What a Personal Chef Actually Does (And What It Costs You in Effort)

People often picture a private chef as a caterer who shows up with trays. The actual job is closer to producing an evening, and most of it happens before anyone rings the doorbell.

Menu design comes first, and it is collaborative

We start from the occasion, the guest list, and what is genuinely good that week. Menus are written for your table, not pulled off a fixed list, and they get revised once we know allergies and preferences.

Sourcing is the invisible half of the work

Fish, produce, and proteins are ordered against a specific date and a specific number of covers. Substitutions get made quietly when something does not arrive at the quality we want, which is a large part of why the food tastes different from the same recipe at home.

Your kitchen becomes a service kitchen for a few hours

• We arrive two to three hours before service and set up around how your kitchen actually works
• Courses are fired in sequence and served to the table, not left out to cool
• Bar service can run alongside dinner when Kat is on the event
• The kitchen is cleaned and reset before we leave

What is asked of you

Very little, and that is deliberate. Counter and oven access, a final guest count a few days out, dietary needs in writing, and a decision on where people will actually eat. Everything else is ours.

When it makes sense

Anniversaries, birthdays with a real guest list, holiday dinners where the host is tired of cooking, business dinners that should not happen in a restaurant, and celebrations where the point is to stay home. If you are weighing it against a restaurant reservation, the deciding factor is usually the room, not the food.