The inquiry usually starts the same way. Someone has booked a house in Ojai — the big one with the pool and the views, the one they found on Airbnb or Vrbo — and they're wondering if they can get a chef to come to them. They have eight people coming. It's a summer weekend. They've heard this is a thing you can do in Ojai, and they want to know more.
What I want them to know is this: it's simpler than they think, and better than they imagine.
Why summer is the perfect time
Ojai in July and August is at its most generous. The farmers markets are full — stone fruit, summer tomatoes, sweet corn, peppers, stone fruits that taste nothing like what you find in a grocery store. The days are long and warm, which means the outdoor spaces are alive well past dinner. The rental houses with decks and patios become what they were meant to be: outdoor dining rooms.
Summer bookings are also when the vacation rental market peaks — families, friend groups, milestone celebrations. The group that's been planning this trip for months arrives on a Thursday to find a house that cost them $700 a night, and the question becomes: what do we do with this space? Most of them figure it out by the second or third night. The ones who call me figure it out the first night.
"You've already paid for the best setting you'll ever eat in. The question is whether the food matches it."
What the evening actually looks like
I arrive a few hours before dinner. I bring the dry goods, the specialty items, and whatever needs to be prepped. If we're cooking outdoors over wood fire — which is what I'd recommend for any summer evening in Ojai — I set up the rig and get the fire going early so it's ready when we need it.
The menu gets built around what's good that week. I don't work from templates. For a summer group dinner, that usually means something that plays well outdoors: starters that don't need plates, proteins that can sit family-style, salads that handle being dressed early. The gallery page shows what some of these dinners look like — the setup, the table, the food.
Most groups want one of two formats: a relaxed family-style dinner where big platters get passed around the table and everyone serves themselves — or a more structured multi-course tasting that builds around wood-fire cooking. Both work at a vacation rental. The family-style version tends to fit better with larger groups and a more casual vibe; the tasting works beautifully for smaller groups of six to ten who want the evening to feel a little more formal.
Either way, I'm cooking in your kitchen. Guests can watch if they want. They usually do — there's something compelling about watching someone work over an open fire, and it becomes part of the evening in a way that restaurant kitchens never can.
Dietary accommodations and mixed groups
This comes up in some form with almost every group. Someone is gluten-free. Someone doesn't eat red meat. Someone is vegan. The question is whether a chef can actually handle that, or whether the person with dietary restrictions ends up eating the same tired "option" while everyone else has the real meal.
The answer depends on how the menu gets built. When I work with a group, I ask about dietary needs at the start, not as an afterthought. The goal is to build a menu where every dish — or nearly every dish — naturally accommodates everyone. A wood-fired whole fish doesn't need a substitute. A family-style spread of grilled summer vegetables, seasonal salads, and roasted proteins works for everyone at the table without separate plating.
For vacation rental groups specifically, this is easier than it sounds. You're not feeding a table of strangers — you're feeding people who already know each other and are relaxed about eating together. The meals I do best in this setting are the ones where the menu has a clear center that everyone can eat from, and the sides and accoutrements give people the flexibility to eat exactly what works for them.
Farm-to-table, Ojai-style
People use the phrase "farm-to-table" in a lot of ways. For me, it means something specific: I shop at the Ojai farmers market on the day of or the day before, and the menu reflects what's actually growing right now. Not a substitution for something else — the thing itself, at its peak.
In May and June, that's strawberries, spring onions, asparagus, fresh herbs, early stone fruit. By July and August, it's tomatoes at their absolute best, sweet corn, peppers, melons, stone fruit in full swing. By September, it's late-summer abundance — the last tomatoes, grapes, figs starting to come in. I plan the menu around what I find at the market, not the other way around.
This is one of the things that makes a private chef dinner in Ojai different from what you'd get at a restaurant. The restaurant has a menu that needs to work for 200 people a week. I'm cooking for your twelve people tonight. I can build the menu around what I find in the morning and the specific people at your table. That's not a marketing claim — it's just how it works when you're cooking at that scale.
How to book
The process is straightforward. You reach out with your dates, the size of your group, and any dietary needs or preferences. I respond with what's available, and we start a conversation about what you want the evening to feel like. From there, I put together a proposed menu and we refine it together.
For summer weekends, I recommend reaching out two to three weeks ahead. I'm often booked on Friday and Saturday nights from May through October — Ojai is busy, and the good houses book out early. For pricing details and what's included, the pricing page has a full breakdown.
What I don't do: I've seen catering companies that treat vacation rental dinners like restaurant takeout — a menu you order from, a delivery window, someone drops off some trays. That's not what this is. This is me, cooking in your space, for your people, around a menu built for that specific night. If that sounds like what you're looking for, I'd love to talk.