Personal Chef
how I cook for you
I cook for the table, not for a brief. That means sitting down with you long before a knife goes on, understanding who will be there, what they love, what they cannot eat, and what the evening is actually for. By the time I arrive at your kitchen, the menu is already written around your guests — not adapted from a standard set.
What I do is personal in the truest sense. I shop the morning of, arriving with produce that still carries the season. I cook in your kitchen, using your space with care, and I leave it cleaner than I found it. Your guests eat at the table; I stay out of the way except where I am needed.
The cooking itself is classical in instinct and contemporary in restraint. No elaborate theatre, no towers on the plate — just honest, considered food that tastes exactly as it should. I believe a well-cooked dinner is one of the finest things you can give the people you care about.
I am equally comfortable with a relaxed four-course supper for six or a formal seated dinner for fifteen. Dietary requirements are the default, not an afterthought — I have cooked for tables that included guests following ketogenic, coeliac, dairy-free, and plant-based programmes, all from a single shared menu where no one felt they were eating a lesser version.
My background is in private households and small-event catering, and my training took me through kitchens where the standard of work had to be consistent every single service. I bring that rigour into your home, quietly.
If this sounds like the kind of evening you want to give, the simplest thing is a short phone call. We will talk through your guests, your kitchen, and the occasion — and I will come back to you with a proposed menu and a costed plan within a couple of days.
it works, from hello to the last bite
A few small steps. Most of the work happens in conversation, long before anyone touches a knife.
a first phone call
a written menu, costed
questions, answered
The things people ask before booking. If anything's missing, write to us — Janice answers personally.
let's talk about your night.
Tell us a little about the evening you have in mind — guests, kitchen, and the things you love. We come back with a draft menu within forty-eight hours.