Farm-to-Table · Mendocino County, California
Private Chef & Event Catering in Mendocino County
Mendocino Chef cooks and hosts in your home, vacation rental, or retreat — seasonal menus built from the coast’s farms, ranches, and boats. Dinner for two to a wedding for eighty.
Mendocino · Fort Bragg · Albion · Little River · Caspar · Elk · Anderson Valley
What We Do
One team for the menu, the table, and the whole evening
Mendocino Chef is a private chef and event company on the Mendocino Coast. We design the menu around your date and your guests, source from farms, ranchers, foragers, and fishermen we know by name, cook in your kitchen, serve the table, and leave it cleaner than we found it. No rental hall required — the best table in the county is usually the one you’re already staying at.
Private Dinners
A multi-course dinner cooked in your home or rental kitchen, for two guests or twelve. Menu written for your table, wine pairings on request, kitchen spotless when we leave.
Weddings & Celebrations
Welcome dinners, rehearsal suppers, receptions, and next-morning brunches. Family-style or plated, staffed and produced end to end so nobody in your family has to work the party.
Retreats & Group Getaways
Multi-day cooking for retreat centers and big rentals — breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and the snacks in between. Vegan, gluten-free, and protocol menus are a specialty, not a compromise.
Corporate & Offsites
Leadership offsites, team retreats, and client dinners, fed properly. We work with planners and EAs, track dietary needs per guest, and invoice like grown-ups.
Farm Dinners & Long Tables
One long table, food harvested steps from where it’s served, and a menu that exists only on that night. Open-fire cooking, outdoors, weather permitting and weather included.
Pop-Ups & Community Tables
Sliding-scale community dinners and public pop-ups around the coast, including year-round evenings with Caspar Bread & Wine. Our last one sold out — the mailing list hears first.
How Booking Works
Three steps, no mystery pricing
Step One
Tell us the date
Date, guest count, where you’re staying, and anything the table can’t eat. Two minutes on the inquiry form, or call and we’ll talk it through.
Step Two
We send a real menu
Within two business days: a proposed menu written for your event and an exact per-person quote. See two real proposals we sent this season.
Step Three
We handle the rest
A 50% deposit holds the date. We shop, prep, cook, serve, and clean up. You pour the wine and stay at the table. See the FAQ for the fine print.
What It Costs
Transparent per-person pricing
2–6 Guests
$150–$250 per person
Intimate multi-course dinners at home or on the coast.
7–12 Guests
$125–$175 per person
Birthdays, girls’ weekends, family gatherings, small retreats.
Weddings & Large Events
From $95 per person
Family-style and plated service for the whole guest list.
Menu planning, sourcing, cooking, service, and cleanup are all included. Wine, rentals, and gratuity are billed separately.
Planning Something Specific?
We’ve cooked it before
Bachelorette parties · Bachelor parties · Birthday dinners · Anniversary dinners · Corporate events · Retreats · Wellness retreats · Yoga retreats · Farm dinners
Where We Cook
All across Mendocino County
We cook in private homes, vacation rentals, retreat centers, farms, and community halls from the coast to the valley: Mendocino, Fort Bragg, Albion, Little River, Caspar, Elk, Westport, Philo and Anderson Valley, Boonville, Ukiah, and Willits. If your rental has a kitchen — or a fire pit and enough table — we can work with it.
Menus change with what’s actually good that week: produce from Mendocino County farms, fish off the local boats, foraged mushrooms and nettles in season, and bread and wine from neighbors down the road.
Who’s Cooking
Chef Chantelle Sookram & Chef Keith Kalmanowicz
Mendocino Chef is the partnership of two chefs who met founding a farm-to-table kitchen together more than a decade ago. Chantelle — Trinidadian-born, French-trained — leads the food. Keith cooks alongside her and produces the events end to end, and he’s the one who answers your inquiry. Book either of us, or both for the full experience.
The farm-to-table cuisine was exquisite; every bite was a delightful experience.
Emily S. — private dinner guest
As featured in Word of Mouth Mendo · Biscayne Times
Join the mailing list
Pop-up dinners sell out fast — be the first to hear when the next one drops.
Have a date in mind?
Tell us about your event — date, guests, and the occasion — and we’ll come back with a menu and a plan within two business days.