You Can Have Lunch With Tim Cook at Apple — But It'll Cost You

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Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at the Apple Developers Conference in San Francisco, Monday, June 11, 2012.

Image: Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

By Samantha Murphy Kelly2014-04-24 16:00:01 UTC

Apple CEO Tim Cook is willing to have lunch with you and a friend at the company's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, but it might set you back a couple thousand dollars.

Cook is putting his time up for an online auction as a part of the 8th Annual Robert F. Kennedy Center Spring Auction for Human Rights, in partnership with Charitybuzz.com. The highest bidder will get a one-hour sit-down lunch at Caffe Macs, the cafe at Apple's headquarters, to discuss anything.

While startups and entrepreneurs will likely claw at the chance to have Cook's undivided attention, the opportunity may come at a high price. Last year, Cook auctioned off a 30-minute coffee date at the Apple campus that sold for $610,000 (an all-time high for the RFK Center); it was the first time ever he agreed to a celebrity auction. According to Charitybuzz, last year's coffee date ran over the scheduled time to about an hour, with a good bit of time spent in Cook's office. This year, he's offering a full lunch meeting.

Although the cost of the meal is included, travel and accommodations are not. The fine print notes it could take up to one year to schedule the lunch due to availability, and based on Apple's cyclic launch dates, we're guessing June and early fall are probably out.

Cook isn't the only celebrity to auction their time on Charitybuzz.com. Today correspondent and former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager is also auctioning off a coffee date, while hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons will take a yoga class with the highest bidder. Tennis player John McEnroe is also up for a few rounds on the courts. Others who have participated in the past include President Bill Clinton, Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Lama.

"Tech stars have become the new rock stars of the digital age," Coppy Holzman, founder and CEO of Charitybuzz, told Mashable. "It's a sign of the times that nothing is in higher demand than access to industry titans like Tim Cook. In fact, the power meeting with Cook last year brought in more money for the RFK Center than experiences with some of Hollywood's A-list celebrities."

You can make a bid for lunch with Cook here. When you submit a dollar amount, Charitybuzz will authorize your credit card, meaning you can't bid millions of dollars that you don't have.

This will not only raise money for charity, but also answer a very important question: Is Tim Cook a meat and potatoes or veggie wrap kind of guy?

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