinking about how I could get her a visa to come live with me :)
Can't wait to see her again :bunny:
 

belmont

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Oct 9, 2009
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I would not stress too much over this. If the property manager can't help you, I'm sure the other apartments in the complex have domestic help. I'm sure someone will know someone who wants a little extra work. Remember, most domestics work for less than RD$10,000/month, so I would think RD$ 2,000 would be plenty for what you want. As you only want regular Dominican fare, most of the woman are adept at cooking it. You probably should acompany her to the supermarket to be sure that she buys in portions which you are used to. As was stated before, rice, beans and plantains are the staples of the Dominican diet and she may expect 1 chicken to feed 6 people. Remember also, chances are she will not be fluent in English.
 

greydread

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Jan 3, 2007
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Why not approach a local restaurant (Segura comes to mind, my favorite) and get the meal catered?