The table is laid under the pergola, and the cooking has been done without you. A private chef turns an evening at the villa into a table of your own, with the day’s produce and at the pace you choose. Here is how our concierge service arranges it, from the first conversation to the last coffee.
Why a chef at the villa
A restaurant sets its own hours, its own menu and its own room, and there is always the journey home. At the villa, dinner begins when the light softens and lasts as long as the conversation. The little ones are asleep a few steps away, nobody checks a watch, and everyone stays at the table.
For a large group, it is often the only way to share a proper meal all together, instead of splitting across several tables. For a couple, it is the reverse: dinner for two facing the garden, with nobody at the next table.
Then there is everything you do not see. The market, the preparation, the service, the washing-up: all that usually takes over a holiday evening happens without you.
How we arrange it
It begins with a few details: your dates, the number of guests, the occasion if there is one, your tastes and, above all, any allergies or dietary requirements. Ideally, tell us before you arrive. In high summer, the chefs most in demand are booked early.
We then propose a chef and a seasonal menu, with a quote. The menu is adjusted with you: a dish the children will like, a food and wine pairing you would like to try, a dessert that brings back a memory.
On the day, the chef shops at the market, arrives at the villa with the ingredients, cooks on site and serves at the table. Before leaving, the kitchen is returned to the state in which it was found. All that is left for you is to sit down.
Menus that follow the seasons
Here in the Languedoc, the cooking looks out to sea as much as it looks to the vines. At Le Grau-d’Agde, the trawlers land their catch at the fish auction. On the shores of the Étang de Thau, at Marseillan, oysters and mussels have been farmed for generations.
The land does its share. Lucques du Languedoc olives, easily recognised by their crescent shape, have had protected designation of origin status since 2015. In Pézenas, the petits pâtés mix sweet and savoury: lamb, lemon zest, brown sugar. Tradition credits the recipe to the Indian cooks of Lord Clive, better known in Britain as Clive of India, who came to rest in the town in the eighteenth century.
A good chef works with this landscape rather than from a fixed menu. Summer calls for grilled fish, sun-ripened tomatoes and the first figs. Autumn, the time of the harvest, suggests richer dishes. In spring, new vegetables and fresh herbs set the tone.
In the cellar, Picpoul de Pinet, a crisp white made from the single piquepoul grape and an appellation in its own right since 2013, is the natural companion to oysters. The reds of Faugères or Saint-Chinian suit meat and cooler evenings. Your chef will advise, and our concierge service can extend the discovery with a visit to an estate.
Lunch, dinner or brunch
A private chef is not only for the grand dinner. Depending on what you fancy and the rhythm of your stay:
- dinner, the classic: a table laid outdoors, several courses, served at the table;
- a lighter lunch by the pool, between swims;
- the morning-after brunch, prepared on site or delivered to the villa;
- a chef for a single evening, or several times in the week, so that you never think about meals.
If you would rather cook yourselves, we can have your groceries delivered before you arrive, so that the fridge holds what you like and the first dinner is within easy reach.
For a special occasion
A birthday, a reunion, a proposal: the chef becomes the discreet ally of the surprise. Everything is set up while you are at the beach, and the table is ready when you return. The menu can echo the dishes of a first trip, the bottle from a year that matters, the guest of honour’s favourite dessert.
For evenings like these, our concierge service also coordinates the flowers and the decoration of the table, so that everything arrives at the right moment and nobody suspects a thing.
A house to match the table
A chef works best in a roomy kitchen, and a large party needs a large table. Some houses in the collection suit this particularly well.
At Domaine Sainte-Cécile du Parc, ringed by vines near Pézenas, a very large kitchen opens onto the dining room, and the terrace onto the garden. Villa Signature, at Le Grau-d’Agde, has an outdoor kitchen and a sunken lounge around the fire pit, for evenings that stretch out. Villa Andria, in Béziers, lives indoors and out around its garden, with an outdoor kitchen of its own; our other villas around Béziers each have their own character.
Tell us how many will be at the table and we will point you to the villa that suits it best.
In practice
A private chef is booked through our concierge service, as a massage at the villa, a boat trip or a driver for the evening would be. Each service is quoted in advance.
A date, a number of guests, a few preferences: that is enough to begin. The rest is put together with you, down to the last coffee.
