Private Chef Experiences · Mendocino County
An anniversary dinner worth another year
Candlelight, the Mendocino coast, and a chef cooking just for the two of you. Our anniversary dinners are quiet, unhurried and deeply personal — a tasting menu built from your story, served at your table, your rental, or somewhere with a view of the water.
Why this beats the restaurant you were going to book
A restaurant gives you ninety minutes, a table eighteen inches from strangers, and a drive home afterwards where one of you isn’t drinking.
A dinner at the place you’re staying gives you the whole evening. Courses arrive when you’re ready rather than when the pass says so; if you spend forty minutes on one glass of wine talking about something that matters, nothing spoils and nobody hovers. You’re not being served so much as looked after, and then we’re gone and the evening is entirely yours.
Built from your story
We start by asking a few questions that have nothing to do with food, and a few that have everything to do with it: how you met, what you eat on an ordinary Sunday, what you drank at the wedding, the meal on the trip you still bring up.
Then we turn it into courses. Recreating a dish from a first date or a wedding menu is one of our favorite things to be asked for — and if you can only half-remember it, that’s usually enough to work from. Wine pairings come from Anderson Valley and beyond, poured and explained without pretension.
Where it happens
Most of these are cooked in the kitchen of the place you’ve rented — a cottage on the bluff, an inn room with a sitting area, a house in the redwoods. If the property has a kitchen, we can work with it.
Outdoors is lovely here and worth planning honestly: the light goes fast on this coast and the temperature follows it, so we’d usually put you at the table well before sunset and have a warm indoor course waiting for when the fog arrives. It generally does.
Good to know
What does a private anniversary dinner cost?
Dinner starts at $175 per person, and a dinner for two sits at our event minimum rather than at twice the per-head rate — the pricing guide sets out exactly how that works and what’s included. We’d always rather you knew the number before you wrote to us.
Can you set the table and handle flowers too?
Yes — tablescapes, florals and candles are available as add-ons, so the whole scene is handled and you walk into it rather than building it. Our florists guide covers who’s good locally if you’d rather arrange it yourself.
Do you serve at vacation rentals?
Constantly — it’s most of what we do. If your getaway has a kitchen, we can make something of it.
Can you stay out of the way entirely?
Yes, and plenty of couples ask for exactly that. We’ll plate each course, bring it, and disappear — no narration, no hovering. Say the word and you’ll barely know we’re there.
Is there a proposal happening?
Tell us. We’ll time the courses around it, keep the ring somewhere safe if you’d rather not carry it, and make sure nobody comes through the door at the wrong moment. We’ve done this before and we’re careful with it.
Also planning something else? Birthday dinners · Wellness retreats · Farm dinners · Sample menus · Pricing guide · FAQ
Check your date
Tell us your date, guest count and occasion — we’ll reply with a menu and a quote, usually within 2 business days.