How Is Chef Performance Evaluated?

One of the most important updates in the 2026 Playbook is the introduction of a clearer, fairer performance evaluation system. Understanding how it works—and what you can do to influence your results—is the key to growing your presence on the platform. This framework evaluates your Active Subscription Meals only.
 

How does the evaluation cycle work?

Performance is reviewed every 15 days. Each quarter is divided into 6 bi-weekly cycles. At the end of each cycle, you receive a snapshot of your performance based on how you’re doing in three core areas, compared to chefs in your Reason Why group.

Each snapshot is assigned one of four tiers:

Tier	What it means
🌟 Excellent	Top performance relative to your group and overall market performance
✅ Good	Strong performance
🟡 Base	Meets expectations
🔴 Min	Needs improvement

Note: These tiers reflect your bi-weekly performance snapshot—they are not the same as the SKU-level payout tiers shown in the My Revenue section.

The 3 areas that influence your performance

Your snapshot is based on three performance areas. The relative weight of each area depends on your Reason Why group.
 

1. Quality

We evaluate the average ratings of your active subscription meals.

• 30+ ratings in the last 90 days → we use the Last 90 Days average rating.
• 30+ lifetime ratings (but fewer recent ones) → we use the lifetime average rating.
• Neither applies → the meal is not evaluated until sufficient data exists.

You can find your Quality performance card in the Chef Portal → Portfolio section (click the 3 dots on the Playbook Status card).
 

2. Wellness Intentions

We evaluate how balanced your active subscription portfolio is across Wellness Intentions. This is measured as the Wellness Intentions Ratio: the total number of wellness intention tags across your active subscription meals, divided by the total number of active subscription meals.

Wellness Intentions include: Mediterranean, Low Carb, Keto, Low Calorie, Vegetarian, Vegan, GLP-1, Clean Eating, and Everyday Wellness.

3. Cuisine Specialty Compliance

We evaluate whether the Cuisine and Sub Cuisine tags in your active subscription meals align with your defined Cuisine Specialties—the culinary positioning assigned to your store on the platform.

If your Reason Why group is Wellness, this area is evaluated differently: instead of cuisine alignment, we measure whether your meals include at least one Wellness Intention tag (Compliant) or none (Non-Compliant).
 

Your Reason Why Group

Each chef is assigned a Reason Why group based on their strongest culinary positioning and the role they play in the marketplace. It determines who you’re benchmarked against and which performance area carries the most weight.

IMPORTANT: The table below shows the most common cuisines associated with each Reason Why group, but they are not exclusive and do not automatically determine a chef’s Reason Why group.

Example: A chef specializing in Mediterranean cuisine may still belong to Classic Cuisine depending on their broader portfolio and positioning on the platform.

Reason Why Group	Typical Cuisine Tags (Sub Cuisine)	Primary Metric
🍔 Classic Cuisine	• American: American Comfort, Modern American, Southern American, Cajun/Creole, Tex Mex • Latin American: Mexican • European: Italian	Quality — your meal ratings have the strongest impact on your Status.
🍳 Core Cuisine	• European: English, French, Greek, Mediterranean, Spanish • Asian: Chinese • Middle Eastern	Quality — with Cuisine Specialty Compliance closely behind.
💡 Cuisine Innovator	• African: Moroccan, North African, South African, West African, East African, Egyptian • Asian: Indian, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Laotian, Malaysian • Caribbean: Cuban, Dominican, Haitian, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Trinidadian • European: Eastern European, Irish, Nordic, Portuguese, Swedish • Latin American: Brazilian, Argentinian, Peruvian • Middle Eastern: Iranian, Turkish, Israeli, Lebanese	Cuisine Specialty Compliance — aligning your portfolio to your specialties carries the most weight.
💙 Wellness	Not defined by Cuisine or Sub Cuisine but rather by wellness-forward portfolios defined by meal-level wellness intentions.	Wellness Intentions — your portfolio’s wellness composition is the key driver.

Your Reason Why group does not limit what you can cook, does not change mid-quarter, and cannot be reverse-engineered into a guaranteed outcome. It ensures fair comparison among chefs with similar positioning.

How is your final quarter result determined?

At the end of the quarter, we average the results of all 6 bi-weekly snapshots and compare overall performance across the market. Your final result determines your slot action:

• 🌟 Increase — Final status Excellent + quarterly requirements met + not at max capacity
• ↔️ Maintain — Final status Good or Base + requirements met
• 🔻 Decrease — Final status Min, OR quarterly requirements not met

A single strong or weak cycle will not determine your final quarter result. Your current status is not a guaranteed final outcome. Focus on consistent improvement across all 6 cycles.

What to focus on

Your Chef Portal → Portfolio section shows your Reason Why group and your Primary Metric. Start there.

• If your Primary Metric is Quality → focus on improving ratings and launching high-quality meals.
• If your Primary Metric is Wellness Intentions → focus on adding wellness tags and launching wellness-forward meals.
• If your Primary Metric is Cuisine Specialty Compliance → focus on aligning active meals with your specialties.

After addressing your Primary Metric, review your lowest-performing area and avoid letting any single area fall to Min.

Still have questions? We’ve got your back—reach out to us anytime at [e-mail].