Cook Agreement

This agreement is between GoGo Plates LLC and you, the cook. It applies from the moment your kitchen is listed. It sits alongside our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy; where this agreement and the Terms differ on something specific to selling, this one governs.

It is written to be read, not to be survived. If a clause here is unclear, ask before you agree to it.

1. What gogoplates does, and does not do

We give you a storefront, take orders, collect payment, and pass the money to your bank. We do not cook, handle, store, package, transport or inspect your food. We do not set your prices, your menu, or your hours.

You are the seller. The contract for the food is between you and your customer. We are the venue and the payment mechanism.

2. Your permit is your responsibility

You confirm, and will keep confirming for as long as you sell here, that you:

• Hold a current home-kitchen permit from your county — a Cottage Food Operation permit for shelf-stable food, or a Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) permit for hot prepared meals.
• Hold a current food handler card or food safety certification where your county requires one.
• Operate within every limit attached to that permit, including daily and weekly meal caps and annual revenue caps.
• Will tell us within 7 days if your permit lapses, is suspended, is revoked, or changes type.

We record your permit type, number and issuing county before listing you, and we display your permit number publicly on your storefront because California requires us to. Our check is a document check. It is not an inspection and it does not make us responsible for your compliance. Selling without a valid permit is grounds for immediate removal.

3. Food safety and allergens

• You prepare, store, hold and hand over food safely and at correct temperatures.
• You describe your food accurately, including ingredients and any of the major allergens — milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy and sesame.
• You answer allergen questions from customers honestly, including saying that you cannot be certain when you cannot.
• You do not sell alcohol, cannabis, or any controlled substance.

4. You are independent

You are an independent business, not an employee, agent, partner, or joint venturer of gogoplates. Nothing here creates an employment relationship. You control how, when and what you cook. You may sell anywhere else you like, including directly to the same customers.

You are responsible for your own taxes. We do not withhold anything. If your earnings pass the reporting thresholds, our payments provider will issue the appropriate tax form.

5. Insurance

gogoplates does not insure you, your kitchen, or your food. We carry no policy that would cover a claim arising from food you prepared.

You are strongly encouraged to carry your own general liability insurance including product liability. Check whether your homeowner’s or renter’s policy excludes business activity — most do, which means an incident in your kitchen while cooking to sell may not be covered by the policy you already have.

6. Money

• We take no commission. You keep your food price.
• Card processing is passed through to you at cost — 2.9% + 30¢ per order, which is what our payments provider charges us. We add nothing and keep none of it.
• Customers pay a $1.49 service fee on top of your prices. It does not come out of your money.
• Your subscription is $12.99 per month, or $129.90 per year. Nothing is charged until your first paid order. Cancel any time by telling us; you are not charged again after that.
• If a subscription payment fails, your kitchen stays open for 14 days while we sort it out. Only after that may it be delisted, and orders already placed are unaffected.

Payments and payouts run through Stripe. You complete Stripe’s identity verification directly; we never see or store your bank account or Social Security number. We will give at least 30 days’ notice before changing any fee.

7. Food safety complaints, and your consent to disclosure

Read this clause carefully. It is the one that involves the government.

California Retail Food Code section 114367 requires a platform like gogoplates to report a permitted home kitchen to its local enforcement agency if the platform receives three or more unrelated food safety complaints about that kitchen. The law also requires us to have your consent before making that disclosure.

By selling on gogoplates you consent to us disclosing your name and permit number to your county health department, or other local enforcement agency, in those circumstances.

We will tell you when we make such a report. We may also report sooner, or suspend your kitchen immediately, if we believe there is a risk to someone’s health — we will not wait for a third complaint if the first one is serious.

8. Your content

Your photos, menu text and kitchen story stay yours. You give us permission to display and promote them in connection with running and marketing gogoplates, including on social media. You confirm the photos are yours to give — do not upload images you found online.

9. Honouring orders

You fulfil orders customers have paid for, at the time and place agreed. If you cannot, tell the customer and us as soon as you know, and the customer is refunded in full including the service fee. Repeated cancellations are grounds for removal.

Your street address is released to a customer only after they have paid, so they can collect.

10. Ending it

You can leave whenever you want. Tell us and we will take your kitchen down and stop the subscription. There is no notice period and no exit fee.

We may suspend or remove a kitchen at any time — including immediately and without notice — for a permit problem, a safety concern, repeated complaints, or a breach of this agreement. Where it is not a safety matter we will tell you why and give you a chance to fix it.

11. Responsibility between us

You are responsible for your food and your compliance with the law. If someone brings a claim against gogoplates because of food you sold, or because you were operating without a valid permit, you agree to cover the reasonable costs of defending it.

Our responsibility to you is limited to the amounts you have paid us in the three months before a claim. Nothing in this agreement limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, and nothing here removes any right you have under California law as an independent seller.

12. Changes, and the law that applies

If we change this agreement we will tell you directly and update the date at the top. Continuing to sell after a change means you accept it — and if you do not, clause 10 means you can leave that day.

This agreement is governed by California law. Disputes go to the state or federal courts in San Joaquin County, California. Please talk to us first; almost everything is quicker to fix than to argue about.

13. Questions before you sign

Email hello@gogoplates.com. If any part of this matters enough to you to want your own advice, take it — we would rather you understood this than agreed to it quickly.