Eating well in a rented villa, explained by the cook.
Three guides for people who have rented a villa in Tuscany — or are still choosing one — and are working out how the food is going to happen. Written between services, with actual numbers where numbers help and no per-head figure invented to look reassuring.
The three questions I get most from people renting a villa in Tuscany with a cook or chef: what hiring a private chef actually costs, what a week with one is genuinely like day to day, and whether a private chef, a caterer or a cooking class is the right thing to book at all.
What it costs
What actually drives the price of a private chef in Tuscany, and where the money goes.
Read the guide →
How a villa week works
What a week in a rented villa with a chef actually looks like, day by day.
Read the guide →
Which to book
Private chef, catering or a cooking class: which one your group actually wants.
Read the guide →Questions, answered.
Do we need a private chef if the villa already has a kitchen?
The kitchen is what makes it possible, not what makes it unnecessary. What you are buying is the shopping, the cooking and the cleaning up on the evenings you would rather be at the table than at the stove — usually two or three nights of a week, not all seven.
How far ahead should we book a chef for a villa?
For summer, two to three months is comfortable and June through September goes first. Out of season a few weeks is usually enough. That said, ask anyway if your dates are close: cancellations happen and a free evening is a free evening.
We are a multi-generational family group — grandparents, parents and small children. Does a villa chef work for that?
It is the group a private chef suits best. Large family villas in Tuscany are usually booked by three generations travelling together, and that is precisely the party that struggles to eat out: restaurants mean car seats, two cars, a 20:00 booking no toddler survives, and a bill that makes everyone quiet. Cooking at the villa means the children eat at 18:30, the adults eat at 20:30 at the same table they have been sitting at all afternoon, and nobody drives. Tell me the ages across the party and I will build the evening around them.
Can you cook for children, allergies and fussy eaters at the same table?
Yes, and it is most of the job. Tell me the ages and the restrictions when you enquire rather than on the night. Children generally want the pasta course an hour earlier than everyone else, which is easy to arrange if I know in advance and awkward if I do not.
Private chefs in Tuscany: I cook in villas most weeks of the season.
Two guests or twenty, one dinner or a full week. Tell me the villa, the dates and how many of you there are, and I will tell you honestly what is worth doing.
Ask me about your villa