Private Chef · By Inquiry

A quiet kitchen,
attentively run.

For more than three decades I have cooked for private households where discretion is part of the meal. My work is to be present, prepared, and forgotten about until you are hungry.

Make an Inquiry About Mike

30+

Years in Service

∞

Confidentiality

—

By Referral or Inquiry

Available · Permanent & Seasonal

30+

Years Experience

100%

Confidential

4

Cuisines Mastered

NDA

Signed Without Hesitation

The Standard

Three things every household deserves.

What separates a private chef from a caterer or a restaurant cook is what happens between meals — the trust, the temperament, and the range to meet a household where it lives. These are the principles I have built three decades of work around.

i

Act One

Discretion, absolute.

What happens in the household stays in the household. No press, no social media, no name-dropping. NDAs signed without hesitation. Confidentiality is not a clause — it is a habit.

Trusted by design

ii

Act Two

Range, earned slowly.

Classical French and Italian foundations, refined American, Mediterranean, and Asian techniques. Equally at ease with a four-course tasting and a perfectly poached egg on a Tuesday.

Four cuisines, one standard

iii

Act Three

Composure, always.

Calm in the kitchen, calm with staff, calm with guests. Three decades in private homes have taught me how to hold a room without entering it.

Present, never intrusive

Now Considering Placements

If your household values someone steady, we should talk.

I respond to every inquiry personally — typically within two business days, always in confidence.

Begin a Conversation

I have spent the better part of my career cooking in homes where the front gate is the first of many. My clients have included families whose names you would recognize and many you would not — by design.

What they share is a wish to eat extraordinarily well in private, without fuss, and without their kitchen becoming part of anyone's story.

Experience

30+

years in continuous private service

Cuisines

4

classical traditions, fluently

Confidentiality

100%

NDAs signed without hesitation

Availability

Now

considering placements for 2026

01 · Apprenticeship

No. 01 — How I came to this work

Not through restaurants. Through apprenticeship.

I came up beside chefs who taught by example rather than instruction — long days, longer prep lists, and the slow accumulation of small skills that nobody ever names but everybody notices when they are missing.

A restaurant chef cooks for strangers once. I cook for the same family on a Tuesday in February and again on Christmas Eve, and the standard does not move.

02 · Range

No. 02 — What I cook

A wide range, held to one standard.

French sauces, Italian pasta, the bread program of an old Tuscan kitchen, broadened over the years to Japanese, Mediterranean, and refined American cooking. I am as comfortable preparing a kaiseki-influenced dinner for six as I am putting together breakfast for a child who would rather have pancakes.

I do not have signature dishes. I have households, and I cook what they actually want to eat.

03 · Service

No. 03 — How I work

Inside the household, never above it.

I work alongside household managers, butlers, and other staff with respect for the chain of command. I keep my own counsel, my own knives, and my own counsel about what I see. I do not photograph the homes I work in. I do not tag locations. I do not write about my clients — then or later.

Confidentiality agreements are signed before any conversation begins. References are exchanged privately, only after an introductory call, and only with the consent of prior principals.

What I'm Looking For

A long placement, in a steady house.

Permanent positions, summer or winter residencies, yacht seasons, and travel. Families and principals who value someone capable and unobtrusive in equal measure.

Begin a Conversation

A small selection of dishes that reflect how I think about food — seasonal, technically rigorous, and never showy for its own sake.

Photography from open kitchens and culinary archives, chosen for resemblance to my own work; the kitchens I cook in remain unseen.

All

Fish

Pasta

Meat

Garden

Dessert

Fish · First Course Olive-oil poached halibut, fennel, citrus

Pasta · Two Days' Work Hand-cut pappardelle, slow-braised lamb

Garden · Late Summer Heirloom tomatoes, sourdough, basil oil

Meat · Main Aged beef, marrow, watercress

Dessert · Autumn Brown butter tart, autumn pears

Fish · Crudo Crudo, smoked oil, finger lime

Provenance Morning market, Provence

Garden · A Study Quince, squash, persimmon

Meat · Slow-Roast Lamb shoulder, garden herbs

Sample menus from prior placements, with names and locations omitted. They are intended to give a sense of structure, range, and seasonality — every actual menu is built around the household, the moment, and what looked best at market that morning.

To Begin

Chilled Almond Soup, Green Grapes, Aged Sherry

First

Heirloom Tomatoes, Burrata, Sourdough, Basil Oil

Tomatoes from the morning's market, dressed only with salt and oil

Main

Whole Roast Loup de Mer, Charred Lemon, Wild Fennel

Served family-style, filleted at the table

Cheese

A Small Plate of Banon, Lavender Honey

To Finish

Apricot & Almond Tart, Crème Fraîche

Amuse

Smoked Trout Roe, Buckwheat Blini, Crème Fraîche

First

Hand-Cut Tagliatelle, White Truffle, Brown Butter

Fish

Olive-Oil Poached Halibut, Salsify, Bottarga

Main

Roast Squab, Quince, Sherry Jus, Black Cabbage

Cheese

Aged Comté, Walnut, Saba

Dessert

Warm Chocolate, Olive Oil, Sea Salt

First

Little Gem, Anchovy, Soft-Boiled Egg, Parmesan

Main

Pan-Roast Chicken, Bread Sauce, Watercress

Free-range bird, brined that morning

Side

Pommes Purée

To Finish

A Single Affogato

Two recipes, written the way I write them for myself. They are not meant to be impressive on the page; they are meant to give a sense of the rigor behind a meal that should feel effortless when it arrives at the table.

First Course

Olive-Oil Poached Halibut

with fennel, citrus, and dill oil

Ingredients

Halibut fillet, center-cut, skin off4 × 5 oz
Mild extra virgin olive oil3 cups
Fennel bulb, shaved on a mandoline1 large
Pink grapefruit, supremed1
Cara Cara orange, supremed1
Fresh dill, picked½ bunch
Lemon zest, fine1 tsp
Maldon saltto finish

Method

The day before, supreme the citrus over a bowl, reserving the juice. Refrigerate segments and juice separately. Make the dill oil by blanching dill briefly, shocking, drying thoroughly, then blending with neutral oil and straining through a coffee filter overnight.
Salt the halibut on both sides forty minutes before service. Allow to come to just below room temperature.
Warm the olive oil in a small, deep pan to 130°F (use a thermometer; this is not optional). The oil should never simmer.
Lower the halibut into the oil and poach for eight to ten minutes, until the flesh just yields to gentle pressure. Lift onto a warm plate and let it rest two minutes.
Dress the shaved fennel with a few drops of citrus juice and a pinch of salt. Arrange on warm plates with the citrus segments.
Place the halibut alongside, finish with Maldon, lemon zest, dill leaves, and three or four small drops of dill oil. Serve immediately.

Pasta Course

Pappardelle, Lamb Ragù

a recipe of patience, made over two days

For the ragù

Lamb shoulder, bone in3 lb
Yellow onion, fine dice1
Carrot, fine dice1
Celery, fine dice2 stalks
Garlic, smashed4 cloves
San Marzano tomatoes1 × 28 oz
Dry red wine1 cup
Rosemary & thymea bundle
Chicken stockas needed

For the pasta

00 flour300 g
Whole eggs2
Egg yolks4
Olive oil1 tsp
Fine sea salta pinch

Method

Two days before service, season the lamb generously and sear on all sides in a heavy braiser until deeply browned. Remove to a plate.
Sweat the soffritto — onion, carrot, celery, garlic — in the rendered lamb fat over low heat for at least twenty-five minutes, until soft, sweet, and barely colored.
Add wine, reduce by half. Add tomatoes, crushed by hand. Return the lamb, add herbs, and barely cover with stock. Cover and braise at 300°F for three hours, until the meat falls from the bone.
Cool overnight. The next day, lift off any fat, shred the meat, and return it to the sauce. Reduce gently if loose. Taste — it almost always wants more salt the next day.
For the pasta, mound the flour, well in center, add eggs, yolks, oil, salt. Bring together by hand. Knead ten minutes until smooth and elastic. Wrap and rest one hour minimum.
Roll thin, cut into wide pappardelle ribbons. Dust with semolina and arrange in loose nests.
To serve, cook pasta in heavily salted water for ninety seconds. Reserve a cup of pasta water. Toss pasta in warmed ragù with a spoonful of pasta water and a knob of butter, off the heat, until glossy.
Plate at once. Finish with grated Parmigiano and a single grind of black pepper. No garnish, no flourish.

If you are exploring a placement — for your household, your principal, or a family you represent — please write. I respond personally, and within two business days.

NDAs Welcome

Confidentiality agreements signed without hesitation, before any conversation begins. Send yours and I'll return it.

Direct to Mike

Inquiries reach me personally — no assistant, no agency, no third party between us.

Within Two Business Days

Every message gets a personal reply, typically within forty-eight hours, always in confidence.

References on Request

From current and former principals, exchanged privately, only after an introductory conversation, and only with their consent.

A quiet kitchen,
attentively run.