The Art of Fine Catering & Private Cooking
The art of fine catering
and private cooking
Twelve markets, ten dinner formats, fourteen chef profiles and twenty built menus, with ten planners that work out the quantities, the cost, the hands, the bottles and the minute your first course leaves the kitchen.
Tonight, in numbers
A plated dinner for twelve
- Food and kitchen€105 per guest
- Service, four hours€48 per guest
- Glass, china, linen€26 per guest
- Logistics and waste€14 per guest
- Dinner for twelve€2,316
Guide figures from the planners: food, staff and rentals for a four course dinner at home, European city, 2026.
Cost Planner
Champagne and glass
From the houses
What the great houses of champagne and glass are presenting this season, read by our editors for the private table. Press photos by the houses.
RIEDEL
Glassware · 21 October 2026RIEDEL at 270: wine glass experiences with Maximilian Riedel in London and Harrogate
On 9 November in London and 11 November in Harrogate, Maximilian Riedel shows how the shape of a glass changes a wine. Every guest takes a Superleggero tasting set home.
Photo: RIEDELRead on
Dom Pérignon
Champagne · 21 October 2026Dom Pérignon Révélations 2026: Vintage 2018 and the idea of place
Dom Pérignon devoted its annual Révélations to the theme of place and presented Vintage 2018, the first vintage made entirely under Cellar Master Vincent Chaperon.
Photo: Dom PérignonRead on
Krug
Champagne · 21 October 2026Krug and Max Richter: three champagnes from 2008, three pieces of music
Three champagnes from the 2008 harvest and three new pieces by Max Richter: Krug’s Every Note Counts came to life at the Roundhouse in London with tasting, live music and fine dining.
Photo: KrugRead onWhat this is
A guide for the person who has to make the evening happen
Restaurants have a building, a brigade and a dishwasher. A private dinner has a rented room, a kitchen built for breakfast and a host who would like to sit down at some point. cociana collects what the trade knows: how many hands per guest, how much fish per person, when the oven has to be free, what a caterer should cost in your city, and how to tell a good quote from an expensive one.
Interactive
Ten planners that do the arithmetic
Every planner runs in your browser, keeps your inputs on your device and gives you a result you can copy into an email to your caterer.
How much to buy
Quantity Calculator
Guest count, service style and menu shape turned into a shopping list in kilos, litres and pieces.
OpenWhat it should cost
Cost Planner
A full cost model for a private dinner: food, kitchen labour, service, rentals and logistics, by market and service style.
OpenHow many hands
Staff Planner
The brigade for your dinner: cooks, servers, bartenders and the captain.
OpenBottles, ice and glasses
Drinks Calculator
Champagne, wine, water, spirits, ice and the glass count for a reception, a dinner or both.
OpenWhat happens at 19:40
Service Timeline
A backwards plan from the minute your first course leaves the kitchen: crew arrival, prep, table setting, briefing, doors, courses, speeches, coffee and strike..
OpenDoes this menu work?
Menu Composer
Build a menu course by course and see the balance: weight, technique, temperature, colour, repetition, oven conflicts and a wine suggestion for each course..
OpenCan you cook here?
Location Kitchen Check
Tell the planner what kind of place you are cooking in and how many guests you have, and it returns the kitchen you need to build: power, water, space, cold storage, light and waste..
OpenThe kitchen document
Dietary Matrix
Turn your guest list into the document a kitchen can work from: how many of each requirement, what it changes on the menu, what must be cooked separately and what the service team needs to know..
OpenDoes it fit?
Table and Seating Planner
Room size, table shape and guest count turned into the table length you need, the seats that actually fit, the service lane, the linen sizes and the candle count..
OpenWhat is good this month
Produce Season Finder
Pick a month and a region and see what is genuinely in season: vegetables, fruit, fish, meat and the menus on this site that are built around them..
OpenFormats
Pick the shape of the evening first
The format decides everything that follows: how many courses survive, how much kitchen you need, how many hands, how long the evening runs. Pick it first, argue about the menu later.
Format
The kitchen is the stageChef’s Table at Home
One chef, up to ten guests, everything finished in front of you.
Read on
Format
A chef for the week, not the eveningVilla Residency
Breakfast, lunch, dinner and the shopping, for a house of eight to sixteen, for five to ten days.
Read on
Format
One table, eighteen people, no wallsGarden Long Table
The format everyone photographs: one long table, family service, a fire or a grill and a dessert that does not mind waiting.
Read onMarkets
Twelve markets, twelve price levels
Season windows, guide prices per guest, the venues that exist, the staff you can actually hire and the paperwork nobody mentions.
Market
Townhouses, mews kitchens and a trade that never sleepsLondon
No city hires out a kitchen brigade faster.
Read on
Market
The most expensive kitchen logistics in EuropeCôte d’Azur
Between Saint Tropez and Monaco the season is eight weeks long, the villas are spectacular and every supplier knows it.
Read on
Market
Villas, olive trees and a food culture that needs no helpTuscany
Tuscany gives you the best produce to price ratio in Europe, villas built for thirty at one table and a trade that understands weddings better than anywhere on this list..
Read onMenus
Twenty menus, built course by course
A private menu is architecture, not a list. Twenty built menus with the order of the courses, the work behind each one, the service it needs and a smaller version for a Sunday.
Menu
The full eveningThe Eight Course Tasting Dinner
The classical arc: three small bites, a raw course, a soup, a fish, a meat, a cheese moment, a pre dessert and a dessert.
Read on
Menu
Eight small courses, one seasonKaiseki at Home
A seasonal Japanese sequence for eight: a first bite, sashimi, a clear soup, something grilled, something simmered, rice with pickles and a restrained sweet..
Read on
Menu
One ingredient, six ways, six weeks a yearThe Truffle Table
White truffle from late October to December, black from December to March.
Read on
Menu
Autumn, iron, sweetnessThe Game Season Dinner
From October to January: grouse, partridge, venison, hare.
Read onChefs
Fourteen profiles, from chalet cook to kaiseki
Private chefs are not one trade. A chalet cook who feeds fourteen at altitude for a week and a tasting menu chef who plates eight courses for six people share a jacket and very little else. Fourteen profiles, with rates and the questions to ask.
- The Villa ChefMediterranean, three services, no fuss€450
- The Chalet ChefFour services a day for seven days€600
- The Yacht ChefOne oven, a moving floor, no shop€350
- The Tasting Menu ChefRestaurant precision in a private room€900
- The Kaiseki and Japanese ChefSeason, knife, restraint€1,200
- The Fire and Grill ChefEmbers, smoke, one hour of heat€550
- The Plant-based Fine Dining ChefVegetables as the main event€550
Craft
The part that never appears on the menu card
Guests remember the room, the pace and the temperature of the plate. Ten guides to the part of private dining that never appears on the menu card.
The standard
Fifty marks of a dinner done properly
Hold your quote against the list. Anything a supplier cannot answer is a question worth asking twice.
- The kitchen you are cooking in was visited or photographed before the menu was agreed.
- The power supply has been confirmed in amperes, not in adjectives.
- Cold storage exists for everything perishable at 0 to 5 degrees, with a thermometer on site.
- There is a washing area the guests cannot see or hear.
Eight questions
Which kind of host are you?
Eight courses or one fire, fourteen friends or six: the quiz names your format, your menu and the chef profile that fits.
One question
Where would you rather eat tonight?
Journal
Season by season
Private dining has a calendar: chalets in February, villas in July, city tables in November. Twelve pieces on where the money, the chefs and the tables are going.
Journal
The arithmeticWhat a private dinner actually costs in 2026
Five cost blocks, three markets and the number that surprises every host: the food is rarely more than a third of the bill..
Read on
Journal
The season mapThe chef circuit: where the good cooks are, month by month
The same fifty chefs cook the Alps in February, the Côte d’Azur in August and the Gulf in January.
Read on
Journal
A format that grew upThe one night restaurant
Restaurant brigades now rebuild themselves for a single evening in a private room, and the food can be better than the restaurant they came from..
Read on