I booked Chef Ryan as a Christmas present to my family for our up coming vacation to Oahu, HI. We had him prepare 3 dinners for 6 adults and 2 children. This was our first experience with a private chef and decided to go this route as going out to eat with two children for a fancy dinner (both under 2) is not an easy task.
Since the vacation was several months away, we conversed VIA email to set up the event which included him creating a custom menu for our tastes (including suggestions that would be easy to reheat), shopping for the ingredients, cooking and cleanup (I am pretty sure the kitchen was cleaner when he left then when he came)! After the menu was decided upon he had me put down a deposit of 50% of his labor costs to secure him for the date.
He arrived at almost exact time he promised and began cooking the three meals right away. Although the rental house came equipped with many cooking utensils, he brought some of his own just in case. We were all excited to see him work and ended up hanging around the living room and watching him. He probably was not used to this as he has catered to several A-listers but he didn't seem to mind our questions. The menu was as follows:
Meal one:
Asian style fresh fish en papillote, locally grown vegetables, lemon grass basmati rice.
Meal two:
Mediterranean stuffed chicken breast, prosciutto, pesto, roasted peppers, parmesan cheese, vegetable orzo pasta, garden salad, lemon vinaigrette
Meal three:
Asian braised beef short ribs, mashed potatoes, bok choy.
All of the food was excellent! Each night we were excited to try the next meal and it became an event that EVERYONE was looking forward too. He labeled all of the dishes with instructions for cooking or reheat as well as going over them all with us before he left. All of the food had extraordinary flavors and all of us had a different favorite.
In conclusion: Chef Ryan was very professional, talented, and we would highly recommend his services!
His website: http://covertaffairs.com/ read more